Abstract

In the 1960s, the Aoheng, a small tribal group with immense territories on the upper Mahakam River, began out-migrating to downstream settlements in search of better living conditions. A trickle of young men, then their families, and more sizable groups, they settled in various towns along the river. In Samarinda, the provincial capital, they came to form a community of several hundred. When the powerful forest product boom (c. 1990) for the P. R. China market opened up the hinterland to extractive ventures, many Aoheng returned home to protect their rich natural resources from forceful outsiders. After 1998, decentralization policies established scores of new provinces, regencies, and districts across the country. Soon, West-Kutai was created as the interior “Dayak” regency, upstream and autonomous from the Moslem-Malay coastal regions. Coal mining and oilpalm plantations massively intensified, while Sendawar, its capital, offered hundreds of civil-service jobs and business opportunities. In 2012, West-Kutai was split to create yet another regency, Upper-Mahakam, prompting robust Aoheng reflux/return moves toward its upstream capital, Ujoh-Bilang. Already open to wild-frontier-style inroads by outsiders, it will soon be flooded by industrial ventures. The Aoheng, bound to become a minority in their own district, are struggling to defer their inevitable final dissolution.