INDONESIA

Rukka, a Torajan from the highlands of Sulawesi, is the first female Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the world’s largest Indigenous Peoples organization at the national level.

She is known for her fiery oratory and her longtime dedication to the indigenous rights movement. Her parents hosted a meeting in 1993 that is often cited as its genesis in Indonesia.

Rukka completed her bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, and her Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Chulalongkorn, Thailand.

Before joining AMAN in 1999, Rukka worked for JAPHAMA (Jaringan Pembelaan Hak-hak Masyarakat Adat), a network of Indigenous Peoples’ defenders and one of the main groups that convened the first congress of Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia in March 1999.

Rukka joined UNDP Regional Indigenous Peoples Program at UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Centre in Bangkok, Thailand as Program Specialist in 2007, and returned to AMAN in early 2011 as Project Manager. Later that year, she was assigned as the Chair of Organizing Committee of the Fourth Indigenous Peoples Congress in Halmahera, North Maluku, which gathered more than 1,000 indigenous representatives from across Indonesia.

From 2009 to 2012, Rukka was a member of Executive Council of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact/AIPP representing Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Timor Leste. She has written the Indonesian Chapter of the Indigenous World, an annual global report on indigenous peoples by the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs based in Copenhagen, Denmark.