TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Aleta Baun, an indigenous Molo from West Timor known for her opposition to mining and timber companies in her homeland, became the fifth Indonesian to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize last Monday, April 22.
The annual award, established in 1989, recognizes grassroots activists from the six inhabited continental regions who have made extraordinary efforts to protect the natural world. Each winner gets US$150,000.
Aleta, better known as "Mama Aleta", comes from a culture that deeply reveres the natural world. The Molo equate the earth to a human body, considering the soil, water, rocks and trees as the planet's flesh, blood, bones and hair. For them, degradations such as landslides and pollution are especially disruptive.
One of the best known stories about Mama Aleta relates how she traveled clandestinely from village to village to convince people to oppose the natural resource companies operating the area, eventually building up a sizeable movement.
Goldman Prize recipients often carry out their work at great personal risk, and Mama Aleta is no exception. Not only has she been insulted and beaten, but she was once forced into hiding for three months following an arson attack on her house.
Other Indonesian recipients are Prigi Arisandi (2011), Yuyun Ismawati (2009), Yosepha Alomang (2001) and Loir Botor Dingit (1997).
PHILIP JACOBSEN