Bara, a mountain village known as Bara Hamlet. A hamlet whose community groups are in Bonto Somba Village, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi with three RTs. The historical story of the village is quite interesting, because it was told by traditional leaders when they had the opportunity to discuss at the Bugis traditional house, that Bara was land given by the Goa Kingdom with the condition that its area was the size of a thinly cut buffalo hide. The resulting pieces are spread out continuously into a round shape. When the two ends meet, it is said that in the Bugis language, Bara means a fence made of buffalo skin.
Bara Hamlet is a community that has traditional leaders with an unbroken lineage, they have an important role in rice field ceremonies. Starting from the planting season to the harvest season. These roles and ceremonies from their ancestors are still carried out today. The traditional stakeholders consist of the following names, Tao Tua, Pinakki, Karaing, and Mangalarrang.
Then society began to institutionalize structural customs with different people. As a condition for recognizing the Customary Law Community, the structure of traditional institutions starting from the positions of chairman, secretary, treasurer to members will be in place by 2022. So, the traditional structure in Bara Hamlet consists of Traditional Leaders and Traditional Institutions.
Interestingly, traditional ties are strongly attached to rice farming which has been taught by their ancestors for generations. Until the custom was born because of the management of land or land for rice fields.
Bara Hamlet has a people's school initiated by village youth from RT one (1) named Suryadi. He is a young man born in 1997, and began to talk about his concerns from 2021. This anxiety was born from his observations in his own village of seeing children who were not given their rights by the State regarding the Right to Education. He admitted that their struggle was carried out collectively, starting from the role of Traditional Leaders, Hamlet Heads and Village Government who became comrades in arms due to the kind initiative of Bung Suryadi.
Children in the hamlet who had dropped out of school since 2012 began to return to school with the name "Kolong School" because the study room was under Suryadi's typical Makassar house. Their struggle is still long and they are still active and tireless while teaching village children, as well as advocating for the government's role in providing school facilities and infrastructure. Because the fact is that indigenous community students are very enthusiastic about school and this can be seen from their intention to study, play and socialize in the lower school environment. The struggle for education for children then received recognition and finally "Kolong School" became a branch of SDN 238 INPRES Bonto Parang in Bonto Manurung Village in 2023 with the help of the Sulawesi Community Foundation (SCF) advocacy.
Then, the people of Bara Hamlet, the majority of whom are lowland rice and corn farmers, apparently also make their living as collectors of pine resin for sale. As a layer of society, women have a role in the economy of indigenous communities through the Women's Farmers' Group with superior production, namely processing palm sap into ant sugar. Collaboration between the community was very strong when they had the opportunity to be involved with them in the activity of producing ant sugar, because the fathers played a role in taking palm sap from sugar palm trees and the women gathered together to cook the sap into sugar and make it into ant sugar products. There are 2 groups of Women Farmers in Bara Village.
Bara Hamlet, as an indigenous community in the mountains, where access to economic, government and educational centers is difficult, is actually united by no coincidence. Because the traditional unity of Bara Hamlet gave birth to an attitude of working together to build their village to seize their rights as citizens. Until finally the presence of SCF through the Estungkara program with KEMITRAAN played a role in strengthening and strengthening changes in the hamlet.
Not only that, of course the hamlets in the mountains of Maros Regency certainly have the same character and struggles. So that indigenous peoples as a marginalized part of their struggle must be supported and strengthened for their rights as citizens of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
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