A lone Dayak village in Borneo surrounded by palm oil plantations has held out for 14 years and resisted
corporate infiltration by global palm oil giants. My name is Dr Setia Budhi, I am a Dayak ethnographer and human rights advocate. I visited this village recently to see how they were going.
Tag Archives: Dayak
Mel Lumby: The beautiful begonias of Borneo and beyond deserve our love and protection
Begonias, along with orangutans and many other rainforest inhabitants are in danger now. Will these precious jewels of the jungle be located by scientists, described, eventually named and shared, so that people can love and marvel at their incredible beauty? Or will the bulldozer get there first, destroying where they live, making way to plant oil palm plantations for cheap palm oil? Retired horticulturalist and animal advocate Mel Lumby will keep fighting for as long as she lives.
The Orangutan with the golden hair: A short story by Setia Budhi @setiabudhi18
He’s a golden haired orangutan, at least that’s what the villagers called him…. He is a male of the species of Pongo pygmaeus. This orangutan appears all the time on the slopes of the Müller Mountains, located 10,000 meters from the Mantikip Dayak village in the lush green heart of Borneo. News spreads rapidly throughoutContinue reading “The Orangutan with the golden hair: A short story by Setia Budhi @setiabudhi18”
Dayak Indigenous Ethnographer Dr Setia Budhi: In His Own Words
Dr Setia Budhi is a senior lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology at Universitas Lambung Mangkurat. He is an indigenous advocate, forest conservationist and a research specialist in Dayak ethnography in South, Central and East Kalimantan. He completed his PhD in 2010 at UKM Malaysia under the supervision of Prof. Awang Hasmadi Awang Moeis and Prof. Aishah Bt Mohamed. He now serves as Head of the Sociology Department and a member of the Indonesian Anthropology Association of South Kalimantan-Indonesia.
His research relates to the Dayak people and impact of socio-cultural changes, exploitation of natural resources and modernisation on their lives. In particular, he investigates how the depletion of the forest affects the availability of food sources for Indigenous Dayak peoples.
Palm Oil Detectives 