Rewilding my soul in the heart of Borneo
For International Women's Day 2022, Herstory Founder Melanie Lynch writes about her voyage into the wilderness of the Borneo rainforests to rewild her soul and immerse in the local indigenous Dayak culture. This article was first published on RTÉ Culture, Ireland’s national broadcaster.
Delly is a renowned sapé player in Borneo. Photo by David Metcalf
The moment when Eve took a bite from the forbidden fruit wasn’t the fall of mankind. It was the delusional Old Testament notion that man should have dominion over nature and all living things.
I journeyed into the heart of Borneo to listen and learn from the culture and wisdom of the Dayak tribe, guardians of the Borneo rainforest, who have lived sustainably and in harmony with nature for millennia. Nicknamed the Little Amazon, the Borneo rainforest is 140 million years old and one of the original biodiversity hotspots. I came to remember our original humanity and in the enchanting words of philosopher and naturalist John Moriarty, to relearn how to 'walk beautifully on the Earth again’. Sometimes you have to get lost in the wilderness to find yourself and the truth. So I decided to rewild myself in a jungle that was too wild for the Dutch to colonise.
“What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea.”
In an era of global environmental crisis, the indigenous peoples have much hope and wisdom to share. Indigenous people are 5% of the world's population but they are guardians of 80% of the world’s biodiversity. In Indonesia there are 70 million indigenous people from over 1000 tribes living across 17,508 islands in the world’s largest archipelago. The imperialists painted these people as primitive and inferior, propaganda to fuel their toxic agendas, justifying racism, ethnic cleansing, colonisation and world domination. Evidently the primitive peoples were in fact the colonisers who set out to abuse the Earth and destroy these sustainable, nature loving cultures. There’s nothing civilised about colonisation. As humanity finds itself at a crossroads, we need to rethink our very definition of civilisation and reimagine our relationship with nature.
That’s why I answered the call to the Borneo adventure, led by New Zealander, David Metcalf, a gifted photographer, indigenous ambassador and founder of The Togetherness Project, giving people the opportunity to experience and learn from indigenous peoples across Indonesia.
Arriving at Pontianak airport, we drove six hours through monotonous palm oil plantations and sparse pockets of surviving rainforest to the village of Tahak, where our local guide Dessy lives with her family. Dessy is a visionary Dayak youth education activist with wisdom beyond her years. At 25 years of age, she has already founded five Arus Kualan with the support of her sisters; Arus Kualan are indigenous primary schools designed to empower 149 children with the wisdom and knowledge of her tribe. A natural with all generations, Dessy is respected by the elders and adored by the children. I witnessed how she intuitively drew out the curiosity and confidence in the shyest kids.
The Arus Kualan child in traditional Dayak dress. Photo by David Metcalf
The transformation of the children who attended the indigenous school was palpable. The Arus Kualan children were confident, engaging, inquisitive and highly affectionate, freely offering hugs to newcomers. A contrast to the new villages we visited where the locals were shy, hiding behind doors to take a peep at the peculiar Westerners. Dessy has big dreams and there's no stopping her. Now she's on a mission to start the first indigenous high school in West Borneo.
On the first night, we were spoiled with expressions of Dayak culture from fifty local children from Arus Kualan who were adorned in ceremonial costumes of elaborate beads and exotic bird feathers. The traditional Dayak dance is hypnotic and soothing, inspired by the flight of the hornbill, a sacred bird in their culture. Mellifluous music flowed from their unique instruments: the sapé and kasapi. David remarked on the similarities of the Irish and Dayak people: we don’t take ourselves too seriously and have a mutual grá for music, dance and the craic.
In Bahasa, the Indonesian language, there is no past or present tense, or the cursed word ‘should’. Many Dayak homes we visited had a clock on the wall, frozen in time, without a battery. The focus is on living in the present. As if by osmosis the locals helped us to find the beauty of stillness and joy in the present.
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
In Dayak culture, Mother Earth is sacred. They understand that we are nature and nature is us. In their philosophy they believe that nothing is good or bad in the rainforest as it was all created by the divine. The people live in tune and reverence with their environment. Dessy explains that 'nature is their school and everyone is a teacher, including the students'.
Dayak is a we culture. They are not narcissistic by nature, a refreshing change from the selfie pandemic. In a Dayak home you may find one mirror, but it is cracked and covered in dust. I didn’t see my reflection for a week. Instead my soul was mirrored and cracked open by the beaming smiles and natural warmth of these easy-going people. Dessy notes that the introduction of smartphones in some villages is making the children selfish and reluctant to share with their peers. Modernisation poses a real and rapid threat to her culture, and she navigates this challenge with great compassion and courage.
Dessy can also see the potential benefits of modernisation and how technology can be harnessed to empower her tribe. Her youngest sister Delly is a renowned sapé musician and she shares her music and culture via social media to thousands of followers across the globe.
Watch a sapé instrumental, via Deli's YouTube channel
The next day, Dessy brought us into the rainforest to witness Arus Kualan in action. On the riverbank the children formed a circle, singing songs they penned together in their native tongue. A little girl took my hand and lead me deeper into the jungle. It was time for a lesson in foraging and learning about medicinal plants. One by one the children disappeared into the thicket, reappearing with a bounty of delicious and nutritious plants for supper.
In a Dayak kitchen you won't find cupboards full of processed food. There are no poisoning pesticides, plastic packaging, preservatives or artificial colours. Food is gathered fresh from source every day. For the Dayak, sustainability and organic are not modern buzzwords. This is their ancient way of living. It’s not some utopian ideal. It is their normal and they make it look easy. I got excited about the possibilities of rethinking my food as preventative healthcare and medicine. My great-grandmother was a herbalist and my ancestors were farmers so this approach feels intuitive and natural.
“Nothing in nature lives for itself, Rivers don’t drink their own water, Trees don’t eat their own fruit, The sun doesn’t shine for itself, A flower’s fragrance is not for its own validation, Living for each other is the rule of nature.”
In mirror with the First Nations of Turtle Island (North America), the Dayak don’t take all the fruit from a tree, remembering that they share the rainforest with many other living creatures. Dessy explains the tribe’s philosophy: "Each day we take only what we need from the rainforest, not what we want." This is similar to our ancient Irish Celtic rule in harvesting nature’s bounty: Always leave enough for the 7th generation.
On the third day we hired boats and travelled four hours upstream on the Pawan River, which was swollen after an intense storm and unusually heavy rainfall attributed to deforestation and climate change. The boats contested rapids and dodged floating logs as we meandered through breathtaking original rainforest to Congkong village, where we were greeted by a welcoming community who were delighted to receive their second group of visiting foreigners. There was no WiFi or phone signal. My nervous system rejoiced. After all, I came here to switch off and reconnect with what matters.
Watch: Guardian of the Borneo rainforest - a story from the Dayak sisters
Curious about Irish culture and this peculiar woman with porcelain skin, I was coaxed into teaching fifty Dayak children how to Riverdance on the banks of the mighty Pawan River. The children are the happiest I’ve met anywhere in the world. Inclusive by nature, the little boy with special needs wasn’t ostracised. In fact he was popular with all the kids and often the centre of attention.
One evening under moonlight a shaman explained that women are equal in Dayak culture. The tribe’s leaders are voted through a time old democratic election process and the leaders can be women or men. The Dayak opt for a synarchic ‘power sharing’ model instead of the domination ‘power over’ systems that plague Western ‘civilisation.’ Dessy’s sister Dewi has recently graduated cum laude with a degree in history. She’s making herstory as the first Dayak to record the stories of women from her tribe.
A portrait of Dewi, created for Herstory by artist Brendan Atkins
On a sunrise foraging trip up the river, the young Dayak girls point to a delicious selection of wild plants growing wild in the jungle. The boat stops and the girls hop off to collect our breakfast. Elise exclaims: "This is our supermarket, and it’s all free!" We devoured the Orangutan’s favourite fruit, a mouthwatering hybrid of fig and pear. By the end of the week, my body was humming with this natural, nutrient rich food.
On a sunset expedition, Dessy pointed out more wonders of the jungle. There’s a plant that can be harvested to create natural soap and a giant tree with sap that offers an alternative biofuel. There are perks of living sustainably with nature. The Dayak balance their sustainable lifestyle with hunter-gathering and subsistence farming. Before cutting a tree to make a small clearing to sow rice, a Dayak ritual is performed first and permission is requested from the rainforest. Only when the blessing is confirmed through communication from nature do they proceed. Every action is in reverence to Mother Earth. A stark contrast to the palm oil companies and illegal loggers who have destroyed over 50% of Borneo’s rainforest.
“A savage is not the one who lives in the forest but the one who destroys it.”
I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the COVID virus attacks our lungs when humanity has been attacking the lungs of the Earth by cutting down trees and polluting the air. Nature is our mirror. We are her and she is us. I talked to an elder and he believes that the pandemic is a re-set for humanity, to reassess and change our relationship with ourselves and with the Earth. For decades we have ignored the Earth’s suffering. Finally she has our attention. How much of humanity and nature have we lost in the name of ‘progress’? What is ‘civilisation’ if it has lead us to this point?
I took a leaf from John Moriarty and un-baptised myself in the great Pawan river, washing away the Western conditioning that was blinding me from what matters.
“Everything in the natural world possessed innate value and is owed the same duty of care I granted myself and the other people I held dear. This belief that a person should love others and nature as much as they love themselves was at the very heart of Celtic philosophy.”
In the West, we are suffering from a poverty of wisdom. Trivial information clogs the airways as we continue to pollute our minds, bodies and the earth. Lost in the delusions of consumerism and egocentric definitions of success, we are asleep to our true nature. In contrast, the indigenous people live by simple, profound wisdom rooted in a deep reverence for Mother Earth.
“In the old ways in Ireland and all across the world it was understood that people were simply mirror reflections of the health of the land.”
Once upon a time, Ireland enjoyed an ancient culture and spirituality that was deeply rooted and centred in nature. In Irish mythology the King first had to marry the land and prove his sovereignty to Mother Earth before he was allowed to rule. Such was the reverence for trees in Celtic Ireland that each letter of the Ogham alphabet was named after an indigenous Irish tree. Our ancestors spoke in the language of trees and they believed trees are sentient beings, a philosophy shared by many ancient civilisations.
In the 20th century, Yeats, Moriarty, John O’ Donahue and the 1916 Rising leaders all drew wisdom from our old indigenous ways. They understood that if modern Ireland was to flourish, first we must reawaken our ancient truths.
Watch: The Dayak sisters illuminated for the 2022 Herstory Light Show in Trinity College and The GPO, Dublin
Mary Reynolds explains that ‘the Irish are a forest people without a forest and after one hundred years of Independence, there’s no excuse for failing to regrow our forests.’ In Western economics, a tree only has value and appears as GDP when it is dead and lumber timber. Evidently we need to rethink our values.
By learning from indigenous cultures and protecting the forests we can reawaken our connection to the land. If we allow Mother Earth to thrive again, humanity will also flourish from nature’s ability to rebalance and restore harmony.
Explore Dessy’s work and support Arus Kualan indigenous schools here, and find out more about David Metcalf and The Togetherness Project here.