The following is an excerpt from the Issue 02 Ori Creative Grant winner.
Words by Fadiyah Alaidrus
Photos by Garry Lotulung
Yolanda Olivia Kacili felt the excitement ignite in her belly. What started as a familiar fluttering radiated upwards, settling just behind her ears. At 22 years old, she’d been waiting for this day for over a decade, when she first started submerging herself in the electric blue waters off her West Papua home. Today was different. Today she was diving for her family and friends in Kampung Kapatcol, a micro township in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat Islands.
She smiled as the small group around her cheered. Four other villagers sat inside their small wooden boat, including two other women from Waifuna, the revolutionary female-led body overseeing these waters. It was around a 30-minute journey from the land in search of calm water and the ideal place for Yolanda to do what she did best.
In her red and white long-sleeved T-shirt and black soccer shorts, Yolanda plunged into the clear turquoise bay as it reflected the green, luxuriant trees of the island nearby. Using traditional diving tools made of wood, Yolanda fluttered down over 20 feet with calculated ease.
Above, it was impossible to keep the boat stable as waves hit the gunnels from all angles. The boat driver maneuvered the boat in small circles, making turns to avoid the kind of surf that would capsize his vessel.
Around a minute after she ducked below the surface, Yolanda appeared from the sea, still grinning. This time she carried a bounty of sea cucumber and lobster, this coastline’s prime catch, tossing them in a bag held by two women onboard. Then, as quickly as she had surfaced, she disappeared again.
