After the Fire Kindle: The Portrayal of Iban Dayak Woman and Ancestral Forest in West Kalimantan

Abstract

After the Fire Kindle is a creative work based on an environmental conflict that occurred in the village of Semunying Jaya and involved Iban Dayak women as victims. The conflict burst over the burning of forests for the benefit of a private company that is developing palm oil plantations. Iban Dayak women have lost their ancestral forest and their homes as a result of palm oil plantations. Using ecofeminism as a background theory, the oppression of women and nature caused by patriarchal culture will be depicted. As a result, it portrays an oppressed Iban Dayak woman and ancestral forest in West Kalimantan. The author applies the study in After the Fire Kindle short story to allow readers will be concerned about what is happening to nature and women’s right to live in the future. Library study and interviews with Dayak women provide the author to portray the characteristics of the main character, Sylvana, and how she fights for the equality she and nature deserve from the control of men's culture. Through the characters of Sylvana, Arion, and Bakena, oppressions such as hierarchy, dualism, and domination are well depicted.