Denias and the different peoples of Indonesia

Denias: A Song from the Clouds is a movie about a boy from a village in Papua, the part of New Guinea controlled by Indonesia, who wants to go to school and study. But his mother gets sick and dies not to mention he is low ranking in the tribe compared to the school bully Noel, the chief's son.


The interesting thing about the movie was its capturing of the many racial and cultural groups that make up Indonesia. Not withstanding that some of the areas under Indonesian control such as Papua are contested. Papua is the farthest you can get from the island of Java, the center of the government. Here is a map of the main areas:




The main ethnic group in Java and Sumatra are the Malay, an Austronesian people that are predominantly Muslim. (They also inhabit Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) Subgroups include Sundanese and Javanese. They are supposed to have orginally emigrated from Taiwan and southern China. Since the original native Taiwanese language shows similarities with Malay whose official form in Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, a different form of which is spoken in Malaysia.






Another important group concentrated in Sumatra, Java, and outlying islands are the ethnic Chinese who are predominantly Buddhist, Confucianist, and Protestant or Catholic. They have a major role in the country's business and commerce are are resented by the native Malay population which has given rise to clashes and riots as recent as 1998. Yet many are not purely Chinese but had intermarried with the native population during more stable times. Fortunately, many anti-Chinese laws have been lifted restricting the use of the Chinese language and Chinese names. Therefore many Chinese Indonesians have Indonesian names in addition to a Chinese name that is carried on orally but never written down. Unlike their parents and grandparents many in their 20's and 30's do not know any Chinese but speak Indonesian. This situation should change somewhat with the new laws. Aside from Indonesia other overseas Chinese communities range across Asia from Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.








Another interesting group are the inhabitants of the Island of Bali, the Balinese. While ethnically related to the people of nearby Java they have maintained many more cultural traditions from India such as a form of Hunduism. Previously Java had been home to Hundu and Buddhist kingdoms which gave way to Muslim Kingdoms by the 16th century spreading from Sumatra via trade. Many people sought refuge in Bali and preserved these earlier traditions.






Denias and the people of his village in Papua are darker skinned with curly hair, features which made a Spanish captain christen the island as New Guinea for Guinea in Africa. By all accounts they are not African but have more similarity to Australian Aborigines.