Indonesian tattooists revive tribal traditions

Yahoo – AFP, Suryo Wibowo, with Sam Reeves in Jakarta, January 5, 2016

Ranu Khodir, a celebrated Jakarta tattoo artist who uses the traditional
 'hand-tapping' method, displays his Dayak tribe motif tattoo at the Bau Tanah
tattoo museum in Jakarta (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Men in tribal dress stand amid dense jungle on the Indonesian island of Java, their bodies covered in elaborate, traditional tattoos inspired by cultures in distant corners of the vast, tropical archipelago.

Many images on display at the recent tattoo festival that brought the men together were not applied with fast, modern machines, but using a centuries-old, tribal method that involves artists gently tapping a stick mounted with a needle on a subject's skin.

The practice known as "hand-tapping" had almost faded out completely, as modernity overwhelmed Indonesia's tribes and younger generations eschewed their ancestors' ways, but tattoo artists have in recent years been driving a revival as more and more people seek to reconnect with the past.

Esmat Sakulok shows off his body tattoo design from the Mentawai tribe origin 

during a traditional tattoo festival in the village of Maguwoharjo in Yogyakarta 

(AFP Photo/Suryo Wibowo)

"There is a growing trend now, there are more people who want to learn about traditional tattooing -- I am very happy about it," said Herpianto Hendra, a tattoo artist who uses the ancient method and is a member of Borneo's Dayak tribespeople.

"I am proud that my culture is being recognised."

The body art ranges from flowers inspired by Dayak tattoos that mark the coming of age, to narrow, black lines running across the body, like those of indigenous peoples from a remote scattering of islands in western Indonesia.

The festival earlier this month in Maguwoharjo village in Java's cultural heartland gathered people from across Indonesia and the world at the studio of celebrated Indonesian tattoo artist Durga, a leading figure in the revival.

A tattoo artist uses the traditional "hand tapping" method during a tattoo festival

in the village of Maguwoharjo located in Yogyakarta (AFP Photo/Suryo Wibowo)

Durga has championed tattoos from the western Mentawai islands, home to a semi-nomadic tribespeople famed for their body art and the practice of sharpening their teeth, which they believe makes them more beautiful.

Close links to nature

Mentawai tattoos, generally long lines looping over the shoulders and chest and more elaborate patterns on feet and hands, were long part of local culture and signified the tribespeople's close links to nature.

The other well known body art from Indonesia is found among the Dayaks, an array of semi-nomadic tribes who traditionally lived in the jungles and mountains of vast, biodiverse Borneo island shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Their tattoos featured thick, black lines forming images inspired by nature, such as flowers, leaves and animals, that mark a person's journey through life. Before head-hunting was banned, Dayaks also received tattoos on their hands if they decapitated an enemy.

Australian filmmaker and tattoo artist Rob Henry, sporting body tattoo designs

 from the Mentawai tribe origin, walks in the jungle where a traditional tattoo

 festival is being held in the village of Maguwoharjo in Yogyakarta (AFP 

Photo/Suryo Wibowo)

While not as well known, other indigenous groups also have tattooing traditions, such as those in the eastern Maluku Islands and the central island of Sumba.

But the tradition has been waning for decades, after Christian missionaries and the Indonesian government sought to discourage what they saw as outdated, tribal practices, and as younger tribespeople moved away from villages to rapidly growing cities in search of better jobs and education.

The revival has been driven by a small group of contemporary tattoo artists, some who have learnt "hand-tapping" methods from local tribes and have put a modern twist on ancient designs -- increasingly popular among the young and hip living in Indonesian cities and abroad.

Lars Krutak, an American tattoo anthropologist, said people are drawn to ancient Indonesian designs as they are "unique, beautiful and deeply spiritual".

"People living in big cities want to be rooted to something meaningful, especially if they plan to wear these tattoos on their bodies for the rest of their lives," said Krutak, who has written an entry on Durga for the "World Atlas of Tattoo", which features 100 tattoo artists.

Australian traditional tattoo artist, Brent McCown uses the "hand tapping" method 

at a traditional tattoo festival in the village of Maguwoharjo located in Yogyakarta 

(AFP Photo/Suryo Wibowo)

'Defend traditional culture'

In the capital Jakarta, a small museum dedicated to indigenous body art has opened, housed in a ramshackle building filled with tribal paraphernalia and photos of tattooed indigenous people.

"Hand-tapping" regularly takes place at the museum, whose name "Bau Tanah" refers to the musty smell that emanates from the earth after heavy rains.

At a recent "hand-tapping" session, tattoo artist Ranu Khodir knelt down and applied the image of a dragon in Dayak style on the stomach of Saman, a motorbike taxi driver, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Indigenous Communities Embracing Ecotourism

Jakarta Globe, Ryan Dagur, Apr 06, 2015

In an effort to preserve their ancestral rainforests, indigenous settlements across
the archipelago are turning to eco-tourism initiatives driven by non-profit
organizations. (Ucanews.com Photos/Barmen Simatupang)

Sui Utik, West Kalimantan. When Lukas Alfario Surya Dewanto arrived at the remote Sui Utik hamlet deep in the forests of West Kalimantan last year, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

A student at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Lukas and his friends had little understanding of indigenous culture and life.

After two months of living with local families, however, Lukas has come to appreciate the unique site. The hamlet, which borders the northern part of Malaysia’s Sarawak state, is a stunning place: ancient trees and the forest canopy; birds, bears, snakes, and deer roam freely alongside fresh streams.

“We came here to feel how to live in the middle of ancestral forests and to get to know the local people that have protected the forests for years,” said the 23-year-old. “I want to go back there someday,” Lukas added.

Whether that is possible depends on the indigenous Dayak Iban’s ability to protect their sacred land. Already, Sui Utik is the only community in Kapuas Hulu district’s Batu Lintang village that hasn’t sold their trees or turned their land into palm oil plantations.

Instead, the villagers have banked on eco-tourism, hoping that by attracting students, locals and foreigners alike, they can convince the world of the importance of protecting their land.

Strong commitment

Over the past decade, a number of companies have come to the hamlet and surrounding areas to collect woods. With them, they brought Malaysian ringgits to lure the indigenous residents.

“We refused it. It was only the Sui Utik hamlet that rejected it. Almost all other communities living in other hamlets of the village as well as other villages accepted it,” said Raymundus Remang, 42, a community leader.

For the indigenous Dayak Iban living in Sui Utik, it has been a tradition that they only use about a third of their 9,500-hectares of ancestral forests for crop planting. They let the rest of the ancestral forests grow as they are — making it an appealing locale for loggers.

“Although we are told that we will be given money, we don’t want it,” he said.

Thanks to their strong commitment, massive trees such as gaharu or agar wood and ulin or Borneo ironwood can only be seen in Sui Utik.

Neighboring hamlets and villages only have few small trees. Worse, they are covered with palm oil plantations.

“We need money, indeed. But we don’t need to sell our ancestral forests. We love our ancestral forests so much,” Reymundus continued.

Unlike many of their neighbors, the villagers have held on to their traditional beliefs, including one that says destroying nature will only create a catastrophe.

“If any activity of illegal logging comes in, the existing order will vanish. We don’t want our next generation to see damaged nature because of their parents’ deeds,” Raymundus said. “We bring our children and grandchildren to our ancestral forests. We teach them how to protect our ancestral forests. We also tell them how important the effort is,” he added.

The community also calls on every member to plant trees starting as a young child. This has become an obligation. It’s hoped that this will allow for an ample supply of wood when they grow up and need to build houses.

For young indigenous men like Verdianus Muling, 23, such an obligation is never a burden.

“We will take care of our ancestral forests,” Verdianus said. “If we destroy our forests, we will have to face the impact,” Inam, 31, added.

Customary law

To protect the forest, indigenous villagers institute a complex traditional law — violations of which entail sanctions.

The customary law regulates, among other things, the correct time for planting trees, growing rice and cutting timber.

Traditionally, before cultivating their land between September and October, the Dayak Iban hold a ritual in which they slaughter a chicken to be given to so-called guardians of the land.

A similar ritual is held before cutting down trees, which includes the prayer: “Have mercy on us, we have to cut down trees as we need woods.”

Sanctions, meanwhile, depend on the gravity of the violation. If someone steals fruit from trees planted on a neighbor’s land, for example, he must give at least one sack of rice to the owner of the land.

A tribal leader is the one who decides the sanction.

“We respect this customary law. We even introduce it to our children and grandchildren,” Apay Janggut, a 44-year-old tribal leader, said.

Apay is a common honorific in the Iban language.

The 304 people living in Sui Utik adhere to the rules closely. Each of the hamlet’s 30 families is allowed to cultivate at least three hectares of land during a three-year period.

After that, they must move to another piece of land and leave the old one, a strategy that protects and preserves the ancestral forests.

The forests, in turn, provide all that the community needs. Its people hunt for animals, go fishing, and search for herbal medicine.

“Our forests have everything that we want and need,” assured Apay Salim, another tribal leader.

Deforestation

Forest comprises 60 percent of Indonesia’s land area, which makes it the third largest area of tropical rainforest in the world.

However, deforestation is an ongoing threat. Recent reports have found that Indonesia may have the highest rate of forest loss in the world.

Between 2000 and 2012 more than 6 million hectares of forest was lost, according to a University of Maryland study published last year and headed by a former Indonesian forestry official.

When it comes to deforestation, indigenous people comprising more than 500 communities across the archipelago play a significant role in protection and prevention.

And what the Sui Utik hamlet community has achieved received praise from Zenzi Suhadi, a forest campaigner with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi.

“Sui Utik shows that indigenous people make an effort to protect their ancestral forests for generations,” he said.

According to Zenzi, 58 million out of 130 million hectares of forest in the country — Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua islands — have been turned into palm oil plantations or gold and manganese mines.

“I don’t know the exact number of permits for the plantations and mining. But it’s more than 10,000,” he added.

In having avoided such fates, the hamlet serves as a correction tool for the local government.

“People living in Sui Utik show that indigenous people have a local wisdom, which can help them survive if it is preserved well,” said Agapitus from the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), an umbrella of indigenous communities in the country.

Development of eco-tourism

The indigenous people’s effort in protecting their ancestral forests in Sui Utik has driven GreenIndonesia and AMAN to jointly develop an eco-tourism initiative.

Besides the hamlet, the initiative involving six communities of indigenous people from across the country is also developed in other areas with indigenous communities such as Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, Jambi and Maluku.

Through the program, women weavers from all over Indonesia connect, share knowledge, and keep their traditions alive. The communities work with many local plants to create unique colors and pay close attention to maintaining the environment where the vegetation grows.

According to Yopie Basyarah, program manager at GreenIndonesia, the initiative aims to re-enliven the culture of the indigenous people.

“We try to develop everything purely coming from the indigenous people in Sui Utik. We don’t want to do things that we want, but we always ask the indigenous people about what they want,” he said.

In January, GreenIndonesia joined a tourism program held in Oslo, Norway, to introduce the initiative.

“We wanted to introduce Sui Utik hamlet to the world. What impressed us during the program was that so many people said they wanted to visit Sui Utik,” he added.

Dozens of Norwegians have promised to visit the hamlet in June.

Support for the development of eco-tourism in the hamlet also comes from the local Catholic Church.

“The initiative is in line with the indigenous people’s effort in making nature their best friend,” said Father Marchadius Markus Golo of Benua Martinus.

The community sees nature as something which cannot be separated from their Catholic faith, he said.

Nearly all members of the indigenous community are Catholics.

“They see nature like they see the body and the blood of Christ. The land is like the body of Christ, and the water is like the blood,” Marchadius said.

The indigenous people have such way of seeing things because they view nature as something given for free by God.

“This is their faith, and with this faith they have the commitment to protecting their ancestral forests,” he added.

In Kapuas Hulu district, 51.6 percent of its 3.1 million hectares of land is a conservation area. Only 20 percent is given to palm oil plantation companies.

“We don’t want to force the indigenous people like those in Sui Utik hamlet to accept palm oil plantation companies. They already have a commitment to protecting their ancestral forests,” deputy district head Agus Mulyana said.

But eco-tourism is far from a guaranteed salvo.

Konkordius Kanyan from Lembaga Bela Banua Talino, a local NGO dealing with agrarian issues, stressed that indigenous people would likely face challenges with the development of eco-tourism.

“Eco-tourism will bring changes when everything is measured with money. The indigenous people in Sui Utik must be able to maintain their cultural values which they have kept for so long,” he said.

Residents, however, remain hopeful that their chosen path will succeed.

“We feel happy [with eco-tourism] as we can earn money from so many visitors coming here. This helps [our community],” Raymundus said.

For him and other members of the hamlet, turning their protected forests into an eco-tourism attraction may well be the best way to improve their lives.

“People come to Sui Utik, and it makes us believe that what we have chosen so far isn’t wrong,” Raymundus said.

This story is a publication of Ucanews.com and is edited for style by the Jakarta Globe.

Ryan Dagur is a special correspondent for Ucanews.com.

The Kenya Dayak’s ‘Journey Home’ to Their Tribal Roots

Jakarta Globe, Tunggul Wirajuda, Jul 14, 2014

Filmmaker David Metcalf will host a fundraiser exhibition in August to fund his
 film ‘The Journey Home’, which aims to raise awareness about the importance
 and wisdom of indigenous culture in Indonesia and around the world. (Photo
courtesy of David Metcalf)

To foreign observers the 800 inhabitants of the village of Setulang live in a rustic idyll at the edge of a pristine forest. But these members of the Kenya Dayak that live in the North Kalimantan district of Malinau yearn for a paradise steeped in the traditions of their tribe.

“I left our original homelands when I was a small boy. But I have happy memories of my time growing up in the forests and playing in the rivers,” says Pilius, a village elder, who last saw his ancestral lands in 1969.

The land that Pilius remembers is an area of forests which they call Tala Olen , or “the forbidden forest.”

The tribesmen, particularly the elders, feel a spiritual connection to Tala Olen’s forests, rivers and land, located in an area called Long Saan, which is an eight-day journey by canoe up the Kayan River.

There are strict cultural rules about cutting down the trees in the forest or damaging it in any way, a reverence that has not changed despite their move to Setulang for economic reasons. The draw of Tala Olen is also felt by their descendants who are charmed by the elders’ stories of paradise.

“My grandfather told me many stories of growing up [in Tala Olen ] and how they lived back then. His description of it made it look like paradise,” says Herman, a young villager. “I would love to visit and pay my respects to him.”

But the Kenya Dayak’s ancient way of life and their culture of preserving the forest is under threat. Here in Kalimantan, logging and dam projects are destroying huge swathes of the forest.

Environmentalists estimate that over 52 percent of Kalimantan’s forests has already been lost.

“We don’t exactly know what will happen in the future. Will the next generation keep our agreement [to conserve the land], or will they damage it, and open new land to loggers to serve their self interest?” Kenya Dayak elder Kole Adjang asks.

“ We hope that by example [sic], our great grandchildren will also take care of our land and Tala Olen.”

Taking the Dayak’s home

In the face of these threats to Borneo’s cultural history, photographer David “Dayak Dave” Metcalf is seeking to help reunite the Dayak with their ancestral homelands.

As with many indigenous peoples throughout Indonesia, such as the Asmat and Kamoro tribes of Papua or the Badui in Java, the Kenya are hampered by poverty. As such, they can’t afford the cost of the journey to Tala Olen .

Metcalf seeks to provide the means for the villagers to revisit their homelands, a journey that he intends to chronicle in a film he will title “ The Journey Home .”

“I came up with the idea of granting the tribe their dream of visiting their ancestors’ burial grounds deep in the heart of the forest,” says the Bali-based New Zealander, adding that the journey entails more than the just the nostalgia of homecoming.

“We need to raise funds to make the film. As things currently stand, the logistics are only sufficient to take six elders to Long Saan,” says Metcalf, who is also the author of “ Indonesia’s Hidden Heritage: Cultural Journeys of Discovery ,” a chronicle of his travels through Indonesia.

Metcalf is putting on a fundraiser at the opening of an exhibition on indigenous photography in Jakarta’s Kunstkring Paleis cultural exhibition hall on Aug. 12.

The evening, which will feature eminent Indonesian designer Harry Darsono and New Zealand Ambassador David Taylor, will include performances of traditional Dayak dances.

“We hope that through raising funds to bring the elders back to their ancestral village and making a multimedia documentary about the journey, we can raise awareness of the threats to their unique way of life,” Metcalf says.

He adds that similar events will also be held at the American Club. To date, Metcalf has raised about $2,000 of the estimated $25,000 that he needs for project.

Filmmaker David Metcalf will host a fundraiser exhibition in August to fund his
 film ‘The Journey Home’, which aims to raise awareness about the importance
 and wisdom of indigenous culture in Indonesia and around the world. (Photo
courtesy of David Metcalf)

Collective effort

“The Journey Home” will be shot by a film crew from seven nations; among them New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. They include American documentary filmmaker Jason Houston, who was known for his work with the Dayak in the Malaysian side of Borneo, Robby, a member of the Indonesian world music group Navicula, and Bali-based artist Wolfgang Widmoser, whose work inspired much of the look for the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar.”

Native American Kevin Locke, an elder from the Lakota Sioux tribe, will also be taking part. While the cultural connection between the Dayak and native Americans is very strong, Locke’s participation marks the first time that a connection between these two cultures has been undertaken.

“One of the primary purposes of [“The Journey Home”] is to raise awareness in Indonesia and other countries about the importance and wisdom of indigenous cultures around the world. This journey is about connecting cultures through art, dance, song and ancient wisdom,” Metcalf says.

“By creating a wider expression and voice for indigenous cultures globally, we can find common ground through music and dance and ancestral prayers.”

Most of all, the film will showcase Kalimantan and its place in the world.

“Kalimantan is Asia’s Amazon, representing 1 percent of the earth’s surface but 5 percent of its flora and fauna, including untold numbers of trees and plants still undiscovered by mankind. As one of the most ecologically diverse landscapes on the planet, we want to raise awareness about the Dayak people that live in Kalimantan’s forests and rivers,” Metcalf says.

“This is all the more imperative, as Kalimantan is also facing the fallout from coal and gold mining, the latter which is poisoning its streams, aside from better known problems like illegal logging and deforestation.”

Metcalf and his team of filmmakers plan to release “The Journey Home” in Indonesia and abroad by the end of this year. He also plans to pitch the film to Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

To help Metcalf and the Kenya Dayaks in their quest, contact him at www.fundrazr.com.

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2,000 Nepalese tree-huggers claim world record

"Soul Communication" - Feb 22-23, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version Part 1, Text version Part 2)

"... Some of you will walk into the forest and you'll feel it. It surrounds you with its love and beauty. Gaia speaks to you. The trees are pushing out oxygen with a benevolent system of photosynthesis. The plants give you oxygen and you give them carbon dioxide. What a system! Look around. Science will say that system happened by accident - a random occurrence. Do you believe that? What a beautiful system! The trees themselves know who you are. You walk into the forest and you feel it hug you, but perhaps another is next to you who came with a chainsaw. They don't care and they don't feel it. To them, the forest is only a resource. What's the difference between the two of you? There's no judgment here, I'm just asking you. What do you think the difference is? The answer: You're letting multidimensional awareness in and they are not. You see, you are becoming more aware of multidimensional soul communication. In this case, it's your enormous soul energy communicating with the other parts of the planet who are also multidimensional.

When you make the decision that it's OK to feel this energy, it will be there. Most of humanity so far has not made that decision. They block it. The law is this - this communication will come to you only with your allowance. The moment you open the door of allowance, you may begin to feel it. Those are our rules.

It's not just allowance for communication from the creative source, but also from an amazing number of what we would call other benevolent energies. These others are represented by groups with names that you have given them. They also cannot get through to you unless you allow it. That's their rule as well. Your names for them are Pleiadians, Arcturians, Sirians, Hathors or those from Orion. There are many more, but unless you open to the possibility of them, they can't communicate either.

Most of humanity will stand next to you as you communicate and think you're not well. That's the way it looks to them. Listen, dear ones, the benevolent groups who represent your DNA essence [your seed biology] and who know who you are are many. The amount of help you have on this planet is staggering, yet the majority of humanity will not allow awareness of it or let the possibility into their reality.. ..."

Crafting a new future for the Dayak and Bajau people

Jakarta Globe, Ade Mardiyati, August 13, 2011         

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As the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People was celebrated this week, the United Nations called on all countries to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples through this year’s theme, “Indigenous designs: celebrating stories and cultures, crafting our own future.”

Handbags and textiles made by Kalimantan
people. (JG Photo: Courtesy of Ng Swan Ti)  

Indigenous peoples are defined by the United Nations as nondominant ethnic groups with a claim to historical continuity in their ancestral lands, who often suffer discrimination and marginalization by groups who have occupied their lands through invasion, colonial rule or political dominance.

There are around 5,000 recognized indigenous groups around the world, whose members make up around 5 percent of the world’s population.

In Indonesia, the Dayak and Bajau peoples of Kalimantan are included under this definition.

“[Indigenous peoples] have their land but are often displaced. They end up at the very bottom of society without any skills,” Michele Zaccheo, director of the United Nations Information Center in Jakarta, said at a video screening and discussion at the Goethe-Institut on Tuesday.

Zaccheo shared a message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the event, saying that indigenous peoples “face many challenges in maintaining their identity, traditions and customs, and their cultural contributions are at times exploited and commercialized, with little or no recognition.”

“We must work harder to recognize and strengthen their right to control their intellectual property, and help them to protect, develop and be compensated fairly for the cultural heritage and traditional knowledge that is ultimately of benefit to us all,” the secretary general’s message read.

A 30-minute documentary called “Kalimantan’s Craft: Harmony of Culture and Nature,” by filmmaker Nanang Sujana, was screened at the UN headquarters in New York and in all member countries around the world to mark the international day of recognition.

The film shows the life of the indigenous Dayak people in Kalimantan, who depend on the natural resources around them for their livelihoods. With skills that have been passed down from generation to generation, the Dayak people produce artistic crafts including woven baskets, handbags and textiles, all using natural materials.

Agus Sardjono, an expert on intellectual property from the University of Indonesia, said a community’s rights to its own creative products should be recognized.

“When creating a product, indigenous people in villages don’t actually think about intellectual property. But when other people run a business selling similar products using their designs and make a profit, that’s when they begin to think about it,” Agus said.

Often, he added, people outside the community care more about this problem than the indigenous people.

“It’s people in general, like us, who are very concerned when we see certain people take advantage of a culture’s creativity, but without sharing the benefits,” Agus said.

Yayasan Dian Tama, a West Kalimantan-based foundation, has been working with the indigenous Dayak people since 1994 to help make sure they benefit financially from the products of their labor.

“Basically they have the skills. So what we do is provide them with training on how to make better products, set up standards to meet the demands of the market, and also help maintain quality control,” said Tri “Alty” Renya Altaria Siswanto, an adviser for the foundation. “At the same time, we also teach them how to preserve the natural sources from which they take the materials.”

Alty said the organization employed a “punishment and reward” system to encourage the Dayak people to create high-quality products. This, she said, is a way to appreciate the knowledge and skills of the indigenous people themselves.

“We told them that the better the quality, the better the prices, and vice versa,” she said. “And they are now able to produce high-quality products, sold under the brand Borneo Chic. We are also currently participating in an exhibition at Harrods [department store] in the UK.”

Alty said, however, that the production of better-quality products had not changed the people’s economic situation, because they still needed to improve their marketing.

“But we have achieved a very important thing, which is getting [the Dayak people’s] traditional knowledge and creative rights recognized by people outside their community,” she said.

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Conflict in Tarakan displaces 32,000 people

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 09/29/2010 8:53 PM | Archipelago

About 32,000 have been displaced by days of ethnic conflict in the Eask Kalimantan city of Tarakan.

The refugees are being sheltered at police and military facilities as well as school buildings across the city, a security officer said on Wednesday.

One of the displaced people, Rini, said she and her family sought shelter at the Tarakan police headquarters for safety reasons. “We feel secure here rather than staying at home,” she said as quoted by kompas.com.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Udin Hianggio visited the displaced people in a number of refugee centers to appease them.

“Please be patient. I, the police chief, security authorities and the governor will solve the problem as soon as possible so that peace and order can be restored,” he told the refugees.

At least three people have been killed in the clashes between indigenous Dayak ethnic group and Bugis migrants, which erupted on Sunday night.

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Ethnic Dayak tribesmen no longer "primitive": governor

Antara News, Thursday, May 20, 2010 20:50 WIB

Pontianak, West Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Ethnic Dayak tribesmen are longer "primitive" so that people from outside West Kalimantan can now visit the province without fear, the region`s governor said.

"We, Dayak people, must keep high our image because we are no longer primitive as we used to be called in the past," West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis, an indigenous Dayak himself, said on the sidelines of the 25th Silver Gawai Dayak Week in Pontianak on Thursday.

Cornelis said the primitive label that was once attached to Dayak tribes had slowly worn off with the passage of time.

"Many Dayak people now are educated and have even reached high positions in society like me who has become governor," he said.

Cornelis also urged Dayak people to control themselves after they had consumed alcohol.

"When you get drunk, don`t make trouble but go to sleep," he said.

Dayaks must maintain their ethnic cultural characteristics that are easily recognized by the public, such as their dances, typical cuisine, and handicraft articles.

"It is enough to promote just one of our cultural characteristics to attract tourists," he said.

Meanwhile, a Dayak community leader, Adrinus Gidot Asia, said there were about 350 Dayak sub-tribes in West Kalimantan province and a spirit of togetherness needed to be cultivated among them to preserve their ethnic identity amid the progress of time.

"The traditions of our ancestors has already begun to fade by time. Therefore, let`s maintain our traditional ancestry and culture," he said.

On the matter of Dayak culture that was beginning to fade away, Governor Cornelis said "We are obliged to preserve our ethnic culture for future generations."

He said, in Indonesia today, no ethnic or traditional culture could ever be marginalized again as in the past.

Metro Madness: Riverboat Ranting

Jakarta Globe, Simon Pitchforth, May 07, 2010

The heart of darkness is fully wired these days.

This week, I managed to skip Jakarta’s 21st century heart of darkness and headed into the jungles of Borneo for a few days to do a “Lord Jim.” In Conrad’s novel, Jim, a disgraced young seaman, heads into the jungle in order to live with the Dayaks. So I rocked up to Palangkaraya in central Kalimantan with a bag full of mosquito repellent and amusing hats.

Palangkaraya is a small city that received a lot of attention from Sukarno, who considered making it the Indonesian capital at one point. The nation’s first president got the Russians to build some nice, wide boulevards around town when he was flirting with the red menace and also had a fancy woman shacked up here in a rather tasteless pied-a-terre. Even Sukarno’s successor Suharto, rather hubristically decided to make Indonesia self-sufficient in rice by draining the peat swamps in the huge rainforests and jungles that lie beyond the city to start a huge planting program. Not only did the rice not materialize, due to the peat soil being too acidic for the stuff to grow in, but the release of previously locked-in carbon from the dried out swamps has helped Indonesia reach its current status as the world’s third-largest producer of greenhouse gases. In the words of that intellectual colossus, Homer Simpson, “Doh!”

Along with that, rampant deforestation, slash-and-burn agriculture, forest fires, palm oil plantations and a rapidly dwindling orangutan population have prompted a veritable army of tree-hugging, granola munchers to descend on the area to hold conferences and try to engage rainforest communities in conservation efforts.

However, I wasn’t in town to jam with either Sting, Bono or Bob Geldof. My plan was to ford upstream into the jungle on a pleasant three-day riverboat cruise.

For the past few years, a couple of lovely ladies, Lorna Dowson-Collins and Gaye Thavisin, have run eco-tours from Palangkaraya up into the lush jungles of Borneo. The pair have built a huge cruise boat, which can house groups of up to 10 people, with a spacious top deck on which tourists can recline in comfort and spy on the orangutans at the water’s edge as they muck about and exhibit appalling table manners.

The rivers themselves are quintessential jungle waterways. As calm as mirrors and between 50 and 100 meters in width, they meander through lush protected forests with only the occasional illegal gold mining operation or chainsaw buzzing in the distance to remind one of the dangers that this ancient environment now faces. The tour is an educational one and has previously been enjoyed by various European and Australian parliamentary delegations, as well as the prince of Denmark, who apparently had a whale of a time.

We made a brief stop at an orangutan rehabilitation center and learned that some of these hairy chaps are in a very sad state indeed. Orphaned and suffering from malaria, flu or other ailments, the center nurses them back to health and releases them back into the wild. It’s becoming a losing battle, however, as there are now more orangutans coming in than going out.

The cruise itself is magnificent and takes one through idyllic areas of primary rainforest as yet completely unspoiled by man and his vociferous appetite for destroying things and soiling his nest. Mind you, I was still able to get a mobile phone signal for the entire duration of the trip. The heart of darkness is fully wired these days, you understand.

If you’re up for a cruise like this then take a look at: www.wowborneo.com. An interesting one will be taking place between May 20 and May 23, in fact. If you find the Jakarta Highland Gathering a bit passe then the Isen Mulang Cruise will take you to the traditional Dayak games of the same name. One of the events is a game of soccer played with a burning coconut. Silly sods.

Meanwhile, in terms of saving this ancient environment, consumer choice is perhaps your best weapon. Don’t eat the baso (meatballs) in East Java that locals were recently found making from kidnapped monkeys. Perhaps another thing to avoid would be palm oil, which is apparently present in 10 percent of all supermarket products. Giving up Indonesia’s Blue Band palm margarine shouldn’t be too difficult for Westerners though, seeing as the stuff tastes like clarified goat bile. Mind you, the less we eat of the stuff, the more that can be used as chainsaw lubricant. Anyway, let’s all sit in a circle now and sing, “We shall overcome.”

Simon Pitchforth has lived in Indonesia for well over a decade and is the editor of Jakarta Java Kini magazine.

Curriculum on Dayak Tribe to be Formulated Starting 2010.

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 22 December, 2009 | 15:51 WIB

Dayak Girls

TEMPO Interactive, Palangkaraya:The Central Kalimantan Government will formulate the curriculum and teaching materials on Dayak culture and customs.

To realize this wish, several university academicians will be asked to cooperate.When called on Monday (14/12), Central Kalimantan governor Teras Nanang said that starting from 2010 teaching materials from primary schools to high schools would be prepared.

The governor said that the regional government will also prepare teachers who properly understand local Dayak culture and customs, as well as the cultural institutions. “The teachers do not have to be local residents. If there is a Papuan who understands the culture and customs well, we will recruit him. That is the spirit of “Unity in Diversity”,” he said.

The governor explained that the local content was in line with Regional Regulation no. 16/2008 on Dayak Culture Institutions and State Decree no. 20/2003 on National Education Systems.

Meanwhile, the Central Kalimantan Head of the Education Office Hardy Rampay in Palangkaraya said he hoped that schools could cooperate by asking Damang (a cultural leader) to teach additional local content, while the basic content could be based on the teaching of the Central Kalimantan native language, Ngaju.

“Every school could ask Damang to teach local Dayak culture and language, for example according to river flows, because the spreading of this culture is in line with the river. They could also teach local songs which have been long forgotten,” said Hardy.

Hardy added that he saw a decrease in the preservation of local art, culture and language so that it needed more intensive efforts. In Central Kalimantan there is at least 22 local languages used by indigenous people.

The nine languages widely used are Ngaju, Manyan, Ot Danum, Katingan, Bakumpai, Tamuan, Sampit, Banjar and Melayu languages.

KARANA W

Related Article:

A Night of Dayak Culture

Govt likely to accept tribal communal rights

Child Drinking Just One of Many Challenges Facing Indonesia's Remote Schools

The Jakarta Globe, Anita Rachman

Teachers have said that schools in remote areas of Indonesia face a number of challenges. (Photo: JG)

Tarakan, East Kalimantan. Encouraging students to come to school might be a common problem for teachers, but trying to stop their elementary school charges from drinking alcohol is another challenge entirely.

Cultural tensions as well as a lack of facilities, skill development and government support were just some of the issues identified by teachers from remote areas during a training event held in Tarakan by the Tanoto Foundation on Tuesday.

Yuluis Labo, 52, the principal of Sesayap Elementary School 08 in Tana Tidung district — around a three-hour speedboat ride from Tarakan — said that he and his fellow teachers at the school were trying to stop their students from drinking pengasih, a local alcohol made from mashed and fermented cassava that is sometimes also mixed with vodka.

“There are many problems in my school. Besides encouraging teachers to make daily teaching plans, we have many students that sometimes consume alcohol,” Yulius said. “They drink it because their parents say that it is one of the traditions of Dayak Brusu and almost all of my students come from the tribe.”

He said that there are 68 students at his school, aged between seven and 13 years old, under the supervision of six permanent teachers. He said that many of his students often skipped classes or were absent because they were drunk.

“Drinking pengasih is a tradition, and my students say that if they don’t drink it they are disrespecting the tradition,” he said.

Yulius said that pengasih was served on many occasions, such as during planting and harvest festivities and burial ceremonies. He said that parents asked their children to join the drinking sessions.

“Can you imagine? They are only elementary school students. After joining a party, they sometimes come to school in a bad condition: a bit drunk, sleepy and unable to concentrate,” he said.

Yulius, who has been the leader of the school since 2004, said that he has tried to talk to the students, but could not persuade them to give up drinking. He said that teachers needed approach the students calmly and talk to their parents in an appropriate manner.

The school has been trying to locate several members of the tribe who have relatively good educational backgrounds, such as those who have graduated high school, to explain that it is not good for people, especially children, to drink the traditional alcohol.

“But it’s not easy, we also need teachers who understand this. It’s not easy to be a teacher in my area,” he said.

Zulkifli, a teacher at Sekatak State Senior High School 01, located 290 kilometers from Tarakan, said he and his colleagues were facing a similar dilemma.

However, Zulkifli said that the problem had been worse in the past.

“In 1998 it was even worse. Students got drunk and we could hardly even warn them,” he said.

Zulkifli said that he and the teachers at both his current school and previous school, Sekatak State Junior High School 01, had tried several ways to combat the problem. He said that approaching parents was crucial.

Inviting parents to come to the school to receive their child’s semester reports provided a good opportunity for discussion, he said.

“But things still happen, it’s hard."

Anita Lie, a professor from Widya Mandala Catholic University in Surabaya, East Java, and a supervisor at the training session, said that being a teacher in a remote area was not the same as working in the city.

She said that teachers often not only face educational challenges, but also cultural ones.

“That is why giving pre-training to teachers before they are sent to remote areas is very important. The government must pay more attention to teachers in remote areas,” Anita said.

However, Anita stated that culture was not static and it could change. She said that teachers should firstly understand the local culture before agreeing with or opposing it.

“There should be empathy. Don’t ask students to go against their parents or tradition, use the right approach,” she said.