Kasat Mata (Visible ...

This is a first person account of the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea in 2009 and its lasting impact on seaweed farmers and fisherfolk in West Timor. The narrator, a fisherman, describes the community’s growing realisation that something is killing the seaweed plantations and the fish and people are getting sick. Aid promised by the government never arrives and a sense of hopelessness pervades when a dead whale washes up on the beach.

Wondering what he has done to offend God, the man sets out to sea and leaps into the water. In the next scene his boat is burning on a beach and his son gazes out to the ocean. We then see a figure waving on the horizon. The man says he can still support his family and will wait until the sea returns to how it was.

The Indonesian title, Kasat Mata, is of Javanese origin and usually written as one word. It means “visible to the naked eye, concrete”.

Characters

A fisherman (the narrator) and his son. We also see a Christian minister and other villagers.

Setting

A coastal village (Tablolong village in West Timor) with seaweed plantations and a fleet of traditional fishing boats, a school room, a church, a market and the ocean.