Patricia Miranda Wattimena

Patricia has been involved in advocacy for the rights of Indigenous peoples, human rights and the rights of women in Indonesia and the region for over 10 years. Patricia was working with the Maluku chapter of Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) (Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago) in Indonesia when she participated in the DTP regional Indigenous peoples rights program in 2010.

“I got exposed more to the concept of Indigenous peoples, their rights particularly as stipulated in the UNDRIP, their struggles especially at regional and international levels. Another benefit of the training was also that I had the opportunity to meet many Indigenous sisters and brothers across Asia–Pacific region whom I am still in contact with until this very day. I got inspired by their experiences in their home countries especially in advocating for the advancement of Indigenous Peoples human rights.”

She recounts that a year after the training, she joined the AMAN headquarters, and when she left in 2015, she was the Head of Division on International Affairs. In January 2016, Patricia joined Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) in Thailand as the Advocacy Coordinator, and recently began working with the Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development (APWLD).

“It’s been quite a long journey since I attended the program back in 2010. For me, the program really had significant influence especially on how it inspires me that the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Maluku are not ending only at local or national level. There are plenty of opportunities and spaces at regional and international levels that we can utilize to put more pressure on our local government to respect and fulfill our rights as Indigenous peoples.

“I got curious about how the national, regional and international advocacy really works and how we can really make use of different levels of advocacy to really bring impacts to Indigenous communities on the ground. That curiosity is one main driver that brings me to AMAN headquarters in Jakarta, then AIPP and now with APWLD.”

These days Patricia works with women groups particularly from rural, Indigenous, migrant, and urban poor feminist backgrounds across the 27 countries spanned by APWLD members. She says that the main focus of this work is addressing the exacerbating effects of patriarchy on land rights, particularly the impacts of land dispossession of women resulting from globalisation, fundamentalism and militarism.