BIAK - Warbon Indigenous Community along with the Byak Kainkain Karkara Biak (KKB) Traditional Council planted a Red Cross as a sign of Traditional Sasi on the traditional land territory of Warbon Village, North Biak District, Biak Numfor Regency, Friday (5/6/2026). This Red Cross planting action is a form of total protection for the living space that is now threatened by a national strategic project.
​This firm step becomes part of the indigenous community's rejection stance against the spaceport construction plan designed in the Warbon traditional territory. The planting of the Red Cross simultaneously becomes a confirmation that the Warbon traditional land is under the protection of valid customary law. This territory cannot be utilized, measured, or transferred for any interest without the consent of the indigenous community as the holders of customary rights.
​For the Warbon Indigenous Community, the land, forest, coast, and the entire living space located within the traditional territory are not empty land or an unclaimed territory. The territory is an ancestral heritage that possesses historical, cultural, social, economic, and spiritual values which have been guarded generation after generation by the ancestors until the current generation.
​"We reject with firmness the construction of the spaceport on our traditional land because this territory is our identity and source of life," said a representative of the Warbon Indigenous Community, Friday (5/6/2026). This rejection is based on deep concern over the loss of hunting grounds, sacred areas, and the destruction of the North Biak coastal ecosystem which all this time has been the life support for the residents of Warbon Village.
​The Byak KKB Traditional Council also confirmed that the protection of customary rights is a fixed price that must be respected by all parties, including the central government. The spaceport construction plan by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) which is now under the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is assessed as ignoring the fundamental rights of indigenous Papuans.
​Meanwhile, the situation in North Biak is reported to remain conducive but the indigenous community remains on alert guarding the Traditional Sasi sign that has been installed. This Red Cross placement also becomes a symbol of cultural struggle so that the government respects the right to customary land protected by the special autonomy law.
​The indigenous community hopes all components of society in Biak Numfor unite to maintain nature conservation and reject all forms of eviction under the guise of development. The effort to defend the Warbon land is described as a step to save the future of the Byak generation from the real threat of marginalization. (One Papua)