0:00:00 > 0:00:07of the palm oil industry on traditional tribes in Sumatra.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22The Orang Rimba tribes have lived here for centuries, their land
0:00:22 > 0:00:26rights and faith are not recognised by the state of Indonesia. The
0:00:26 > 0:00:33surrounding majority Muslim population cause them Kubu.It is
0:00:33 > 0:00:38like garbage, you cannot even look at it. It is disgusting.And their
0:00:38 > 0:00:42forests are disappearing at one of the fastest rate in the world. Not
0:00:42 > 0:00:48long ago this was decorated forest, a hunting ground for the Orang
0:00:48 > 0:00:56Rimba, but has recently been cleared to make way for palm oil.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11Now the Orang Rimba are being forced into a stark choice. Convert to a
0:01:11 > 0:01:16state religion or staff. -- staff.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41We are travelling in some of the world Boult last remaining traces of
0:01:41 > 0:01:45rainforest and Sumatra. To meeting the Orang Rimba, the people of the
0:01:45 > 0:01:51jungle. They are trying to preserve their nomadic way of life against a
0:01:51 > 0:02:01enormous pressure. From the moment they are born, Orang Rimba are
0:02:01 > 0:02:07connected to the trees. Outsiders are not allowed to witness or film
0:02:07 > 0:02:14originals but we have been given rare access. This man and his wife,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Elders of the tribe, explained their birthing rituals.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Everyone in the jungle has their own trees, even the dead ones. They have
0:02:53 > 0:03:00to look after it, they call it their sister or the elder sister or older
0:03:00 > 0:03:05brother. From when they are born until death, always they are
0:03:05 > 0:03:08connected to the jungle.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17This man is an anthropologist who has lived with the Orang Rimba four
0:03:17 > 0:03:29years. -- women.Many of their goals are animals.The tiger may be the
0:03:29 > 0:03:34most powerful, and they also have something they worship the God of
0:03:34 > 0:03:39the water spring, and they believe that they cannot do anything bad to
0:03:39 > 0:03:45the water, they will never defecate or put soap in the water, so you can
0:03:45 > 0:03:52straightaway drink.They take me deeper into the jungle, to their
0:03:52 > 0:03:57cost Odile forest for the strike. The home of the sacred trees. --
0:03:57 > 0:03:59cost Odile forest.
0:04:36 > 0:04:43The forest is also a valuable source of medicinal plants. This is the
0:04:43 > 0:04:49anti-malaria planned, so it has to be boiled up and then drank, it is a
0:04:49 > 0:04:53very kind of sour taste, bitter taste. It is used here to prevent or
0:04:53 > 0:05:00treat malaria. We are stopping to arrest and food is quickly found.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Sweet potato dug up from the jungle, and meat from last night's hunt.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26They are approached -- their approach to food is most different
0:05:26 > 0:05:31to other Indonesians, they eat wild pigs, but will not eat domesticated
0:05:31 > 0:05:38animals.Sneh, for, pick, bats. Different kinds of letters for
0:05:38 > 0:05:44example. Muslims will not eat there is, and Orang Rimba do not eat
0:05:44 > 0:05:49chicken or cows or anything that is domesticated.They believe it is
0:05:49 > 0:05:58only fair to fight for their food. But in this hunt today, like most
0:05:58 > 0:06:02days, has found no animals. He is bringing home nothing to feed his
0:06:02 > 0:06:05family. His forest is gone.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46And this is why. Indonesia is now the world's largest exporter of palm
0:06:46 > 0:06:49oil, a product found in supermarkets all over the world.
0:07:18 > 0:07:24In my lifetime, 30 plus years, more than half of the metropolis like
0:07:24 > 0:07:27force have disappeared. They are replaced by monoculture palm oil
0:07:27 > 0:07:33plantations. This would have all been thick rainforest not that long
0:07:33 > 0:07:37ago, it is now a palm oil plantation and, as we have been driving along
0:07:37 > 0:07:42it has just been rows and rows of palm oil trees. Here in this land
0:07:42 > 0:07:46that was the home of the Orang Rimba. Orang Rimba's forests have
0:07:46 > 0:07:49become someone else's, private land.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33I get a sense of this suspicion and mistrust when we enter a nearby
0:08:33 > 0:08:35village with our Orang Rimba guides.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04We're just about to head into the Orang Rimba area, or the poorest,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08and we just that at his place for lunch, and within minutes a whole
0:09:08 > 0:09:12group of officials from the local government have come in and are
0:09:12 > 0:09:16asking lots of questions, they want to see my ID card, they want to know
0:09:16 > 0:09:20what we're doing here. The Orang Rimba they were brought as you say
0:09:20 > 0:09:24this represents the pressure that they have from the authorities, they
0:09:24 > 0:09:27are not accepted or treated with suspicion where ever they go.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34With the rapid rate of deforestation, social pensions are
0:10:34 > 0:10:46rising. There is now a push by the state to rein in the Orang Rimba. I
0:10:46 > 0:10:46meted the social affairs
0:11:26 > 0:11:28Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has bowed to slow down the rapid
0:11:28 > 0:11:34rate of deforestation and to protect forests like the Orang Rimba's, but
0:11:34 > 0:11:36his minister is reluctant to make promises.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13The fact that the central Government is seemingly powerless to stop the
0:12:13 > 0:12:20deforestation is a sensitive topic. The palm oil plantations have moved
0:12:20 > 0:12:24into the sacred forests of the Orang Rimba. There is something else on
0:12:24 > 0:12:28the horizon, too. Islam.
0:12:41 > 0:12:4658 families from the treaty tribe of Orang Rimba converted en masse to
0:12:46 > 0:12:52Islam just a few months ago. The now Islamic missionary is here to make
0:12:52 > 0:12:54sure the new faith is practised.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29The whole tribe where picked up by Islamic vigilante groups and
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Government officials, and bust into the nearest city boss Mike keeping
0:13:32 > 0:13:39close to where -- they have to wear headscarves. He is certain he is
0:13:39 > 0:13:41doing the right thing.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06But it was not just the afterlife that this tribe was thinking about
0:14:06 > 0:14:09when they converted. It was surviving this one.
0:14:31 > 0:14:37Every dry season fires burned across our trial, covering the region in a
0:14:37 > 0:14:43toxic haze. Slash and burn in, the quickest and cheapest way to clear
0:14:43 > 0:14:50the forest to make way for plantations. I covered the fires in
0:14:50 > 0:14:572015, a longer dry season that year made them catastrophic. 500,000
0:14:57 > 0:15:01people were affected and dozens died from breathing problems. When the
0:15:01 > 0:15:08fires were finally out, Yusuf's tribe's forced home was gone.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26With no hope of returning to the old ways and after years of living on
0:15:26 > 0:15:31the edge of the village, they decided to try to control some of
0:15:31 > 0:15:35their children into the local school. They were told they had to
0:15:35 > 0:15:35convert.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Since his conversion, Yusuf has officially taken the wise. He tells
0:16:22 > 0:16:26me that is allowed in Islam. In just a few months, they are lies have
0:16:26 > 0:16:30dramatically changed. -- lives.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22A belief in one of the six recognised religions of Indonesia
0:17:22 > 0:17:28must be stated in order to get an identity card, otherwise you don't
0:17:28 > 0:17:29officially exist.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51What about the Orang Rimba religion, or the brief they hold?
0:18:03 > 0:18:08This man was one of the first Orang Rimba to convert into thousand nine.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13He was the cost Odile chief of his tribe, and a respected figure. For
0:18:13 > 0:18:17him, the promise of an afterlife is what convinced him.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10But he strongly disagrees with the mass convergence now taking place.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14He says it is about clearing the Forest of Orang Rimba, making land
0:19:14 > 0:19:15grabbing easier.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Indigenous rights bodies have been fighting to have the hundreds of
0:19:32 > 0:19:39faiths practised across Indonesia recognised.It is so painful that we
0:19:39 > 0:19:43have been round, even before they arrive, the new religion arrived,
0:19:43 > 0:19:50those religions who believe in God, but now it is like they rule us.
0:19:50 > 0:20:01They want to clean cars from this country. -- clean cars from this
0:20:01 > 0:20:05country.They took the state of the Constitutional Kurt, who ruled last
0:20:05 > 0:20:10week there should be space on identity cards for all faiths. The
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Government wants the Orang Rimba can assimilate, and has built a number
0:20:14 > 0:20:19of housing estates for them. Most have failed. This man takes me to
0:20:19 > 0:20:20one of them
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Without forests to hunt N on land to grow crops, the Orang Rimba who have
0:21:03 > 0:21:08stayed here are relied on hand-outs. Today an Islamic charity group has
0:21:08 > 0:21:15come. Bags of fresh beef are slaughtered Cal, an obligation, he
0:21:15 > 0:21:23says, to mark the Islamic veil sacrifice. -- slaughtered calf.
0:21:27 > 0:21:35For the poor people, so...Some of the Orang Rimba go decals. Miller
0:21:35 > 0:21:40magnate everything. Bout it is a sacred food, they would eat
0:21:40 > 0:21:48something that has been kept., No, they eat everything.Religious
0:21:48 > 0:21:54conservativism is on the rise in Indonesia, wiping away the hundreds
0:21:54 > 0:22:00of indigenous faiths and rituals. Despite the intense pressure, this
0:22:00 > 0:22:03man is holding out. He says he will never convert.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21Plantations are edging closer to his tribe's area, and the scars on the
0:22:21 > 0:22:23jungle are everywhere.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59His son is now trying to have this forest recognised as there is,
0:22:59 > 0:23:04following a recent landmark court ruling on indigenous land rights.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06But to do that he too has converted.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26He worries if he doesn't fight back that one day his children but be
0:23:26 > 0:23:32left only with stories to tell about the Orang Rimba tribe, once upon a
0:23:32 > 0:23:36time they were the people of the forest, but they are no longer.
0:23:51 > 0:24:01HE CHANTS.