Two Boys between Two Lands

Adiyana Paramita and Dwiyana Stirabudi

Adiyana and Dwiyana* are identical twin brothers from Bali, Indonesia, both with cognitive disabilities. I arranged to meet with them because I’d been charmed by a picture Adi had drawn and wanted to see what other pictures might come out of a drawing session with him and his brother. When we met, they were thirteen years old. They had been living in the U.S. for nearly three years and were scheduled to return to Bali in just two weeks. Adi and Dwi communicated with me almost entirely through their drawings and their interpreter, who explained to me that they often seemed oblivious to the language barrier between themselves and others. Adi especially, she said, would chat away to the other kids in his classroom in Indonesian — or sometimes he’d just sing to them. Dwi would often do a little dance to communicate.

Eagerly anticipating their return to Bali, Adi and Dwi could only think of their beloved homeland during our brief drawing session: Dwi intoned the name of his country over and over, and the imagery in both of their pictures often returned there.

*Editor’s note: Adiyana (which means first born) and Dwiyana (which means second born) have different “last names,” a frequent occurrence in Indonesia, where many people do not have family names.

Drawing by Adi. Here, Adi depicts two of his favorite female friends at the time, the littler one a girl he had a crush on and the other, a classroom “buddy.”

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Drawing by Dwi. The building in this drawing, according to Dwi, is “Bali”; each “word” or grouping of letters spells “Bali”; and the bubble contains Dwi’s mother, father, and newborn brother.

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Drawing by Adi. In this drawing, we see Bali’s trees from across the ocean. In the foreground are a lion, a snake, and flowers.

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Drawing by Adi. Here, Adi depicts his mother and father getting married beside a church and a tree in Bali. A member of the clergy presides. (Note that, despite Adi’s choice of imagery, his family practices Hinduism.)

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Drawing by Adi. This drawing depicts the Cotting School, which Adi and Dwi attended during two of their years in the U.S. (It was here that the three of us met and held our drawing session.)

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