Wayfinders Circle Decolonizing Storytelling: The Value of Indigenous Perspectives. An Interview With Kynan Tegar

Growing up in and around the forested village of Sungai Utik and learning from the elders, Kynan Tegar continues to tell the stories of resistance in the face of colonization taught to him. Today, as a powerful filmmaker in Borneo, Indonesia, he brings the wisdom and knowledge of his People to the big screen. 

The young film director Kynan Tegar (Dayak Iban People) discovered the power of visual storytelling to communicate Indigenous Peoples' ways of life when he picked up a camera for the first time at the age of 12. 

Today, the 19-year-old Indonesian anthropology student recently marked a significant milestone in his career. His fourth film, “Indai, Apai, Darah” (Mother, Father and Blood), premiered at the prestigious Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colo., in the U.S. The public warmly welcomed the film at the event, often referring to the sophisticated craft of filmmaking and the power and importance of the story.  

The film's next screen in the U.S. will happen on August 2nd during the Blackstar Film Festival 2024. 

“There's a lot of value in being able to tell a story from our own perspective as Indigenous Peoples,” Kynan says. “It's part of the project of decolonization. It's part of that project towards ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 

In this interview, Kynan reflects on the role of storytelling in advocating for Indigenous rights, the filmmaking process involving local communities, the representation of Indigenous Peoples in media, and the importance of having Indigenous Peoples tell their stories from their own perspectives.  

Luana Polinesio: Your film takes place in the Indonesian village of Sungai Utik, where elders of the Dayak Iban People have been able to repel extractive companies and protect the surrounding forests. How did your culture impact the way you wanted to tell this story?  

Kynan Tegar: The forest was always part of my life growing up. It was something inseparable and something that we, the Dayak Iban People, hold in great regard. 

I initially wanted to portray just how there are very different ways of viewing the world and feeling things such as the forests, the trees, the waters, and everything else. During our shooting, which lasted around two months, the idea of the film itself came together with that basic premise of the land being the mother, the forest being the father, and the river being the blood. That is a very powerful message that I wanted to portray. Additionally, I wanted to explore how those things applied to people’s daily lives and how there is so much that we can learn from them. (I wanted people to contemplate things like) is that a way of seeing the world? Does it have an impact on the way people treat it? Does it have any repercussions?

Nia Tero, with Nils [Cowen, the film’s co-producer], gave me the creative freedom to tell what I wanted to tell. And so that's exactly what I did.  

Did you grow up in the community? 

I grew up half and half between the community and the district capital, which is just around an hour away from the village. I think living between those two, not distant but very different places, gives a very interesting perspective on the way that we live. The ability to compare the different ways of life definitely contributed to my perspective in being able to see the differences and also the values that are there.  

How was your community involved in the filmmaking process? 

The central theme is that this film is made by the community, by the People from the community, like me and my crew. They were all from the area surrounding our village. During the process, we consulted with everyone, the elders, the grandmas, the grandpas, and we asked them: What do you want to convey? How do you view the world? The film is shaped and molded by the community. 

In the beginning, we had a rough idea of what we wanted to achieve, but, thanks to the help of the people within the community who shared their insights with us, it devolved into so much more during the process.  

Do you have examples of how the community's involvement helped shape the film? 

For example, when I was going into it, I thought, ‘This is where I grew up; I should know it like the back of my hand.’ But when we were doing the interviews, it dawned on me that there was still a lot that I did not know. There were stories like how our elders fought for their land, the protests against those companies, and the internal struggles involved. At the time, there was a long process of negotiation and decision-making conversations within the community that I was not aware of.

On the other hand, there is also the cultural side of things, such as the omen birds, which was interesting and such a beautiful metaphor for me. [Kynan refers to how the village took the warnings of the omen birds to repel invaders]. All these signs that nature gives us in the form of omen birds and how we interpret those signs. One quote by one of the elders said that in places where there are no more trees, there is no more life. There are no more birds to tell of these omens. Nature can't speak to us anymore. It doesn't have a medium to do so. And I think that's just a beautiful metaphor for what is happening in a lot of places.  

What are your expectations for this film? 

I have a lot of hopes for the film. I think the long-term idea or goal is for it to move the needle in the conversation about Indigenous Peoples, seeing how Indigenous Peoples are not just guardians of the forest. Yes, that is one part of who we are. But to be able to see that we have our very own worldview, that we have our own ontologies, how we see the world, and how the rest of the world can have something to learn from that, moving away from a way of viewing the world that's purely materialistic. For example, see the forest not just as a piece of land with trees on it or as carbon reserves that hold a specific amount of carbon and more, but seeing it as a place where our spirits dwell, the place where our father, our mothers, and our ancestors dwelled. That very different way of seeing can help change how people view these things, and that is something that's very necessary going forward.  

The more grounded goal is to share our stories with other communities throughout Indonesia and the world. That's one aspect of filmmaking that I really love. It's just that it's a medium where people share stories. Growing up, stories were a big part of my childhood. My grandparents and my parents would tell me all of these stories of who our ancestors were, what happened, what this means, and, you know, just being able to share that story with people has its own value, giving people this new perspective, this new insight.

For example, in one of my previous films, I documented the process that our People went through to receive their customary rights. One of the goals of that film was to make more people in Indonesia aware of this process because the government's dissemination of that information is still very limited, and many Indigenous communities don't know that they can have their rights recognized. And I think that is such a shame. And it's one way that we can contribute. Ultimately, it's a film that advocates for Indigenous Peoples, advocates for our rights, our land rights, and our rights as humans.

The last and more personal goal is for people watching it to relate. In a lot of conversations regarding Indigenous Peoples, we are often seen as the others. We're often seen as these people who hold cultural knowledge, for example, or, as I said before, the guardians of the forest, but what usually escapes is the fact that we are also humans. There's a long way to go when we're talking about representation in media and about equality, and viewing Indigenous Peoples not just as others but also as fellow human beings. I think that's one thing that I want to try and push towards because that's why the film involves a lot of themes about families and grandpas and granddaughters sharing stories. I think that's the message that I want to convey: a more humane way of looking at Indigenous Peoples.  

Your films talk about Indonesia, but they bring up issues that are common to Indigenous Peoples in other parts of the world. What are your plans for the future, and do you plan to shoot in other regions as well? 

Right now, I'm in university studying anthropology. I've really learned so much and realize that there's so much left to learn. During the summer breaks, I'm currently doing a project where I go to a community not too far away from my own, still on the island of Borneo. It's a long-term project, probably going to last my entire time at university. Each break, I will spend around a month or so with them, and I want to be able to document what life is like for the people and the intricacies and nuances. One aspect that I want to convey through that is how similar all of us humans are, but I also want to showcase the differences and what we can learn from those differences.

That is my passion project for the moment. But, yes, in the future, after I've finished my university and after I finish that project, I do hope to be able to work in more places throughout the world, not just Indonesia but also South America, for example, or the Congo basin. Because, as you said, the stories of discrimination, the stories of tokenization, and the stories of extraction are not unique to my People. It's not unique to the People of Borneo, to the People of Indonesia. It's the same story for (Indigenous) People throughout the world, and there is a lot of merit in trying to connect all those stories. If we can make that connection and tell it in whatever form it may be, through film or other forms of art or writing, it can be a powerful story. But, of course, that's still very far into the future.  

Do you see any connections between storytelling and your anthropological studies?  

When I was deciding whether to go to university or not, the two possible majors that I had in mind were film studies or anthropology. I decided to go for anthropology because film studies are a lot about film analysis, but it's much more about the medium than the stories, the essence, and the substance. And that's one thing that I've gotten from anthropology, the anthropological perspective, being able to see not just from our own way of viewing the world but also from other people's points of view, and seeing that there are other ways of life that are different from ours and are equally valid. That broad, open-minded perspective has really contributed to the way that I reflect on my own People or on our own way of life. 

How did anthropology change the way you think? 

When I first started making films, when I was around 13 or so, it was mainly just for fun. It was a passion project, but then it got more serious, and, at that time, I had thought my goal was to preserve culture. Now, years later, I realize that culture is something very dynamic; it's something that's ever-changing. There's a quote from one of my favorite anthropologists, David Graeber. He said that ethnographical works, archaeological evidence from the past, and all of these different accounts for different ways of life are a hidden treasure trove of knowledge and philosophical ways of life that we have so much to learn from. I remember him also saying that anthropology is a discipline that's afraid of its own potential. And I think that's very true. You know, there are a lot of very interesting ideas, to say the least, that can be explored from that perspective, and that's why it's the kind of story that I want to tell.  

What parallels do you see between the power of storytelling and the oral tradition of Indigenous Peoples of passing on their knowledge to the next generation? 

In our community, those kinds of knowledge, cultural and ecological knowledge, are always passed down through oral tradition, stories, and everyday acts. The one thing that we're facing right now is that it's becoming much harder to do this due to the changes that we have had to face. I think there are very different views on this, but it's an opportunity for us to use the new mediums that are available. Mediums like film, for example, continue those stories to continue that cultural knowledge. And to be able to tell it from our own perspective, from ourselves, is one of the things that I really stand for. A lot of people like to say that technology is a threat to culture, and I do not agree with that. It's one form, one way that we can use for our own purposes. We can use it to continue to tell our stories, for example. The important thing is for us to take back that medium and take control into our own hands to decide what we want to do with it.

And I think that's exactly it. I mean, like, right now, the way we're commuting, I'm speaking to you in English; it's not the native language of my People, that's for sure. It's like a part of the culture that's from another region. But I'm using it to be able to convey to you the stories of my People, and I think it's the same as a film, as with those kinds of media, there are new languages to tell, the stories that we have always told. I think there's a certain beauty in that.  

In your filmmaking process within your community, have you encountered situations in which you were not allowed to film due to the secrecy of the situation or other particular reasons?  

Well, in my community, there are no taboos for recording or anything like that. They are very open about filming and about telling stories. But there are other places where it's not as free. For example, there is this interesting place that I was in two weeks ago, and they have a very strong set of principles that guide their way of life. They do not allow any of the members of their community to have electronic devices. They do not wear any shoes or any footwear whatsoever. They're not allowed to take transportation or vehicles. We can see it as a direct refusal of what we call modern life. There are sacred places where you're not allowed to bring technological devices like phones, cameras, or laptops. And I think in that situation, it always has to be a decision that's made based on the consideration of the people there. That's my main guiding principle.  

What are the contributions or solutions that Indigenous Peoples can bring to the battle against climate change? 

I'm sure you've already heard a lot of the points saying that Indigenous Peoples are the best stewards of the land. From my storytelling perspective, I think storytelling is a beautiful medium we can use for change. It's able to move people in very different ways. It can give people novel ideas to provide new perspectives on things. And the hope is for people to take those new ideas and be able to apply them in specific spaces.  

As I said before, the idea of viewing trees and forests not just as a carbon capture (mechanism), for example, feeding them something that's much more sacred. Speaking very idealistically, if we're able to shift forward from a paradigm that fantasizes exponential growth and continual exploitation and move towards an economy that's based on respect for our living world or to human rights-based economies, that's the kind of change that we want. And if we're able to do that, there is massive potential for change. I think the role of Indigenous Peoples, in general, is to be able to safeguard the existing bastions of forests, coral reefs, and nature and to be able to manage them. The next step forward from that is how to deal with what we've already lost. In that context, there are a lot of Indigenous ways of living and a lot of Indigenous knowledge on how to manage the forest that we can take a page from and apply in those contexts.  

The third point is the point of structural change, and I hope that this new perspective, the sole truth storytelling, can be able to nudge toward that structural change that really needs to happen.  

Do you have a final message for the readers?  

The way that we view Indigenous Peoples is still very skewed, and there are a lot of colonial marks left in that way of viewing Indigenous Peoples. There are a lot of terrible stereotypes; tokenization is still a thing. There's a lot of value in being able to tell a story from our own perspective as Indigenous Peoples. It's part of the project of decolonization. It's part of that project towards ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples, every Peoples in the world, their own lives, and being able to determine their own direction. 

*Sungai Utik is a member of the Wayfinders Circle, an alliance of 15 Indigenous Peoples from around the world standing at the frontlines of guardianship. They protect their lands, waters, and territories, guided by ancestral knowledge transmitted from one generation to the next. 

The Wayfinders Circle is convened by Nia Tero (@NiaTero), Pawanka Fund (@PawankaFund), and the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners (WUISP). 

**This interview has been edited and condensed.