Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2015 | Page 125

Travel | Saumlaki

123

5 Senses – Sight
PAHLAWAN
MATHILDA
BATLAYERI
A single narrow strip of tarmac runs
up the west coast from the administrative
capital of Saumlaki all the way to the
north coast.
Small boys play happily in
a Tanimbar village street.
Local guide Alaraman-Batlyare
standing proudly beside the monument
to his jungle-fighter grandmother,
Mathilda Batlayeri.

Yamdena is the bigge st
among the 60 or so Tanimbar
Islands, lying about halfway
between New Guinea
and Australia.

traditional homesteads stand like sentries
on the hilltops and, since so few cars
pass this way, smiling children ran
out to wave at us.
Although we’d left Saumlaki a bit later than
expected due to a problem with the car, it turned
out the delay made little difference; on the north
coast we finally pulled up at a dirt-track jetty
only to find that there was no way to get the
car across until high tide.
So, Fordata had eluded me. Travel among
Indonesia’s outlying islands is not always
predictable, but this is one of the attractions of
travelling in remote corners of the world’s greatest

island nation. There is often still a spirit of
adventure to be found in what at first glance
might look like the humblest of ‘expeditions’.
I had already travelled enough in the remotest
areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra to know that
it is often when Mother Nature throws you those
unexpected curveballs that you stumble across
the most intriguing places.
It didn’t happen that night in the sleepy backwater
town of Larat, however. But the next afternoon,
on our retreat southwards again, we stumbled
upon one of the gems of these islands. I realised
that if we had made it to Fordata there would
never have been time to explore the pretty
village of Sangliat Dol.
“Selamat bobo lusin!” (Good morning) – I tried my
single newly learned phrase of Yamdena on a group
of smiling men who were sitting in the shade of
a little wooden pavilion by the main square.
One of them introduced himself as Pak Herman
and, with typical Yamdena hospitality, he
immediately invited us to take some refreshments
at his home. First, however, we went to investigate
the huge stonework boat that is the traditional and
cultural centrepiece of the village. It stands high

Visit the monument to
Pahlawan Mathilda Batlayeri,
who was already a heroine in
East Kalimantan before anybody,
apart from her family, realised
that she came from Saumlaki.
She was the wife of a policeman,
and when he was separated from
his squad during a guerrilla
attack in 1953 Mathilda Batlayeri
alone refused to abandon him.
Carrying one child, leading
another and three-months
pregnant at the time,
she attacked the guerrillas.
A relief carved on the side of
the monument shows both her
children dead from bullets.
The story goes that Mathilda
was finally trapped inside a
building where the guerrillas
started the fire that killed her.
Kunjungi monumen pahlawan
Mathilda Batlayeri, yang dulunya
menjadi pahlawan di Kalimantan
Timur, sebelum seorang pun,
selain keluarganya, menyadari
bahwa sang pahlawan berasal
dari Saumlaki. Mathilda adalah
istri seorang perwira polisi.
Ketika suaminya terpisah dari
pasukannya saat diserang
pemberontak tahun 1953,
Mathilda Batlayeri tak lantas
melarikan diri dan meninggalkan
suaminya sendirian. Sambil
menggendong satu orang
anaknya dan menggandeng
anaknya yang lain, Mathilda
yang saat itu sedang hamil tiga
bulan mengangkat senjata
melawan pemberontak hingga
akhirnya terbunuh.