SIE…

Veronika Nona, the only person who remained in the north of Mount Gai, tended and guarded the crops against the various thieves she encountered. Veronika Nona left Mount Gai in her old age. Her successor was her brother, Nong Titus, who left his sick wife, Maria, to live alone in the fields. One time, when Nong Titus returned home to see his wife, the goats in his garden were missing. He had to go around the jungle looking for his lost goat by shouting, “Sie…” as the locals would call a goat.

After eighteen years in Papua, I returned to Maumere. A few months into living in Maumere, my father, Nong Titus, moved into the garden to live. He replaced my aunt, Veronika Nona. Meanwhile, relations within the extended family changed much due to land inheritance conflicts. Relationships that were once fluid become stiff. I don’t seem to be coming home.

The oral stories of our ancestors were passed down and distorted by some individuals in the extended family simply because of ambition for material things. So that these things do not happen to our children and grandchildren, I took the initiative to archive the stories around Mount Gai, especially from the remaining older generation, fathers, and aunts. My father took me several times to visit Natar Gu (old village), north of the foot of Mount Gai. The place where our ancestors lived before, they relocated to Wodon, Nele District.

I always bring a camera to record when I go to the garden. Someday, on June 3, 2023, around 7 AM, my father and I went to the garden. We stopped to move our four goats that my father tied up near one of our residents before going to our house in Koja Manunai. We were shocked because we found three goats were missing. We have only one goat left to slaughter for an event at home. We searched for about an hour in the valley area. It is not far from the garden where the father tied the goats. We did not find the missing goats. We went to the house in Koja Manunai, put down our luggage, and then continued looking for goats.

We looked for goats for about four hours, passing through two valleys and hills. We were tired and decided to go home to Koja Manunai. I saw my father silent all the time. I thought that he was thinking about something. Maybe he feels lost when herding goats. He feels lost the goat more than I thought when we recall previous theft experiences. Since ancient times, the area north of Mount Gai has been prone to theft, such as garden produce and pets. The strict application of customary law does not stop thieves or potential thieves from carrying out their actions. We were lucky when Father managed to find a goat in the afternoon.

I retell these experiences through this film by looking at broader issues. The view of living together through local wisdom seems to have been abandoned and lost at the same time our ancestors left Natar Gu. Relations in society began to become stiff and chaotic. People live for themselves. Conflicts over inherited lands and theft are examples of a society that is in chaos due to the loss of values as a guide to life together. I reflect on these problems as colonialism’s impact, which uprooted society from its roots. I believe that the collective community of reason grows again if everyone abandons ambition and the will to power and sees that in others the responsibility to do good. As my father once did, he gave one of his gardens to be cultivated by thieves.