Borneo is an island in Southeast Asia. It is the third-largest island on Earth. Borneo is covered with rainforests and is home to over 600 bird species. In recent decades, the number of songbirds has dropped due to deforestation and the songbird trade.
The Dayak Iban are an Indigenous people who live in Indonesian Borneo. Members of the Sungai Utik village care for a large area of rainforest and maintain customary laws to protect their “omen birds,” whose songs reverberate over the treetops. Omen birds include the white-rumped shama, scarlet-rumped trogon, and Diard’s trogon. These birds are regarded as messengers sharing omens and warnings from spirits.
“The culture of listening to omen birds is getting rare now, but we still view the birds as messengers in Sungai Utik,” says Dayak elder Hermanus Husin, 66. Omen birds are sacred species that bring messages, he says. “To protect these birds, we know that we have to protect their homes: the forests.”
The customary forest the Dayak Iban protects is nearly the size of the city of Paris. Of this forest, 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) is reserved as community protected areas. Conserving the forest is challenging and rigorous, Hermanus Husin says.
For generations, the Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik have maintained their stewardship of the land. For this, they were recognized with an Equator Prize from the United Nations Development Programme in 2019. The elders have physically defended the lush Bornean rainforest against illegal logging, oil palm plantations, and other threats since the early 1980s.
Dayak Iban filmmaker Kynan Tegar, 18, recaptured the elders’ journey to protect their homes and heritage in his recent documentary, Indai Apai Darah (“Mother Father Blood”). Kynan says he was inspired by the deep connection the elders have with their land, forest, and rivers.
Community elders make sure everyone complies strictly with the law about cutting trees. Elders model how the young generation can continue the tradition of community conservation.
The community has an Indigenous school where the elders pass on the cultural and traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and omen birds to the young generation. Kynan, the teen filmmaker, says that he hopes his film is one way to engage other young members of the community.
“There was a sense of shame in my father’s generation for being Indigenous. They had to cover up their tattoos or they would lose their jobs,” Kynan says. The tattoos worn by Dayak Iban men have many different meanings and signify the travels they’ve gone through in their lifetime. “This continual discrimination kept them from having a sense of pride for who they were, and this film was a way to connect back to our roots, reclaiming our identity.”
David Brown adapted this story for Mongabay Kids. It is based on an article by Sonam Lama Hyolmo, published on Mongabay News:
