Soegijapranata Catholic University

This article examines Sasi, a customary governance regime in Central Maluku, Indonesia, that regulates access to terrestrial and marine resources through ritualized closures and openings. While celebrated as cultural heritage and conservation practice, the authority of Sasi remains fragile. Drawing on literature review, field mapping of 44 Negeri (customary villages) and a qualitative multi-scalar case study design guided by a critical-interpretive approach, the study finds that Sasi is constrained by two layers of discrimination. Externally, its recognition is conditional, subject to constitutional clauses, statutory provisions, and spatial planning policies that privilege state permits over local prohibitions. Internally, Sasi institutions reproduce inequalities, through male-dominated decision-making structures and auction-based arrangements that benefit elites while excluding women and poorer households. An integrated typology reveals the variability of Sasi: strongholds that remain effective, religious-legal hybrids dependent on clerical legitimacy, marketised forms prone to elite capture, and institutional vacuums where governance collapses. These findings show that indigenous governance recognition in Indonesia often affirms Sasi symbolically while undermining its substantive authority. The paper conceptualises this paradox as discriminatory legal pluralism, a condition where plural recognition preserves cultural visibility yet reproduces structural subordination, limiting the potential of living law for juridical equality and sustainable commons governance.

Conservation policies often criminalize indigenous practices when state and global norms disregard local cosmologies. This study examines Lamalera, an indigenous whaling community in Indonesia, whose ancestral system Ola Nu & acirc;ng Lefa Nu & eacute;, a moral-ecological law regulating whale harvests, conflicts with national bans and international biodiversity regimes. The research identifies a normative and epistemic gap between technocratic conservation and customary law rooted in reciprocity and restraint. Using a critical qualitative case study with fieldwork (2023-2025), interviews, and legal hermeneutics, it analyzes how customary, Church, and state laws intersect within unequal power structures. Findings reveal that Indonesia's conservation law embodies discriminatory legal pluralism. It recognizes custom only under state control. Yet Lamalera's living law fulfills principles of sustainable commons governance. The study proposes inclusive legal mediation: co-management, recognition, and FPIC, to reconcile conservation and indigenous rights, showing that governing through difference offers a more just and sustainable path for marine biodiversity conservation.

The issue of Christianization is one of the major issues that interferes with interfaith encounters in Indonesia. Relationships across religious identities are hindered by the generalization that all activities involving interfaith encounters initiated by Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, aim to Christianize others. This research intends to show the influence of such issues in the social humanitarian work of the Catholic Church, represented by Karitas Indonesia of the Archdiocese of Semarang (KARINAKAS), and the Christian Church, represented by Emergency Unit of Christian Foundation for Public Health (YAKKUM Emergency Unit/YEU). Both organizations work in disaster response. Using a qualitative approach, the researchers collected data through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with official staff and volunteers from both organizations. Drawing on Christopher Falzon’s Social Dialogue Beyond Fragmentation Theory, this research identifies opportunities for building interfaith relations. This research found that the issue of Christianization limits social relations within the community and at the same time it also encourages people to continue exploring possibilities for cross-identity encounters. The volunteers’ engagement generates new awareness that challenges the dominant narrative of Christianization as the sole framework for understanding intereligious encounters in Indonesia. At the grassroots levels, interreligious relations are not defined by rigid binary oppositions. Shared experiences in responding to human suffering create common ground that enables collaborative action for others’ well-being.

Catholic church buildings in the Dutch East Indies began to be built rapidly in the 1800s. The construction of the Catholic church building became a historical momentum for the end of Calvinism’s monopoly during the Dutch Colonial period in Indonesia. The Santo Antonius Church in Surakarta and the Santo Antonius Church in Muntilan are Catholic buildings built during that era. The two churches were built in the same year, namely 1916. Until now, with the increase in the number of people, the need for space for activities in the two churches has also increased. The need for more space encouraged the church management to make several adjustments to the two church buildings. The development of space in the two church buildings led to long discussions, especially regarding the interior. The critical discussions that emerged mainly focused on the authenticity of the space and appropriate conservation methods based on the original form of the two churches. Therefore, this study uses a comparative approach to compare conservation actions in the two churches through conservation theory, including preservation, restoration, reconstruction, and adaptation activities. It is hoped that the results of this study can provide a scientific contribution, especially to policyholders for the conservation of Catholic church buildings in Indonesia.