Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Aceh have followed a long trajectory: from Ford Foundation–funded social science training in the 1970s, through human-rights advocacy and the referendum movement of the late 1990s and the boom of organisations during rehabilitation and reconstruction in 2005–2009, to contraction after the donors left. Their activists then dispersed into the bureaucracy, parliament, universities and security networks, while some carried on with new issues such as the environment, gender and the Rohingya. The trajectory shows how conflict, tsunami and peace both strengthened and co-opted civil society. Its greatest challenges now are cadre regeneration and independence from outside funding.