Dessy

Plorentina ‘Dessy’ Elma Thyana was born in the Balai Semandang village in Indonesia on 10 December 1996. Since she was kid, Dessy has always gone to the forest with her parents to gather food, traditional medicines and attend rituals. Her love of her culture, tradition, and local wisdom is what led to her and her family founding the Yayasa Arus Kualan (the customary School Arus Kualan), where traditional knowledge and values are preserved and the new generation is connected to the elders to learn about Dayak traditions, knowledge, music, games, food, medicine, rituals, and language. The Yayasan Arus Kualan also facilitates the Dayak youth in literacy classes and encourages them to make a documentary film to record the local stories of the elders and local community.

Having already established five Arus Kualan’s in five different locations with a total of 149 students, Dessy continues to involve as many people as possible in preserving the Dayak identity.

Dewi

Florentin Sry ‘Dewi’ Wulandari, the second of four children from the Dayak Simpankng tribe family, was born in Tahak on February, 24th 1999. Locally, she is known as Dewi, and her special local name is “Ragak'' which means ‘the weaving basket from the rattan.’ Put simply, she is strong and can carry a lot on her shoulders.

In 2021, she graduated cum laude with a History degree from IKIP Pontianak University. She is a writer and uses this skill to raise awareness of the stories, knowledge and wisdom of her culture and the Dayak people. She captures stories of the local community through researching, interviewing and recording. Beyond this, Dewi has contributed to academic journals, writing papers on topics ranging from “The Existence of the Millenial Dayak Generation in the Effort of Forest Conservation in Ketapang Regency’ to “The Oral Tradition of the Dayak Simpakng Community in Managing the Pandemic.’

Dewi’s degree thesis entitled “The Women’s Role in Preserving the Dayak Simpank Culture and Tradition’ received a commendation from her lecturer - she is the first person to record in writing the stories of Dayak women. Now she is helping her sister Dessy to teach at Arus Kualan, the non-formal education customary school and specifically, encourages the Dayak youth to write and record the stories of their people.

Delly

Florentini Deliana Winki or ‘Delly’, the third of four children, was born on August 16th 2001. Delly is a multi-talented Dayak artist and is currently studying tourism at university in STP TRISAKTI Jakarta, Indonesia.

Together with her sister Dessy, she started Arus Kualan, the non-formal-education customary school for the indigenous Dayak people in 2014 when she was only 13 years old. Delly has a passion for children, her culture and tradition. She plays the sapé, the traditional Dayak instrument, and also loves to dance and sing. At Arus Kualan, Delly teaches the students to write songs, play the sapé and dance to the music.

Delly is a big hit on social media: on Instagram she has 12K followers and on her Youtube channel she has 10K subscribers. She uses these mediums to introduce her culture and tradition to the world. As a Dayak Youth Ambassador, she was invited to speak at events and encourage young people to be changemakers. As an activist and educator, she also shares powerful messages through her music and songs. The songs that she wrote by herself are “Oh Inok (oh Mother), “TORUN (Forest)”, “kramat (Secret Place), “Makaseh keluarga (Thank You Family).

Discover more about the Dayak sisters work and support Arus Kualan indigenous schools: https://www.aruskualan.org/

Art of the Dayak sisters created recently for the 2022 Herstory Light Show which focused on ‘Student Power’: