Get to Know this Space
When you arrive at Huma Inay, you reach a house in Central Borneo. A home rising above living peatland that holds water, memory, and life.
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This place is built to wander through, to wonder in, to weave stories together.
It is a “fluid” space: porous, alive, unstructured, and resonant with ancestral pathways.
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Since its quiet beginnings, Huma Inay has already welcomed:
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chefs, media, food travellers and a famous Indonesian content creator exploring Dayak foods and local flavors
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Bornean musicians performing under the stilts and inside the house
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local and international artists sharing their work and performed
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Scientists, researchers, both local and international gathering talking about communities, peatland and forests
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friends, mothers, elders, children, each leaving footprints of curiosity
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Huma Inay became what it was always meant to be: a community hub, a sanctuary of imagination, culture, and gathering.
From a Dream House to a Collective Space
On February 2021, I designed and built a Dayak inspired long house on stilts, pouring my heart, energy, and every resource I had into it. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about anything except completing it. Last year and a couple months ago, I almost gave up and thought about selling, but everyone who visited kept asking, “Why?” They reminded me of something I lost sight of: the house is incredibly special, with a design and atmosphere that’s hard to find anywhere else.
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I’ve tried to think of ways to use the space, from making it a homestay to renting it out. But the truth is, while I’m good at imagining possibilities, I’m not naturally skilled in business or monetising ideas. What I am good at is creating, dreaming, and building things that connect people.
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Creativity has always been a core part of my life. I’ve consistently supported local artists and musicians, using my home as a space where they can perform DJ sets, host a small theatre performance, experiment, and express themselves freely. I’ve also been learning from and engaging with an Indonesian painting maestro, and now undertaking a painting collaboration together with the Women Empowering Women Collective's crew at Huma Inay as part of a bioacoustic outreach project: communicating science through art. Looking ahead, we’re preparing an event at Huma Inay in collaboration with local DJs—an immersive experience that explores Dayak food, soundscapes, and a fusion of traditional Dayak music with electronic beats, titled ‘From Kitchen to Dance Floor’. We’re also planning a women-led art exhibition dedicated to showcasing the work and voices of women artists.
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All these experiences shaped my vision for what this house could become.
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I want to transform it into a shared space—a collective and a hub—especially for women to gather, exchange ideas, create together, and feel completely comfortable without judgment. A place where women can feel supported, confident, and seen. A place where creative minds can explore their ideas in their own ways.
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I also want this to be a space where neurodivergent people can simply exist without masking, where they are understood and accepted. As someone who is neurodivergent myself, I know deeply what it feels like to navigate life differently, carrying both internal struggles and external expectations.
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So yes—this is my “crazy idea”: to turn my home into a communal, creative, women-led hub that brings together social enterprise, inclusive community organising, and environmental sustainability. I want Huma Inay to model sustainable living, while the collective becomes a rare, inclusive space that values human connection, mental health, and wellbeing.
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My hope is for Huma Inay to grow into an alternative knowledge hub and creative haven in Palangka Raya—where art, culture, nature, and community meet in meaningful and transformative ways.
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I want to thank everyone, especially my Women Empowering Women Collective crew, who has supported me, walked beside me through this journey, and believed in my wild, dreamy ideas. Your presence and encouragement mean more than I can express.
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A very special thank you to A/Prof. Maher from Copenhagen Business School and University of Auckland, who quite literally appeared out of the blue, booking my house on Airbnb as my very first guest. From the moment she arrived, she gravitated to this place with such genuine care and generosity. She shared her knowledge freely, helped facilitate the Women Empowering Women Collective, and guided me through this seed fundraising process. Her belief in this vision made me feel seen and confident that this dream can truly come to life.
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​I also want to acknowledge how lucky I am to have open minded parents who trusted my seemingly random, brave, and winding journey. Their belief in me, through all the unconventional choices, has shaped the person I am today.
Why I Need Support
Huma Inay has grown, but sustaining it requires resources beyond what I currently have.
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A relaxed evening visit and thoughtful discussion with colleagues and friends from CSIRO Australia and local organisations (May 2025).
Every contribution, large or small, strengthens this living, breathing creative home.
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Your contribution will help me–and all of us as women–continue building this space for learning, healing, and creative collaboration.
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Build the Women Empowering Women Collective. A network for women in Central Kalimantan to learn, lead, create, and support one another: the first of its kind in Palangka Raya.
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Sustain the infrastructure. A livelihood for me and the core team so the house can remain open, active, and welcoming for another year.
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Maintain the land and native trees. Nurturing our peatland garden and ecological restoration efforts.
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Upgrade rooms and gathering spaces. Making Huma Inay suitable for workshops, small residencies, and community programs.
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Provide workspace for local artists, women, and researchers. Offering a place to create, rest, think, and collaborate.
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Document and celebrate Dayak arts, foods, music, and knowledge. Through events, recordings, publications, and gatherings.
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Host free or low-cost stays for people doing meaningful work. Because good ideas shouldn’t be blocked by money.
Our Story
Every website has a story, and your visitors want to hear yours. This space is a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are, what your team does, and what your site has to offer. Double click on the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want site visitors to know.
If you’re a business, talk about how you started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers, and how you stand out from the crowd. Add a photo, gallery, or video for even more engagement.
Huma Inay is my life’s weaving. The idea for Huma Inay Space is a vision shaped by every place I have lived, every community I have served, every elder who has guided me, every friend and colleague who has urged me to start an organisation and create opportunities for work and livelihood, and every woman who has ever told me, “You must keep going.”​
This space is not just a building. It is a Dayak-rooted, women-led, culturally grounded, creatively inclusive, environmentally conscious collective space, one that is a rare gem in Central Kalimantan.
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A home for the Women Empowering Women Collective
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A hub for community dialogue, learning, and creativity
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A space for environmental culture, knowledge-sharing, and planetary health
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A place where women can gather, build skills, and be supported
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A center that welcomes all backgrounds, all ages, and all experiences
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I designed and supervised the construction of the house myself, slowly, step by step. It is almost ready, but it is not yet transformed into the living collective space it is meant to be.The first floor will become our office, our grounding point.The space beneath the stilts will become an open, multifunctional area—a gathering place, a workshop space, a place for events, exhibitions, and meaningful encounters.​
This is not a project created by wealthy foundations or large institutions.This is a dream held together by community, by women, by people who believe in possibility.
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I am seeking support not to build something for myself, but to build something for us—for Kalimantan, for women, for our collective.