Regenerating the Peatland Forests of Kalimantan Through Dayak Ngaju Language: New Animisms, Ecolinguistics and the Naming of Worlds

Abstract For many First Peoples, language is indissociable from living relationships within interspecies communities where humans are not the only ones who feel, think, listen and speak. Words not only carry meanings attributable to human language but also carry the spirit of a place, as both a material and metaphysical transmission of sentience across species and generations. This article draws on ecolinguistic research into the Indigenous language of the Dayak Ngaju people and its role in regenerating peatland forests in Central Kalimantan. The study employs an Indigenous research methodology led by the first author, who is a PhD student and member of the Dayak Ngaju community. This methodology situates Dayak Ngaju language within an animistic reality inclusive of nonhuman creatures, objects and spiritual beings. Attending to the complexities of Indigenous PhD studies, the article proposes the cultivation of “new animisms,” which recognise the future-making pedagogies of Indigenous ontologies and ecolinguistic systems.