Kerabat Lama
2024 | Muara Gembong, Indonesia
Kerabat Lama” is an immersion workshop that aims to bring in contemporary ethnographic experiments–collaborative, transdisciplinary, multimodal, and multispecies–to elementary students. The phrase Kerabat Lama is an indirect translation for “nonhuman kin” who has been living alongside humans and even considered as relatives. Also in Indonesian language, “kera” means “simian” - the focal species in Muara Gembong.
Collaborators: Sugeng Purnomo, Daman, Eka Akurasi Envitama, pppooolll, Rakarsa Foundation
Funded by Goethe Institut Indonesia
Image credits Haris Nirwana
\We invited elementary students of SDN 2 Pantai Bakti, located roughly an hour away from the mangrove forest to join an observation of the forest's biodiversity. It was unknown to the students that there were wild animals in the forest, and the information sparked curiosity for them to observe and record their surroundings.
Often times, observation is about luck. Unfortunately, no primate was in sight that day. However, we also introduced another way of inquiring. We asked primate researcher Sugeng and local primate caretaker Daman to describe the appearance and characteristics of the animals in the forest, whose forms the students had to speculate through making drawings.
The final activity of the workshop was collecting natural pigments from surrounding plants and soil to make a collaborative drawing about the activity's reflection. When they were asked what kind of mangrove forest they wish to draw, they answered, "a lush one".
