In Between Frontier Spaces
Mai Jebing
On the extracted frontiers in Central Kalimantan Indonesia, massive changes in landscape happen hand in hand with changes in social relations. It all started some thirty years ago, with the building of roads and then large trucks came and went carrying logs, including logs from the adat or customary trees, such as Ulin or ironwood and Doho, the giant tree where the bees-nested and made honey. Now, the trucks are also carrying coal. The river has changed too, then it was only for the local transportation and transporting wood, however, when the trees are cut, there is much less wood that need to be transported by the river, now large coal barges have replaced wood barges.
Extractivism has changed the relationship between humans and the more-than-human. The river that used to be the people’s front yard has become the backyard; the houses have moved away from the river and closer to the road. The river water can no longer be drunk since it is dirty and doesn’t taste as it used to.
At the frontier of extractivism, everything is running as the extractivist logic wants it, following the generic view of extractivism: the physical and massive landscape changed. However, we often overlook how extractivism shapes the community’s everyday activities and vice versa, which are only seen on a special occasion or even in particular social relations, which shows: despite extractivism.
The following two series of photos are an invitation to imagine and explore the spaces of everyday activities on the extractivism landscape: the space of care between humans, and the more-than-human, their meanings and values that are contrary to extractivism, such as making popaks, beverage, fermentation, communal harvesting of fruit, preparing cakes for customary rituals, introducing new-born babies to the river. Those are irreplaceable things, which make extractivism strange, and disturbing.
A Juxtapose
When the forest, no longer with trees,
Abandoned wreckage machine
and the logging company left
While the orchard is evergreen,
Stocking for harvest every season,
and the rubber dripping sap every day
Ketika pohon hutan habis,
menyisakan rongsokan mesin,
dan perusahaan kayu pergi,
Sementara kebun buah selalu hijau,
menyediakan panen tiap musim,
dan karet menetes getah tiap hari
when the forest becomes a stand of wood,
floating on the river,
and taken to the sawmills
while the Tengkawang tree is the foundation of the lanting
floating on the river,
connecting the water and land, and their inhabitants
ketika hutan menjadi tegakan kayu,
mengapung di atas sungai,
digelandang ke pabrik-pabrik sawmil
sementara batang tengkawang jadi lantai,
mengapung di atas sungai,
dihubungkannya perairan dan
daratan, beserta penghuninya
When tanah air is extracted,
transported by iron barges,
taken somewhere unknown
While the durian falls or is picked,
transported by wooden boats
brought to the house, neighbors, local market
ketika tanah-air dibongkar,
diangkut tongkang-tongkang besi
dibawa entah ke belahan dunia mana
sementara durian jatuh, atau dipetik,
diangkut perahu-perahu kayu
dibawa desa dan pasar lokal..
When digging and transporting Tanah-air,
need iron boxes
that can run fast
while cooking for adopted child rituals,
need field rice, coconut milk, brown sugar, and yeast
that can soften and ferment.
Ketika membongkar dan mengangkut tanah-air,
membutuhkan kotak-kotak besi,
yang bisa berjalan cepat
Sementara memasak untuk ritual anak angkat,
membutuhkan beras ladang, santan, gula merah dan ragi
yang bisa melunakkan, memfermentasi
A space of care
Seperti melakukan perjalan, benih padi akan berlayar melintasi sungai, bermain bersama bunga dirang merah kuning. Orang-orang menunggu dia pulang, pun burung tecirot – si dokter ladang. Sang padi Pulang, bergembira, disambut orang sekampung dengan inta dibungkus daun pisang. Balian mendoa, memberi makan batu, kayu dan tanah.
Like a traveling, rice seeds sails across the Lalang River, playing with red and yellow Dirang flowers. The people are waiting for her to come home, even the tecirot bird – the rice-field doctor. The rice seeds returned home, happy, greeted by people in the village with inta wrapped in banana leaves. Balian prays, feeding the stone, wood and earth.
Kamu bayi paling beruntung di dunia. Sebelum melihat langit, orang tuamu membuat upacara, memperkenalkanmu kepada sungai, kepada Jata, penguasa dunia bawah. Sampai di rumah, kamu menerima 101 pelukan sayang, dan tiap orang di kampung diminta mengusulkan nama buatmu di atas kertas. Kertas itu lantas diundi. Keluarlah nama: Agustina Aguilera. Orang tuamu suka, sebab kau lahir di bulan Agustus.
You are the luckiest baby in the world. Before seeing the sky, your have a a ceremony to introduce you to the river, to Jata, the underworld deity. When you get home, you receive 101 loving hugs, and everyone in the village is asked to suggest a name for you on the paper. The paper was then drawn. One name come out: Agustina Aguilera. Your parents like it, because you were born in August.
Upacara adat apapun di kampung membutuhkan minuman popak.
Popak membutuhkan fermentasi.
Fermentasi membutuhkan padi, ketan, bambu, gula, kayu bakar, ilalang, dan ragi.
Semua bahan-bahan itu membutuhkan ladang, kebun karet, kebun buah, dan air dari sungai.
Di kampung, perempuan yang membuat popak
Any customary ritual in the village requires a popak beverage.
Making Popaks needs a fermentation.
Fermentation needs white rice, sticky rice, spices, sugar, firewood, weeds, and yeast.
All ingredients need the Swidden, rubber plantations, fruit orchards, forest and water from rivers.
In the village, Popak is made by women
Solidarity
Support community to reject mining in the Wawonii island Indonesia:
https://www.change.org/p/gubernur-sulawesi-tenggara-cabut-izin-tambang-di-wawonii-dan-tindak-tegas-oknum-yang-menyengsarakan-rakyat-wawonii
Stop the andesit Mining in Wadas:
https://www.change.org/p/pak-jokowi-ganjarpranowo-bupati-purworejokab-stop-rencana-tambang-batuan-andesit-di-desa-wadas-utk-bangun-bendungan-bener-savewadas
About Mai Jebing
Siti Maimunah was born in Jember, East Java. She took Soil-Agriculture as her core study in Jember University and joined the environment group that brought attention to natural resources issues. Her early career began in the year 2000 with JATAM (Mining Advocacy Network) where she has developed her knowledged about women and mining issues. Later, she became a researcher of Sajogyo Institute, focusing on Agrarian issues. She contributed to writing both articles and opinion in the national newspapers as well as online websites. To this end, she has written the following: “Indigenous People and State of Mining” (2010); Mollo, Development and Climate Change (2015); Weaving and The Guardian of Identity (2018). She completed her masters degree on politics from University of Indonesia (2016).
