Nenek moyangku seorang pelaut 

gemar mengarung samudra luas 

My ancestors were sailors

sailing the oceans wide

…as the children’s song goes. But the sea is mute in traditional narratives of some of Indonesia’s inhabitants.

Javanese wayang (shadow puppet) performances begin and end not with the sea, but with the gunungan, the two dimensional cone-shaped puppet decorated with trees and forest animals. If what it re