“Indigenous communities are not a static and rigid concept; these communities also evolve. They can either evolve to preserve their cultural values or move away from them.”

The Indigenous Legal Society has existed even before the era of independence. They live with local values and knowledge in utilizing and managing their natural resources. With a strong Social-Ecological relationship, their way of life has now become a reflective material for the current Generation Z.

One of the discussions about the indigenous community’s way of life is held by the Young Generation for the Homeland (KATA) Indonesia. A space for young people focusing on the Golden Indonesia 2045 issue. KATA Indonesia organized a discussion titled “Gen Z: Adapting Indigenous Values for Sustainable Future” on August 12, 2023, in a hybrid manner at the HuMa Co-working Space office.

Tody Sasmitha Jiwa Utama, one of the speakers, explained two important things that can be adapted from the Indigenous Legal Society, which are environmental aspects and access to justice. According to him, we have learned a lot about how the Indigenous Legal Society views and interprets their environment, including management, planning, giving meaning to the environment and all its myths, and zoning concepts.

“Many people actually know about it; it’s just a matter of whether people want to give the same meaning or not,” said Tody, who is also a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in a zoom forum.

Tody added that whether the environment is a legal subject so that the environment can file a lawsuit in court and have its lawsuit accepted. He said that in Indonesia, rivers and trees have names and stories. This grew alongside the thinking of the Indigenous Legal Society. However, he pointed out that this is what is missing now. It’s not about naming rivers and giving legal subject status to trees. Instead, it’s about our policies towards the environment, which no longer provide the same meaning and position.

“When we look at forests, mines, and so on, I think that meaning is what’s missing. What makes it now just a community. It’s the consequence of modernism, commodification, removing what seems to be left behind,” said Tody, who is currently completing his education in the Netherlands.

Furthermore, Tody discussed the issue of access to justice. He mentioned that justice is not only obtained from the courts but also from communities. However, the current problem for the Indigenous Legal Society is that some communities have gender biases, are not sensitive to disabilities, are not sensitive to cases, and are captured by elites.

“So, the elites determine decisions within the community. This becomes self-criticism and can also be an opportunity for us to use,” Tody explained.

Efforts to give meaning to traditional values are crucial to maintain the existence of local knowledge within them, to prevent situations like Michelin Sallata described, where many of his villagers forced themselves to work elsewhere because they had nothing left in the village.

“If you want to manage the fields, there’s nothing left, if you want to manage the gardens, there’s nothing left. That’s why many Indigenous Legal Society experiences land seizures there,” said Michelin, who is also active as the Chairman of the Nusantara Indigenous Youth Front (BPAN).

The interpretation and adaptation of traditional values were also discussed by another speaker, Cindy Julianti. She talked about a significant gap in the education context. She explained that since primary and secondary education, information about traditional values is not comprehensively presented.

“Even tending to avoid traditional values. Because they are considered irrelevant and contradictory to religious values, for example,” Cindy added.

Cindy further explained that from an early age, urban people are taught to distance themselves from traditional values through assumptions that being more modern, knowledgeable, and sophisticated will make life more meaningful and happy.

“If you learn from elementary school to university, what the Education system teaches is not to return to the village to come back. We take values from there to develop our own village but instead we leave. The real values are already there in the village,” Cindy said.

Regarding the concept of returning and leaving, Michelin Sallata talked about the concept of returning. There is a movement to return to the village that is not just coming back from being away. Michelin explained that the return to the village movement is about mindset. “We think there is something in the village that we can protect and preserve together,” he said.

Cindy raised the issue of air pollution, climate change, and others. Often, urban people who graduate from higher education try to introduce knowledge that is actually brought from other countries, different approaches, which may not be compatible and do not necessarily produce solutions. However, when interacting with the Kasepuhan people or other Indigenous Legal Society members, there is a system in place to sustain the environment.

“The Indigenous Legal Society has its conservation areas. They manage it themselves to prevent