How can modern technologies keep indigenous cultures alive

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have you ever walked inside the 140

million years old rainforest

you can hear clearly the sounds of the

given like this

and also the sounds of the hornbill

which calls you like this

you can smell the forest and feel the

fresh water being at your feet

that’s a paradise where i live that’s

kalimantan

the part of the bernie that belong to

indonesia

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do you like dance have you ever seen a

unique dance like this where you put

one kg of the bracelet on both of your

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hands

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that’s a traditional dance of my tribe

the dayak

dance which called dadas

so then seriously wear a beautiful

costumes

and also beautiful crown made from

coconut leaves and sometimes decorated

with the bird feathers

and there is a singing like this

imagine you wake up in the morning and

there is a coffee

and traditional cake made with love by

the lady of the house

you can feel the kindness and the worms

or the people that welcome you in their

village

you don’t need to worry about what you

are going to eat every day

because there will be people that will

give you fruits

fish and vegetables that’s the

experience that you will have

when you meet my people the direct

people the first people of the land

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i have been always a proud diet but not

before my 17th birthday

as a common young teenager who was

struggling and trying

to find many ways that i fit i had to

deal with the most what indigenous

people should face

discrimination misconception and stigma

i still remember those old days when i

was in high school

whenever i start to talk in my mother

tongue saying great things like

and then the other students would say to

me your alien language

start to interfere and you know this

such a thing

i continue to experience that till i

grew up as an adult

for example whenever i get in the taxi

in a big city like jakarta

and then the driver will start the

conversation

they will ask where do you come from

and then when they heard me that i come

from kalimantan

they will ask this kind of question is

it true your people still eat human

flesh

and is it true that your people still

wear

dark skin as the clothes

of course the blame should not be fully

on me

in this modern age we always classify

people into the frame that we already

prepared

but in society and in our own mind we

tend to think the people that live in

the city

are well educated and those who live in

the villages are less educated

and you know we believe that people who

wear

fancy clothes and then carrying branded

bags

are rich people and those who wear

maybe bark skin as a clothes and also

carrying the traditional

wave basket as the poor people

we believe that someone who holds the

electronic stuff like this as a modern

one

and maybe someone who wrapped the

traditional swords like mandal

around his waist as the primitive one

it is real that most people in the world

think that the modernism

and custom traditions are the opposite

to each other

and people often don’t believe when i

say i am a diet

because i wear jeans dye my hair and

put some makeup on my face and there is

a belief

that the indigenous person should stay

in the forest

forever that’s a big misconception

of the definitions of indigenous people

and the traditional way of love

and yes that first 17 years of my life

was wasted

i always wonder why i have to be born in

kalimantan

as an indigenous diet guru

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all the excellencies and distinguished

guests from all across the world

my name is emmanuel shinta a woman from

diet mine and tribe

with the expansions of modern technology

standing your ground as an indigenous

become more and more challenging

many works are done in indigenous

communities territorial under the name

of development

and you know 15 years ago there was no

phone signal in my village

so if you wanted to send a message to

someone

you needed to climb the tree and trying

to find the signal like this

but nowadays with the technology you can

live in the most remote area and still

able to contact people in reality

young people are more interested in

checking their instagram status

rather than sitting on a wooden chair

listening to the fox stories from their

grandma

i was scared and i was afraid of the

future

what if one day we are forgotten

what if one day people no more recognize

the modern technology considered as a

poison

that drift us away from who we are and

where we are from

my imagination gets worse when our

presidents announced that we are now in

the season of industrial revolution 4.0

and those who are not able to adapt will

not survive

crazy things keep happening around me

and my community

more violations on the indigenous rights

more palm oil mining and loading

expansion

more trees being cut down and more

rivers

being polluted more forest fires

more flood more displacement

and more conflicts it’s

hard to be a proud diet when the world

seems against you and your people

all these things fractured at me and

made me feel hopeless

yet i realize my biggest mistake

is not in questioning life but in

ignoring it

after years of struggling i finally

learned that we cannot ever change the

reality

but we can change the way how we

associate with that

modern technology can never replace an

indigenous wisdom

but it can be used as a tool to enhance

our fight

in defending our rights protecting the

natures and preserving the culture

that’s how my journey began

cheers

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i started making films and together with

my team

we record the stories from the

indigenous people

we document every single traditional and

sustainable way of the diet living

system

and we also record and captures

the wisdoms and the teachings from our

elders

about life about nature

and use it to educate not only young

people in our community

but also our people outside kalimantan

and we bring the voices from the ground

up to the surface

to advocate for the policy making of the

land management

camera laptop and internet have become

my new routines

in the simple way i would say we make

use of our knowledge and skills

that we obtain from schools and the

exposure to modern life

to protect what we have to protect and

that’s the very moment

when the narrative start to change for

until now we are still doing the work

and making impact

and i’m so happy that the world started

to recognize borneo

and i’m so grateful that people around

the globe start to pay attention to

their consumption

after they watch our videos about

environmental disasters are caused by

the companies

and i’m also so excited seeing little

children

you know they learn about their mother

tongue and listen to the wisdom of the

elders

while watching youtube and i’m

in total hours seeing young people are

not ashamed of their identity anymore

they are proudly saying i am a diet

and i often love whenever i hear someone

say

like poor me i never know that kalimatan

and

people have such beautiful cultures

and it’s really satisfying to hear all

of these things

but the most important thing is this

what you think against you may be

actually for you

and your opposition actually can be

offered

the indigenous cultures are never being

overcome by the modern technology

instead it is being enhanced when being

used

by the right hands in the right way and

the right moment

this is our meeting point the indigenous

and non-indigenous those who were born

with the privilege

and without privilege you and me

because the true winner is not the one

who overthrow the enemy

but the one who exit embrace and despite

all the differences commit to walk

together

and walk together toward the victory

thank you

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