Learning From Indigenous People

Javanese in all field sites agreed that the indigeneous people were the most useful source of information about local conditions. However, in addition to difficulties in adjusting to an unfamiliar environment, settlers reported barriers in communicating with the local people, particularly during the first year of the settlement. This obstructed their initial access to accurate information. The major reasons for their difficulties were the Banjarese and Pasir people's resentment of the transmigrants, language and cultural differences, and the settlement pattern (see Chapter Nine).

South Kalimantan

In the first year of settlement, communication and interaction between the Javanese and the Banjarese, particularly in the high-tide and indirect swamps, was limited. However, since they lived in the same environment, they could not live entirely separately. In some ways, the Javanese needed the Banjarese and vice versa.

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In the indirect swamp, for example, transmigrants described how they had begun to contact and communicate with the Banjarese after their first maize harvest, about four months after settlement. At this time, many Javanese had been able to sell some of their crops to the Banjarese, particularly to those who lived along the Bari to River. Some also sold maize to Banjarese middlemen who came to their houses. Javanese who had cash had also bought their daily needs from these middlemen. Contact, communication, and interaction developed, particularly after the Javanese harvested their rice and palawija (dry crops). These economic transactions indirectly provided other benefits to the Javanese, because they used this opportunity to gather information about the locality and about swamp agriculture.

During the transmigration period, more middlemen visited more often to buy agricultural produce and supply Javanese needs. A few Banjarese established temporary stores along the secondary canal in the village, providing more opportunities for the Javanese and Banjarese to interact.

Over time, communication and the dynamic relationship began to change the negative Banjarese views of the Javanese. Transmigrants reported that the Banjarese no longer regarded them as enemies. They felt that the Banjarese began to be more open minded and more friendly. The Banjarese also began to give them, little by little, information about traditional agricultural practices.

The transmigrants gathered this information informally from the Banjarese in two different ways. First, information passed through discussions, both incidentally and intentionally, during informal meetings, such as in the xvarung,

at the market, at home or in the fields. Second, the Javanese learned by observation and by experience. They observed the Banjarese techniques, then practised these themselves with some assistance from the Banjarese. They

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learned and practised local agricultural techniques, such as how to handle and use the tajak in land preparation, how to transplant and plant rice using traditional tools, and how to make raised beds.

The Javanese also learned about other aspects of agricultural management. They learned about local rice varieties, their advantages and disadvantages in terms of their adaptation to local conditions, taste, and, importantly, rice prices. They also studied the Banjarese agricultural cycle: the appropriate time for planting seed, land preparation, transplanting and harvesting. They realised that if they did not follow this schedule, they would face greater risks of too much or too little water during rice growth, rat attack and harvest failure.

Transmigrants gained information individually or in small groups. It was then passed to others, usually neighbours and relatives, particularly during leisure time. For example, knowledge might be shared during the rest in the rice fields after lunch, over coffee in waning, or in conversation in front of the house in the evening. As a result, the information spread from local people to more of the Javanese.

In the daily-flooded swamp, most information was collected indirectly from the Banjarese through the labour market. During the first two years of settlement, while waiting for land to become available for cultivation, many Javanese worked as agricultural labourers, particularly during land preparation, transplanting and harvesting. Most worked in the Banjarese rice fields surrounding the village, such as in Tabunganen and Lupak, and in more distant Kertak Hanyar. Although the major purpose of work was to obtain cash, the Javanese labourers also incidentally learned about traditional agricultural techniques.

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East Kalimantan

By contrast, the Javanese in Bukit Village reported that they did not obtain much information from the indigenous Pasir people within and surrounding the village. They had little contact, not only because of language and cultural differences, but because of the Pasir people's reluctance to interact with them. Most claimed that the indigenous people had generally avoided contact with them, a claim admitted by some Pasir respondents.

Due to their limited contact with the indigenous people, the Javanese settlers initially gained little information from them. Fortunately, unlike in South Kalimantan, they did not immediately require indigenous techniques for rice cultivation because the transmigration staff provided information on the basic techniques of indigenous swidden cultivation based on slashing, cutting and burning. This information was sufficient for cultivation during the first three years of settlement.

The Javanese eventually gained indigenous knowledge from observation, and knowledge of local conditions by experience and experiment. They learned particularly from other Javanese transmigrants and from local East Kalimantan people from other districts who were living in the area surrounding the village. These migrants had adopted the traditional techniques and modified them to suit their own requirements.

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