My name is Windi Dwi Safitri. I am from Murung Raya district and belong to the Dayak Bakumpai ethnic group. My people live alongside the Barito river, from Marabahan to Puruk Cahu city. My village is located in Laung Tuhup.
My land is very rich with natural resources, especially timber, gold and coal. Murung Raya still has plenty of virgin forests. However, when more people from outside came to our land and this place was established as a new regency fifteen years ago, there was a drastic change in my village. The culture and traditions slowly disappear, replaced by religious practices and modern life. Badewa and Manyanggar Lebu are two of the most important rituals in our culture, but I myself never see it directly with my own eyes. I only hear the stories from my grandmother.
Somehow, what I see right now with my own eyes is no longer a beautiful forest and a happy community celebrating the culture just like what my granny tells me. I see trees being cut down. I see giant holes of coal mining. I see a river with yellow color as it is polluted by mercury from gold mining. Floods happen every year, as well as forest fires.
I do not know since when things go wrong. Maybe since we’re exposed to modernism. Maybe since many extractive companies invade our forests. Maybe since our parents strive for our daily need and education costs, they start to forget to pass the tradition to us. But it should not be like this.
Right now, I am studying at university. Most people tell me to study well, graduate, find a job and live a settled life. How can I live a life while seeing the destruction in my homeland? How can I be happy? How can I be sure that in the next twenty years we still have trees to give us oxygen, rivers to give us fish, soil to give us crops?
I wish to do something. I just started, now I want to do more. I need to protect all this precious treasure in my homeland, Murung Raya, Kalimantan.
Will you stand with me?
