Seabird by Michelle Kadarusman

It is 1892. Kartini is the second oldest daughter and one of eight children of her father Sosroningrat, Regent of Jepara, Java, in the Dutch West Indies. Her mother (Ma) is her father's first wife. Kartini sisters include her eldest sister, Lastri who is married and lives on Sumatra Island as well as two younger sisters, Rukmini who is eleven and Kardinah who is ten years old. Her older brothers are Sosroningrat, Boesono and Kartono while her mother has a baby boy named Wito. Kartini's father also has a second wife whom Kartini addresses as Mother. She is from a royal line and outranks Kartini's mother. She has 3 children. While "...Mother is powerful and sophisticated" Kartini's Ma is "uncomplaining and soft-hearted." 

Because Kartini will soon be thirteen-years-old, she has been taken out of school. She is now forbidden to leave the walls of their family compound to attend school, to go to the beach, the market or anywhere. She must remain hiddent at home until she is chosen for marriage. "Javanese girls of high birth are secluded before age thirteen until their wedding day." This allows them to take the title of Raden Ayu when married.

Kartini is summoned by the Lady who admonishes her to "...behave like a proper Javanese girl of your high birth." Nur, the Lady's maid has told that Kartini was chasing her little brothers in the garden. The Lady tells Kartini she must learn to speak softly, take small steps when she walks and that she must learn how to be Raden Ayu. However, Kartini doesn't want to learn this. She was learning many things in school: languages, art, music, and literature. While her mothers continue to uphold their Javanese customs, Kartini believes her father would rather be more modern.

Kartini had a good friend in Lesty whose father, Eduard Claasen was the Colonial Resident until last year when he was recalled to the Netherlands. Kartini has been waiting anxiously for a letter from Lesty. Although she has written many letters to her friend in Amsterdam, she hasn't received a single letter in return. However, this day she spies Ma holding a letter and they meet in Kartini's bedroom. There her mother reveals that she has a letter from Lesty but that she must first give it to the Lady and Kartini's father. It is at this time that Kartini realizes that her letters to Lesty were never mailed.

Kartini decides that she will not wait for her mother to bring up the issue of the letters but will advocate for herself. In the presence of her parents, Kartini tells her father that she can settle her "galloping legs" by working to improve her Dutch language skills through correspondence with her Dutch friend, Lesty. The Lady agrees to this and Kartini's father suggests she can also read his Dutch newspapers and magazines. However, her father reminds Kartini that her reading and writing will be "empty pastimes" and lead her no where. However, Kartini believes that this will not be the case for her.

Kartini reads Lesty's letter and the two begin regular correspondence. In her response, Kartini explains what it is like to be secluded, telling Lesty that although their home is beautiful, it is still a beautiful cage.

It is 1893 and Kartini is in the garden pagoda writing the afternoon play for her siblings to perform. Her brother Kartono comes in and tells Kartini that he has been accepted to the Hogere Burgerschool grammar school in Semarang. After that he will go to the Netherlands to study there. Kartono tries to encourage his sister but Kartini tells him she will never be free, that the only way she will leave their house is when she is married.  Meanwhile a letter from Lesty reveals that she is struggling at school because she has been labelled "Slaver". She doesn't understand why she is tainted with this as slavery is long over and she had no part in it.

Kartini's two maids, Uka and Yanti bring to her a "gift" that has been given to their mother by a pedicab driver. The package was given to him at the harbour to give to two girls at the Regent's home. Uka gives Kartini a card with a symbol printed on it in dark purple ink. Because they do not know who gave the gift nor the intention, Uka and Yanti cannot keep the gift of two combs wrapped in batik cloth. This gift makes Kartini realize that just like her, these village girls are also not free. They cannot accept this gift on the chance it might bring dishonour to their families or even danger. Kartini promises to try to find out about the symbol and what it means and that she will keep it secret.  In another letter to Lesty, Kartini tries to explain to her friend the perspective of the Javanese who were once enslaved by the Dutch and how they still control their land and the governance of the country. She also explains that her family as part of the elite of Javanese society have worked alongside the colonial government.

Kartini meets the wife of the new Colonial Resident, Marie Ovink-Soer. Marie is a writer who has admired the paper that Kartini wroteShe is a writer and Marie is introduced to Kartini as the writer of a paper on local woodcarvers she admired. Marie is entranced by the Javanese percussion music called gamelan and she asks Kartini to explain it further.  Marie read her article in a copy of the De Echo, a Dutch-language magazine for women and asks Kartini what studies she has planned. However, this question is deflected by Kartini's older brother, Boesono who is jealous of her ambitions. She gives Kartini a small book of her short stories for young children as well as a book written by Helen Mercier called Verbonden Schakels. Tante Marie, as she asks Kartini to call her, asks Kartini to consider writing an essay to De Echo but again Boesono tells her that won't be possible. However, Kartini knows in her heart that she wants to be a writer.

Another letter from Lesty reveals her excitement to attend the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in which twenty-eight countries will present their colonial trade.  There will be a Javanese pavillion. In her response, Kartini describes her home, which Lesty has never visited, in more detail. She also mentions the gift to her maids, sister Uka and Yanti and her discovery that the symbol on the card is Chinese and that it is the name of a woman, South Sea Starling, who commands her own merchant ship. South Sea Starling is the granddaughter of the infamous Pirate Queen. She asks Lesty to see if she can find any information about the Pirate Queen.

By 1894, Kartini's restlessness grows as she is determined to gain her freedom and make her own choices about her life. When she attempts to visit her father to press her case, her older brother Boesono tells her that soon she will be married. The possibility of a marriage proposal leads Kartini to confront Ma who tells her that her father has gone to speak to her uncle about it and that she will know soon enough. Kartini's mother is not well but she finds Kartini's determination to do other things before marrying to be foolish. Kartini herself falls sick with bone fever for weeks. When she awakens her sisters tell her that Ma is still sick with the coughing illness. However, Kartini now has no desire to get well. What is the point when she doesn't have the freedom to choose her own life.

It is in 1895 when Kartini's essay is published in the De Echo that her father's pride in this accomplishment motivates him to finally begin to see things from Kartini's perspective.  

Discussion

Seabird is a fictional account of the life and work of Rayden Ajeng Kartini. Born in Jepara, Central Java, Kartini on April 21, 1879, Kartini was able to attend the Europeesche Lagere School because she was part of the Javenese nobility. However before her thirteenth birthday, Kartini was forced into seclusion. As described in the novel, Kartini was determined to continue her education by correspondence with Dutch friends and by reading her father's Dutch magazines. She was determined to effect change for Javanese women, allowing them the opportunity to be educated just like their Javanese brothers, and to choose how they wanted to live their lives.

Canadian author Michelle Kadarusman grew up with an Indonesian father who was fiercely proud that his country had finally achieved independence from their colonizers, the Dutch in 1949.  In this respect, Kadarusman has a connection to the people and culture of Indonesia that makes Seabird a very special novel.

The novel is divided into four parts, labelled by the years 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895. The chapters within these parts include Kartini's narrative as well as the fictional letters between her and her real life  Dutch friend, Lesty Claasen. The novel opens with Kartini beginning pingit, the custom of Javanese seclusion until marriage. Kartini is only twelve-years-old and doesn't want to be considering marriage at this time but wishes to continue her schooling. However, in seclusion she can no longer leave her family's compound for any reason, even to attend school. The loss of furthering her education deeply affeccts Kartini. But also the fact that she cannot go anywhere leads her to wonder what it must be like to be a boy. "What must it feel like, to be a boy? To walk confidently toward the compound gates, knowing they will be opened, at any time, at any age, like magic?"

Kartini struggles to accept the limitations that her culture places on women. These limitations are very evident when Kartini's maids, Uka and Yanti are given a gift of combs by someone. Kartini realizes that village girls like her two maids are no freer than she is. "Never mind that they are servants and I am the edaughter of a regent, we young women, all of us, must tread so carefully, because one foot wrong might set us on fire." The two girls cannot accept the gift openly because they do not know who the sender is and why it was sent.

By 1894, Kartini is growing increasingly restless. While she acknowledges that she has her sisters and her books and is helping her maids solve a mystery, Kartini wants her freedom. She wants her freedom in a way that she knows is not possible: to be able to run to seashore to see the ocean, to visit the capital of Batavia and see the grand buildings, take a steamship to Europe and study with her brother Kartono, to skate on the frozen canals in Holland and to walk to a library and learn about anything that interests her. "I want to be my own person. I do not want to be someone's wife." 

After being very ill for weeks, Kartini gives in to despair. "What is the point of getting up if I can't leave this house? To wander paths that always end in a stone wall? Reading books about places I will never go? Writing essays that will never be published? Keeping correspondence with a friend I will never see again? 

What is the point of a life where your voice is silenced at every turn? A life where you must whisper. Where you are not even allowed to show emotion? A paper doll." 

Eventually though, Kartini recovers her spirit and determination and with the information from Lesty about the Pirate Queen, she is able to help Uka and Yanti in a way that offers them another choice than remaining as maids. 

And Kartini finally confronts her father because she questions "...who has the right to give or take away dreams? Surely no one has the power to do this, even your own parents."  When she approaches her father who is sitting with Ma in her pavillion, Kartini tells him that perhaps Ma had dreams beyond her room, that she dreams of being a writer, and Rukmini dreams of being an artist. Kartini asks her father if he wants his daughters to be on their knees for their entire lives, or to be a second or third wife. She explains that by allowing them an education he has given them glimpse of lives they can never have. Instead they are placed in a cage and expected to forgo any dreams they might have for their lives.

In 1895 Kartini has her essay published on gamelan music and her father, proud of her accomplishment and recognizing her determination, understands things are changing and that they must change too. He tells Kartini and her sisters, "I believe intelligent men...must honor what is past, but also prepare for what lies ahead. And when necessary, make changes to keep in step with the times."  He agrees to allow his daughters to make their own choice to uphold the tradition of Raden Ayu. And he also grants her permission to attend the Governor General's reception as the first step to her freedom.

The novel's title Seabird is a reference to the white seabird which represents freedom. Kartini's family compound contains hanging cages holding birds.  One evening, Kartini sees a blue and yellow colored bird in its bamboo cage and she wants to open it and set it free. "I want to open the cage and set it free. Why should it be a prisoner here, its only purpose to provide us with its morning song. It's a cruel practic and I feel the creature's fate deeply in my gut...I know that if I were to let it out, it would not survive. It knows nothing of living in the wild. It is a fragile thing that is fed and pampered and only kept so we might look at it and think it pretty and delight in its song."  In the bird, Kartini sees a reflection of herself, also caged, her only purpose to be the wife of a man. And like the bird, if she stays in the cage long enough, she too will not be able to live outside her cage, because she will know nothing of the outside world. 

Kartini's struggle for independence mirrors her own country's struggle for independence from their Dutch colonizers. Her friend Lesty reflects the change that is beginning to happen in Europe regarding the colonies. At first Lesty is upset when she is called a "slaver" for being part of the Dutch who lived in Java. In her letter to Kartini, Lesty states that slavery has been abolished and that their maid, Larni was not a slave but a paid servant. However, Kartini responds that while "...slavery was abolished years ago, but that doesn't mean my people are not still enslaved to the Dutch. It is the Dutch who still control our land. And all the rules are governed by them. But it is the javanese locals who must build the roads, bridges, and railroads for which they receive nothing.The local farmers are left with very little for their hard work and must pay high taxes to the Dutch for their crops.The wealth of our land is stripped from us." Although Lesty has written that the two girls are equals, Kartini asks her to consider if this is really true. It is when Lesty attends the International Colonial and Export Exhibit to display colonial trade, that she begins to understand the situation from the Javanese perspective. The Javanese exhibit leads Lesty to explain to her father, "The Javanese are not curiosities to be stared at, like these things behind glass...This show of riches taken from their soil -- it makes me sick to see us claim it as our own when the truth is that it is all stolen." For Lesty, the people taken without their parents or family's permission to the exhibition and displayed is like placing them in a zoo to be viewed. It is a sign that the peoples of Europe are beginning to see the countries they have "colonized" in a different way, not as objects to be used but as human beings with a right to self-determination. This would take many more decades to become the reality.

Seabird is a short novel about an important women's rights advocate that most readers will not be familiar with. Kartini is proof that young girls can and do have a voice and the power to effect change. Kadarusman has included a portrait of Kartini and a short biographical note, About Kartini. There is also a note, About the Dutch Colonial rule in Indonesia, and one on Human Zoos. A map showing the location of the Dutch West Indies as it existed in the late 1890s would have been helpful. Well-written, engaging, with an attractive cover, and a must-read for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

Seabird by Michelle Kadarusman

Toronto: Pajama Press Inc.     2025

199 pp.

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman

Berani weaves together the narratives of three characters, two young teens seeking to make their world better and an orangutan in captivity in a novel about identity, activism and coming of age.

Thirteen-year-old Malia Kusarto lives a privileged life with her mother in Surabaya. Her mother who is from Toronto, Canada,  is a linguistics professor who speaks perfect Bahasa (the national language of Indonesia). Malia's father passed away two years ago and so her mother is planning to return to Canada. This prospect deeply upsets Malia who doesn't want to leave Indonesia where her father is buried and her best friend Putu lives.

Malia attends a private school, Sekolah Menegah Pertama (SMP) with Putu. The school which has students of many religions teaches classes in Bahasa. Malia has to give a presentation on how palm oil agriculture is hurting the native orangutan population in Indonesian through the destruction of their forest habitat. She plans on handing out a "petition to protest the banning of palm-free product labels" to her classmates. However, Malia's mother advises her to tell her teacher, Mrs. Harwono about the petition because the issue is a complex one: some of her classmates' families may be involved in the palm oil industry. Although Malia promises her mother she will do so, she begins handing out her petitions when she arrives at school.

Ari Aruna lives with his Uncle Kus who has a restaurant, Warung Malang which makes his specialty, sop buntut, or oxtail soup. The restaurant has two live attractions: a mynah bird named Elvis Presley who sings Elvis songs and an orangutan named Ginger Spice. His uncle got Ginger Spice when she was a baby, after her mother was killed in the jungle. At first she slept in the house and was cuddled like a baby but when she grew larger and stronger, she was placed in a cage. Ginger is now so large, she cannot fit through the door of the cage and mostly lies around.

Ari is living with his uncle so he can attend the local middle school. His parents are tenant farmers who grow rice, which means they do not own the land they farm and therefore, do not earn very much money. They could only afford to send Ari to school, so his cousin Suni, the better and more eager student and a girl cannot continue her education. Instead, she now works in the rice fields.

Ari is expected to do chores to help out his uncle. He cleans the cages and does the accounting and bookkeeping. When he cleans her cage, Ari avoids looking at Ginger Spice. He feels uncomfortable. He has been chosen to represent his school in a chess tournament being  held at a private school in Surabaya. His friend Faisel has been helping Ari with chess in exchange for coffee and pastry at the Warung Kopi.

The chess tournament is held at Malia's school and on his way into the games room, Ari and his student escort pass by Malia who hands Ari a copy of her petition. The tournament is a success for Ari who has discovered there is prize money. He wins five of his seven games and their team has qualified for the regional semifinals. 

Meanwhile, Malia does her presentation but soon realizes that Mrs. Harwono is not pleased about the petition. She gathers the petitions from the students and asks Malia not to give out any of the petitions to students until she checks with the school principal, Mr. Ahmad. However, Malia reasons that this does not apply to the online version she has set up on the class webpage. But when the petition goes online and goes viral, Malia discovers her actions have come with some serious repercussions to not only herself but those around her.

In Malanga, Ari finds himself becoming more distraught over Ginger Spice's situation. When Ari first reads her petition he is stunned to discover that keeping Ginger Spice is against the law. He feels her situation doesn't apply to the petition. Ari believes what Ginger Spice really needs is a larger cage but when she is attacked by a group of teenagers, Ari reaches out to Malia and together they work to set up the rescue of Ginger Spice. But will the loss of Ginger Spice

Discussion

Set in Indonesia, the novel, Berani explores the lives of two young teens amid the larger problem of the endangered orangutan and the destruction of the native tropical forests that serve as their habitat.

The two main characters, Malia and Ari are very different but are brought together by the issue of orangutan conservancy. Malia is part Indonesian, part Canadian and lives a life of privilege and wealth. Her father's family is wealthy as evidenced by his mother, Malia's Oma who is driven around in a Mercedes, her mother is a professor, and Malia attends a private school. However, Malia struggles with her identity: she is considered bule, a foreigner or a campuran the Indonesian term for a person of mixed race. She considers herself Indonesian and doesn't want to leave for Canada. However, when expressing her fear that she won't know who she will be in Canada, her Oma tells her, "Dear girl. You are not defined by where you live or where your parents were born or where you were born. You are defined by what is in your hear, by your actions, your words." She also tells Malia, "...You are what is in your heart, you impact others by your actions and your words. Remember this, my love. Indonesian. Canadian. Girl. Woman. Mother. Grandmother. If you limit yourself to labels you are only putting yourself in a cage."

Malia soon learns that her actions have defined her as someone who doesn't seem to be concerned about others. Her petition, in defiance of both her mother and her teacher has serious consequences: the teacher is suspended and her best friend is also implicated. Malia acted without regard to others and with little understanding as to just how complex the issue of orangutan conservancy is. Malia manages to save face by writing her own letter of apology, recognizing the harm she's done but vowing to continue her work to help orangutans.

In stark contrast to Malia, is another character,  Ari who is Indonesian and whose parents are poor rice tenant farmers. Their family can only afford to send one child in their family to school and certainly cannot afford a private school like where Malia attends. It is this hardship that motivates Ari to do so well in the chess competition after he learns there is prize money to be won. But it also results in an intense inner conflict for Ari who has been chosen over his cousin Suni who is not only the better student but intelligent and loves school. "In elementary school she was the clever one, not me, but I'm attending middle school, not her. I took the only place our family can afford. I stole the one chance she will ever have of continuing school. Instead, she is the one left behind to help tend the rice fields." 

Ari promised to visit Suni who hoped to use his textbooks to keep up. But guilt has stopped him from following through on his promise. It is Ari's decision to rescue Ginger Spice that helps him confront his guilt about Suni and act. After he and Malia work to have Ginger Spice rescued, Ari realizes his uncle didn't want to understand or know the truth about keeping orangutans captive. Similarly, Ari feels he too has been unwilling to know the truth about his schooling. "I have learned it is possible to ignore truths that are right under your nose. You can choose to ignore them, or you can speak up."

This prompts Ari to seek out the school administration and have Suni replace him while he earns enough money to return to school. It is a valiant act. Ari also demonstrates that from chess he has learned that "...there are many ways to reach your goal. There's millions of strategies and moves you can plan ahead in order to achieve what you want...I can be patient...I can play a long game and find my way back to school." Ari explains his position in chess terms and demonstrates to the school administrator his maturity.

There is a third voice in the novel, that of Ginger Spice, the captive orangutan. Orangutans are considered highly intelligent and share ninety-seven percent of DNA with humans. Giving human attributes to an animal - called anthromorphism - might be helpful for younger readers to understand an animal's plight but in some ways it's not realistic because as humans we don't truly know what or how they think. For certain, life in a cage is not natural and orangutans do not belong in cages and humans have the obligation to protect these endangered animals.

In her Author's Note, Kadarusman states that this novel was inspired by the experience her brother had when they were both living in Indonesia years ago. He encountered an orangutan in a cage in a small restaurant in the village of Malang, East Java. The orangutan was eventually rescued from the cage and like Ari's uncle in the novel, did not know much about orangutans. 

Kadarusman who grew up in Australia and now also lives in Toronto, Canada has included a short Author's Note, a Glossary, and some information about orangutans which are considered an endangered species.

Berani is another very well-written and enjoyable novel, offering middle grade readers a number of timely issues to explore.

Book Details:

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman
Toronto: Pajama Press 2022
211 pp.