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The food estate policy in Merauke has generated significant impacts on indigenous communities, particularly regarding their access to land, natural resources, and cultural identity. This study employs an ethnographic approach to explore the experiences of indigenous peoples in facing the food estate project and analyzes the extent to which they can voice their interests in public policy arenas. Using Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s subaltern analysis, this research questions whether indigenous people can truly “speak” or if their voices continue to be mediated and suppressed by dominant actors such as the state, corporations, and local elites. The findings reveal that indigenous communities in Merauke experience systematic marginalization in decision-making processes related to food estates. Hegemonic power structures make it difficult for their aspirations to be articulated within development discourse, while their resistance is often framed as an obstacle to national economic interests. Thus, this study asserts that indigenous communities remain in a subaltern position, where their voices are not only ignored but also legitimized through exploitative development narratives.

food estate, Merauke, indigenous communities, subaltern, Spivak