Corporate “Sorcerers” Reveal the Magical Power of Capitalism
A company’s appropriation of an Indigenous ritual highlights the power of businesses to destroy traditions, community ties, and ecosystems.
Sophie Chao
Sophie Chao is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney in Australia. She received her Ph.D. from Macquarie University, Sydney, in 2019 and previously worked for the human rights organization Forest Peoples Programme, in Indonesia, supporting the rights of forest-dwelling Indigenous peoples to their customary lands, resources, and livelihoods. Chao co-edited the Forest Peoples Programme reports Conflict or Consent? The Oil Palm Sector at a Crossroads, “A Sweetness Like Unto Death”: Voices of the Indigenous Malind of Merauke, Papua, and Divers Paths to Justice: Legal Pluralism and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Southeast Asia. Her research explores emerging multispecies relationships in West Papua in the context of oil palm expansion.
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The Truth About “Sustainable” Palm Oil
In West Papua, Indonesia, both conventional and “green” palm oil projects dispossess and exclude Indigenous people from their lands.
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In Deforestation’s Wake, Wild Animals Turn Troublesome
The destruction wrought by the expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations in West Papua is transforming once-wild animals into problematic pets.