Yayasan Suara Rimba Nusantara joined Sakaraska Festival 2026!

Samarinda, Indonesia – Yayasan Suara Rimba Nusantara was invited to participate on February 16th in the 2026 Sakaraska Festival in Samarinda. Sakaraska is an acronym for “Sampan Karsa Alumni AS-Kalimantan,” which draws on the cultural importance of rivers across Kalimantan and translates roughly to: “The determined boat of USA-Kalimantan alumni.” This event celebrated 250 years of innovation, security, and entrepreneurship in America and how alumni across Indonesia’s archipelago have strengthened community engagement in their country. 

The event, held at Temindung Creative Hub, brought together activists, scholars, musicians, government officials, entrepreneurs, and students to share knowledge, experience, and creative outputs through presentations, performances, and display booths. Our team, including colleagues from the Department of Forestry and Tropical Environment of Universitas Mulawarman (UNMUL) and a long-time community partner from Mentawir village, led a 90-minute presentation to celebrate Kalimantan’s biocultural diversity and its incredible soundscapes and share about our diverse transdisciplinary research, education, and outreach efforts across East and Central Kalimantan. 

Wendy Erb opened the event with a crash course in bioacoustics and how we can use sound to study and protect the natural world as well as reinforce human-nature connection. She introduced the audience to the Bioacoustics Equipment and Training (BEAT) program she co-leads to support teams in Malaysia and Indonesia to pursue impactful conservation work. Rustam and Alan Keba then showcased the ongoing efforts of Kelompok Penelitian Orangutan Kutai (KEPO Kutai) to study orangutan behavior and ecology in Kutai National Park through bioacoustics and other methods. 

Walker DePuy and Lamale, a community leader from Mentawir village, provided a glimpse into an ongoing transdisciplinary research program with Nusantara communities and their educational and artistic collaborations. To help give a better sense of this work for the audience, they ended by screening a short documentary the research team made called “Menjaga Warisan Suara” or “Preserving Acoustic Heritage.” This film shares the story of a children's book that celebrates Nusantara's wildlife and biocultural heritage and an interactive, multimedia educational program co-developed for elementary school children in Pemaluan and Mentawir. 

Choiriatun Nur Annisa, a social scientist from UNMUL, followed this with a reflection on the collaborative international online class she co-led with Emi Purwanti, a social science colleague from UNMUL, Shorna Allred, a social scientist from the University of North Carolina, (UNC) Walker, Wendy,, and Rustam in Spring 2024. This class brought together students from UNMUL’s forest community sociology course and UNC’s global environmental justice seminar to both unpack Nusantara as a case study of environmental justice and advance a novel model of cross-cultural models of pedagogy.

Nova Devriance closed our team’s presentation at Sakaraska by introducing Yayasan Suara Rimba Nusantara to the audience and highlighting a range of its partnerships with scientific, artistic, and youth communities. Her talk culminated in a celebration of the first Festival Suara Rimba that was held in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, in January 2026, with a screening of another short documentary called “Festival Suara Rimba: A Harmony of Science, Culture and Community.” This film highlights the importance of listening to each other and the wider world and showcased an extraordinary range of creative partnerships from artists, scientists, students, and local communities, and their diverse creations from interpretive dance to an epic puppet show.

Throughout Sakaraska Festival, our work was supported by local UNMUL students who hosted an interactive booth where they shared knowledge and experiences about the team’s research, education, and outreach activities and outputs. In the end, we are incredibly grateful to have received the invitation to participate. This event provided an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate collaborations between American and Indonesian scientists, practitioners, and community members and create new connections across participants to better understand Kalimantan’s biocultural diversity and its sounds.

For more information about this event and our wider work, please feel free to reach out to walker.depuy@suararimba.org or check out the links below from various organizations and news outlets:

1. Jejaring Alumni AS Bangun Ruang Inovasi dan Ekonomi Kreatif di Samarinda - Tribunkaltim.co
2. Perayaan 250 Tahun Inovasi AS di Samarinda, Alumni AS-Kalimantan Luncurkan Platform Digital LMS | Fakta Kalbar
3. Sakaraska Festival 2026 di Samarinda Merayakan Kolaborasi Inovasi Amerika-Kalimantan 
4. Sakaraska Festival 2026 Samarinda: 300 Pengunjung Rayakan 250 Tahun Inovasi Amerika Serikat |
5. Sakaraska Festival 2026 di Samarinda Perkuat Jejaring Alumni AS Kalimantan
6. SAKARASKA Fest 2026 Rayakan 250 Tahun Inovasi Amerika Serikat di Samarinda 
7. Rayakan 250 Tahun Inovasi AS, Sakaraska Festival 2026 Tegaskan Peran Alumni Bangun Kaltim - Ruang Borneo News 
8. SAKARASKA FEST 2026: MERAYAKAN 250 TAHUN INOVASI AMERIKA SERIKAT DI KALIMANTAN TIMUR!