Nusantara Project: Indigenous Land Rights and the “Sustainable” City

AGC is collaborating with Indigenous communities and local partners in Kalimantan to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum centered on Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara, as a case study in land rights, environmental change, and climate justice.

Kalimantan is home to vast tropical rainforests and Indigenous Dayak communities whose land stewardship practices have shaped the region for generations. While the relocation of Indonesia’s capital has been framed as a climate and sustainability solution, it raises critical questions for Indigenous communities about customary land rights, consent, displacement, and political inclusion. Our work centers these perspectives, examining how climate policy and large-scale development intersect with power, inequality, and colonial legacies.

Through interviews, photography, and video, the project will produce learning materials that integrate human rights law, environmental science, political economy, and Indigenous knowledge systems. Students will be encouraged to critically analyze competing narratives of “green development” and sustainability, and to consider whose voices are prioritized in national and global climate debates.