Unity through art: Children of the Anak Dalam or Suku Anak Dalam (SAD) nomadic tribe pose with their artwork with children from the SAD3805G7 expedition team. The team conducted a charity tour to support the education of SAD children.

Roaming along the trans-Sumatra route, the Anak Dalam or Suku Anak Dalam (SAD) nomadic tribe lives in forestland and amid oil palm or rubber estates in Jambi and West Sumatra. There was no access to education for the tribe’s children until a group arrived to bring change.

Wearing a yarn necklace around her neck with a black cloth talisman against evil, 3-year-old Fatiha wore no blouse when she drew pictures with friends.

“I’m drawing the plantations and sudung [tribal cabin],” she said briefly while eating and sketching with color pencils, depicting oil palms with their leaves and fruit and the cabin where she lives amid the vegetation.

It seems that the girl was trying to portray reality.

Jon, her older brother, was also there.

He claimed to have been a third grader when he dropped out of school because his group had to move.

“I learned to read and do arithmetic,” said Jon from the SAD group in Kungkai Seberang village, West Bangko district, Merangin regency, Jambi

The young boy realizes the importance of schooling, but the tribe’s nomadic lifestyle prevents him from attending school.

The main reason for SAD people’s nomadic lifestyle is the requirement to melangun, which means wander or roam. Handed down from generation to generation, melangun prompts the member of the SAD tribe to move from their sudung location to another when somebody dies. In their belief, the demise indicates that the place is no longer safe, at least until several years later when they are allowed to return.

This tradition of moving around has put the education of SAD children at stake, as they cannot attend school regularly like other children.

But one expedition team has come to the rescue, giving hope to SAD’s younger generation to gain an education.

This team is called SAD3805G7 Expedition, a family expedition team conducting a charity tour to support the education of SAD children. The team began the journey by climbing Mount Kerinci, Lake Gunung Tujuh (the Seven Mountain Lake), both located in Sumatra and wrapping it up with staying with the SAD group in Marangin regency.

During the visit to Jon’s tribe, the team asked the SAD children to draw.  The team will sell the drawings of Fatiha, Jon and their friends and hand over the proceeds to an institution handling the education of the Anak Dalam community.

The expedition team comprises a man and wife and their two children from Aceh. One of the children, 9-year-old Azzura Anandaffa, said he was happy to help SAD children.

“I’m lucky to go to school, but these friends don’t,” he said, looking at SAD children who were busy drawing.

While drawing, Jon said his group would be moving again shortly, this time because the plantation owners had begun to show displeasure at their occupancy of the estate. Thus, the SAD group of 12 families, including Jon’s, has to search for a new location as their dwelling place. The relocation means the SAD children will have to leave their current schools despite doubts that they will find a new school at the new place.

Despite the uncertain future, the SAD children still smiled when interacting with the children of the expedition team.

Zura and his younger brother, Arung, 6, taught the SAD children a popular children’s song and showed them how to make accompanying gestures, which received an enthusiastic response before they played in small ditches near the oil palm estate.

Group leader Tumenggung Bujang Dong said many outsiders had visited the village and made various promises.

“Some promised to build houses and others schools and whatever,” he noted. But they didn’t return after taking photos, making the group less inclined to receive strangers.

“But Pak Haris is serious. He helps children learn to read and write,” he said, referring to Haris Munandar, a SAD educational volunteer from Pundi Sumatra Institute.

Haris and his team of volunteers have been teaching local children for almost a year to make them literate.

It was a tough job at first because of Anak Dalam people’s distrust.

“Their trust became our major asset. It wasn’t easy to nurture confidence among them as they were frequently deceived by visitors,” Haris pointed out.

 Haris described SAD people as widely spread around the Jambi, West Sumatra and South Sumatra borders.

The areas are connected by the conservation zones of the Bukit Dua Belas and Kerinci Seblat national parks, which play a significant role in SAD’s survival.

Quite a lot of SAD members also live along the of trans-Sumatra highway.

Pundi Sumatra, continued Haris, recorded at least 1,500 families scattered along the trans-Sumatra route, wandering with no definite destination. The nomads cover the regencies of Sarolangun, Merangin and Bungo in Jambi and Dharmasraya regency in West Sumatra.

“The Tumenggung Bujang Dong group is one of those being marginalized. We’re now providing guidance for at least eight groups consisting of no fewer than 200 families,” Haris revealed.

Meanwhile, Jon and Fatiha finished their painting and displayed the pictures they had all drawn together. They both hoped their artwork would sell well so that their peers would get school equipment and access to an education.   

 — All photos by Syafrizaldi

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