One of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Indonesia, an estimated 300 to 500 Hongana Manyawa choose to remain uncontacted, living in the rainforest on land that has been sacred to their ancestors for centuries.
But now, a large-scale nickel mining project is threatening to wipe them out completely.
With demand for electric vehicles growing, the Indonesian government plans to turn the country into a major producer of electric car batteries – a key component of which is nickel – and international companies like Tesla are already pouring billions of dollars into the project. Huge areas of the Hongana Manyawa’s nickel-rich land have been allocated to mining companies, and in some areas, the excavators are already at work.
The uncontacted Hongana Manyawa contribute nothing to the climate crisis, but stand to lose everything if this supposedly ‘climate-friendly’ industrial project continues.
But it’s not too late to help.
Send an email to Elon Musk calling on him to pledge that Tesla will never buy minerals from the lands of uncontacted Indigenous people in Halmahera.
