The article investigates how state-initiated participatory mapping, with the aim of legalizing Indigenous land, has implications for peasants’ and Indigenous people’s struggles for control over land and resources. Empirically, the paper refers to a study of participatory mapping in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, initiated by the local government. We suggest that this practice of mapping can be seen as a new form of state territorialization that, in complex ways, mobilizes a range of actors across space under the framework of a participatory approach. However, participatory mapping also creates a new foundation for mobilizing resistance to states’ efforts to gain territorial control.

Keywords: Local struggles, participatory mapping, state territorialization, governance, Indonesia, indigenous people, legalization, land use conflicts