Framed with the concepts of material gendered political ecology and the Wirkmacht (agentive force) of gaharu (eaglewood), I give empirical insights into the intertwinement of power, marginality, identity and gender linked to natural resource governance in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Wirkmacht comprises the properties and functionalities of the resource, and includes gendered roles and identity formation connected to it. Material gendered political ecology therefore analyzes gender-specific governance and power structures by taking socio-natures and the materiality of resources into account. Currently, the extraction of gaharu as a boom commodity provides material gain, enhances prestige and functions as a marker for a specific masculine indigenous identity. Eaglewood is extracted without state regulations, meaning high autonomy and the uncontested control of the resource by villagers. Young male adults of marginalized Punan Murung communities thereby turn their spatial marginality into an advantage as their geographic location offers them control and access to wild gaharu. They counter their political, economic and social exclusion with the establishment of a niche in the margins, thereby twisting and reformulating marginality. Punan Murung thus could change the derogatory identity of a formerly isolated community towards positively connoted indigenous people.
