Welcome to
A Rarer Earth
Welcome to A Rarer Earth
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Do you have a story, practice, or word related to peat that you would like to share? We welcome submissions of local terminology, short videos, photographs, projects, YouTube links, and written reflections that expand understanding of peat beyond scientific or carbon-centered definitions. We are especially interested in Indigenous vocabularies and accounts of changing land practices.
Each submission is reviewed by a small editorial collective composed of researchers, community collaborators, and language practitioners. Submissions are evaluated for clarity, respect for community knowledge, and relevance to peatland practices. We may follow up with questions for clarity.
Contributors may choose how their name appears or remain anonymous. While many entries originate in Central Kalimantan, precise geographic markers are not displayed to protect privacy and community safety.
Team
Additional Contributors
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A Rarer Earth is a digital counter-archive of Indonesia’s peatlands that centers Indigenous terminology and practices on and around peat.
Today, peat is framed by global conservation organizations as a carbon bank. Peat is composed of partially decomposed organic matter. When intact, peat stores immense amounts of carbon. When drained or burned, it releases greenhouse gases. It takes 100 years for a meter of peat to form. Fire bans and carbon bank projects now define these landscapes.
Long before peat became a climate medium, Indigenous communities cultivated and named these landscapes through lived, situated knowledge. Many of these local vocabularies are disappearing.
This collaborative, multilingual site gathers those terms and practices as a living archive. You are invited to move nonlinearly — zoom in and out, tap on and enter through a word, follow it across labor, ritual, river, and soil, and uncover layered definitions, videos, and stories contributed by community members.
Choose a storyline below for a guided path through the archive or close this window to explore on your own.