ABOUT | My Site

From a Dream House to a Collective Space

In 2021, I designed and built a Dayak-inspired longhouse on stilts in Central Kalimantan, using everything I had—time, savings, energy, and belief. At the time, I was focused only on finishing the house. I didn’t yet have the language for what it could become.

There were moments when I nearly let it go. But everyone who visited asked the same question: Why would you sell this? They reminded me that this house is rare—its design, atmosphere, and connection to place are not easily replicated.

I explored practical options—homestay, rentals—but I’m not driven by conventional business models. What I do best is create spaces that connect people: artists, researchers, musicians, women, elders, and communities.

Over time, the house became a place for DJ sets, small performances, art experiments, and collaboration. It now hosts an ongoing Bioacoustic Outreach Project—communicating science through art—working with schools in Palangka Raya in collaboration with Yayasan Suara Rimba (initiator) and Borneo Art Play, supported by Cornell University.

From this grew a clearer vision.

I want to transform Huma Inay Space into a shared, women-led creative hub—a place where women can gather, create, learn, and feel supported without judgment. A space where neurodivergent people can exist without masking. A space that values mental health, creativity, and care as much as productivity.

Upcoming initiatives include:

From Kitchen to a Dance Floor: an immersive experience combining Dayak food, soundscapes, traditional music, and electronic DJ culture
A women-led art exhibition amplifying local voices
Forest bathing sessions grounded in science, Dayak knowledge, and wellbeing—offered free or pay-as-you-like

This is not a foundation-funded project. It is a community-built vision held together by trust, collaboration, and care.

I’m seeking support not to build something for myself, but to sustain a shared space—one that nurtures creativity, environmental awareness, and collective wellbeing in Palangka Raya.

Huma Inay Space is ready. With support, it can fully become what it was always meant to be.

Our Story

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Get to Know this Space

When you arrive at Huma Inay Space, you step into a house in Central Borneo—raised above living peatland that holds water, memory, and life.

It is a space to wander, wonder, and weave stories together.

Fluid and open, shaped by ancestral pathways and everyday encounters.

Since its quiet beginnings, Huma Inay has welcomed chefs and food storytellers exploring Dayak cuisine, Bornean musicians performing under the stilts, local and international artists sharing their work, scientists and researchers in dialogue about peatlands and forests, and friends, mothers, elders, and children—each leaving traces of curiosity.

Huma Inay Space has become what it was always meant to be: a community hub—a place of imagination, culture, and gathering.

This space is my life’s weaving. It is shaped by the places I’ve lived, the communities I’ve worked with, the elders who guided me, the friends who pushed me to begin, and the women who reminded me to keep going.

Huma Inay is not just a building. It is a Dayak-rooted, women-led, culturally grounded, and environmentally conscious collective space—rare in Central Kalimantan.

A home for the Women Empowering Women Collective.
A hub for dialogue, learning, creativity, and care.
A place where women can gather, grow skills, and be supported—open to all ages and backgrounds.

I designed and oversaw the house myself, step by step. It is nearly ready, but not yet fully alive. The first floor will serve as our working base; the space beneath the stilts will become an open, shared area for workshops, events, exhibitions, and meaningful encounters.

This is not a project backed by large institutions. It is a dream held together by community, by women, and by belief.

I’m seeking support not to build something for myself, but to build something for us—for Kalimantan, for women, and for our shared future.

Why I Need Support

Every contribution helps sustain this living, shared creative home.

Huma Inay has grown, but to keep it alive we need support beyond what I can carry alone. Your contribution helps me—and all of us as women—continue building a space for learning, healing, and creative collaboration.

Your support will help us to:

Grow the Women Empowering Women Collective, a first-of-its-kind network in Palangka Raya where women learn, lead, create, and support one another.
Sustain the space and core team, so Huma Inay can remain open, active, and welcoming.
Care for the land and native trees, nurturing our peatland garden and restoration efforts.
Improve gathering and work spaces, for workshops, residencies, and community programs.
Provide workspace for artists, women, and researchers, a place to create, rest, and collaborate.
Document and celebrate Dayak knowledge, through food, art, music, and storytelling.
Offer free or low-cost stays for people doing meaningful work, because access shouldn’t depend on money.