Indonesia

The islands

Indonesia stretches across the equator between the Indian and Pacific oceans. More than 17,000 islands lie within its borders. Sumatra and Java anchor the west. Farther east, the chain runs through Bali, Lombok and Flores. To the north lie Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, and the long peninsulas of Sulawesi. Beyond the Maluku Islands, the country reaches the western half of New Guinea.

Over Sembalun on Lombok, the first light reaches the ridges while the fields below are still in shadow. Farther east on Flores, mist gathers around the roofs of Wae Rebo. Off Wangi-Wangi in Wakatobi, walkways link Bajo homes above the water. Each island asks something different of a house and the people who live there.

The people of the islands

More than 1,300 ethnic groups call Indonesia home. Bahasa Indonesia gives people a shared language across the archipelago. At home, a conversation might unfold in Sundanese in West Java, Minangkabau in West Sumatra, or Sasak on Lombok. Across the country, people speak more than 700 languages.

One way into that diversity is through a doorway. In Pandai Sikek, the tips of a Minangkabau rumah gadang rise high above its carved walls. Near Rantepao in the Sulawesi highlands, a Toraja tongkonan has a great sweeping roof. In the Baliem Valley of Papua, the rounded thatch of Dani homes sits close to the ground. At Ke’te’ Kesu’, the roofs face each other across a lane.

A working day

In Wologai, coffee dries in the open space between houses. At Kusamba, a salt maker crosses the black sand with seawater balanced across his shoulders. On Pam Island, two women sit with a pile of coconuts, preparing them for oil. Beside the women lies the rest of the day’s work, a pile of coconuts still waiting to be opened.

In the makers’ hands

At her doorway in Kampung Naga, a woman weaves a small bamboo container for dodol, a sweet from Garut. In West Java, one pair of hands guides another around the rim of a clay pot. In Bulukumba, a boatbuilder works between the curved ribs of a wooden hull. The scale changes from a few fingers’ width to the breadth of a boat. In each frame, the hands tell you where to look.

Stone and timber

At Jaddih on Madura, straight cuts interrupt the pale face of a limestone hillside. In Lodtunduh on Bali, women gather rounded stone from a river. The materials already have different shapes before a carver picks up a tool. In Kudus, even the bolt that slides across a door is made of wood. Its edges have worn smooth where hands reach for it.

From Indonesia to Kona

A table in the LE MAIORA collection began as floorboards in an Indonesian house described as about a century old. Laid side by side again, the teak became a surface to gather around. A hand-carved limestone trough in the collection had another everyday purpose before coming to Kona. It held water. The villages and workshops in these photographs show the wider craft traditions of Indonesia. The floorboards and the trough each have their own recorded history.