The River Speaks in Dreams
YEAR
2025
TYPE
Creative writing,
installation design,
storytelling
The River Speaks in Dreams is a shadow puppet performance that explores the clash of worldviews in colonial Jakarta (formerly Batavia). It contrasts the holistic wisdom of the indigenous Betawi people with the solutionist science brought by Dutch settlers. For the Betawi, rivers were sacred, and myths—like the belief in the crocodile as a powerful guardian spirit—provided a framework for living in harmony with nature’s unpredictable cycles. The Dutch, however, saw the flood-prone land as an engineering problem to be solved, imposing a system of canals to control and tame the environment, dismissing local beliefs as superstition.
The performance brings this historical tension to life through a modern fairytale. The story follows Buaya, a guardian crocodile whose capture by humans symbolizes the disruption of the sacred natural order. In response, nature retaliates through a mystical turtle, Bulus, who unleashes a great flood upon the human settlement. The resolution comes not from technological ingenuity, but from a dream. A young boy, open to the river's mystical communication, is guided to free the crocodile. This single act of empathy and respect is what restores balance and causes the waters to recede.
This narrative serves as an allegory for our modern ecological challenges. The River Speaks in Dreams does not reject science, but it critiques a mindset that ignores ancestral knowledge. By reviving a traditional storytelling form, the work argues that the wisdom found in myths and dreams is a vital form of ecological intelligence, suggesting that a true, sustainable harmony can only be achieved by synthesizing modern approaches with a deeper, more respectful way of listening to the world around us.