“So, it depends on us,” Alimuddin was quoted as saying by local news outlet Detik. “When we’re just being indifferent, we will not be victims [to black magic], and today I can relax.”
“Kalimantan is not like what you imagine, not like what we imagined in the past, when we were afraid to visit it,” Alimuddin insisted.
But the spectre of black magic may yet prove a harder hurdle to overcome for some would-be residents of Nusantara.
Fighting supernatural forces
Roedy Haryo Widjono, a cultural observer of the Dayak tribes based in Samarinda, confirmed that the practice of santet black magic remains alive and well among the indigenous communities of Borneo, including the areas surrounding the site of Indonesia’s future capital.
The Balik and Paser tribes, who inhabit the Sepaku district encompassing Nusantara’s core government zone, are part of the broader Dayak Regan Tatau tribal group – a community that continues to engage in witchcraft rituals, Roedy said, even after many Dayaks converted to Islam and Christianity in the 1990s under government pressure.
Widodo himself is known to be a superstitious person. He has always timed major cabinet reshuffles, for instance, to coincide with his personal auspicious day, according to the Javanese calendar. This day, Rabu Pon, occurs whenever a Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar falls on the third-day of the local five-day Pasaran calendar. It is considered an especially lucky day in Javanese custom – and was the day on which Widodo was born.
Widodo’s government has also enlisted the services of Ilham Triadi Nagoro, a renowned rain shaman from the black magic hub of Banyuwangi, to ensure this Saturday’s Independence Day celebrations in Nusantara remain dry. Ilham, who also works as a curator at the Banyuwangi Regency Culture and Tourism Office, told local media that he was hired by the public works minister to spend 22 days in the new capital, armed with 1,000 sticks of sacred incense and three antique daggers to “ward off magical influences”.
One of those daggers, Ilham claims, dates back to the 14th century Majapahit empire and holds the power to eliminate any obstacles faced by its wielder. However, the shaman says he has already endured his own supernatural battle, suffering physical weakness and pain in his first few days in Nusantara after being “attacked” by a supernatural power through his dreams.
“Thank God, [the supernatural attack] was only happening in the first three days, but it was just a dream. Next, I fought the dream spiritually,” Ilham told Detik last month. “Now, I have survived, but my body hurts all over.”
‘You must smile back’
Local tribes surrounding the Nusantara project site have already launched their own supernatural counter-attacks against the government’s plans “as they know they cannot fight physically against soldiers” who guard the project, cultural observer Roedy told This Week in Asia.
“[Some] have rejected Jokowi’s A Jug of Nusantara ritual, as it did not represent the local Dayak ancestral symbols. They saw this as a ‘call to war’ because local ancestors were not embraced,” Roedy said.
Each tribe in Kalimantan has its own unique santet black magic practices, Roedy said, including parang maya – an “unseen war” where a shaman can conjure deadly poisons blown by the wind to protect their village. Another common form is the panah terong curse, which slowly withers and liquefies the victim over time.
Roedy said the parang maya technique had been deployed to resist evictions of villages near the Nusantara site, where many local tribes were angered by the removal of their ancestral graves. A recent NGO study found the Balik tribe in Sepaku district alone had 35 graves dating back 200 years excavated for the project.
However, historian Muhammad Sarip believes the fears of black magic surrounding Nusantara are “overblown”, arguing that Kalimantan is not some “primitive zone”.
Still, he urged any civil servants relocating to the new capital to be mindful of local customs – smiling back at residents, never refusing offered food, and generally avoiding ignorant or arrogant behaviour that could offend the indigenous community.
“In Kalimantan, if people smile at you, you must smile back. Don’t be ignorant, don’t be arrogant and don’t be patronising,” he said. “If you are offered food, even though you are already full, you need to taste it a little. Just take a pinch, don’t refuse. If you refuse it you will offend local people.”