Sarawak Gone

Higher Ground

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 07:39:40 +0000

With the Bengoh Dam completed and the inundation of the Sarawak Kiri River looming, the Bidayuh of Upper Bengoh faced the decision to either leave their homelands or stay.

As much of Upper Bengoh is comprised of the Bidayuh’s native customary land they chose to stay. In doing so they took on the Sarawak Government, the single most powerful institution in East Malaysia complicit in the forced removal of tens of thousands of indigenous peoples from their customary lands on the island of Borneo.

The post Higher Ground first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

Subtitle, Share and Remix

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Thanks to the folks at EngageMedia.org it’s now possible to subtitle Sarawak Gone in any of the languages supported by the Universal Subtitles initiative. How does it work? Best way to find out is to give it a go. Select any Sarawak Gone episode and click on the subtitle button. This will take to a step-by-step guide and all the tools you’ll need to add your captions into an open pool of others.

The post Subtitle, Share and Remix first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

Bird Man of Long Banga

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:41:43 +0000

Actually, he’s a driver… a driver for hire, but still lives in the forest, or what’s left it it. We stopped to take tea on the way to Long Suit. I asked, “Are there sounds from the forest you no longer hear? Sounds you were familiar with that you just don’t hear any more?” He described a soundscape of birds, where they would make certain sounds and during which season.

Bird Man of Long Banga from andrew garton on Vimeo.

The post Bird Man of Long Banga first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

Sarawak Gone – 30 minute version

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:40:01 +0000

The full 30 minute version of Sarawak Gone – The Bidayuh and the Dam. The Bidayuh, one of more than 40 sub-ethnic groups in Sarawak, face threats to their livelihood, traditional lands and culture with the development of the controversial Bengoh Dam.

Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo and is home to more than 40 unique sub-ethnic groups, or Dayaks. These include the Penan, Iban, Bidayuh, Kenyah and Kelabit. These are the last forest communities of Sarawak and the Bidayuh of Bengoh, are one of the many communities facing eviction, making way for the controversial Bengoh Dam.

Sarawak Gone explores the communities affected, the controversial environment impact assessment drawn up prior to the construction of the dam, how such developments have affected other indigenous communities and their right to customary land.

License

This micro-doc has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia license.

You may download, distribute and re-use this work as long as you:

understand the terms of the license;
acknowledge the Producer, Toy Satellite and Andrew Garton;
link back to this page:
ttp://www.sarawakgone.cc/sg-30mins/
link to or publish the link to the license:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/au/

The post Sarawak Gone – 30 minute version first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

Photo finish

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 02:49:29 +0000

Explore the entire collection of stills from the series, from its inception to completion.

The post Photo finish first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

International debut at AGITPROP

admin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:12:52 +0000

From 2 – 4 July AGITPROP film festival goes live for the first time in Manila, Philippines. Sarawak Gone will debut there.

The post International debut at AGITPROP first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

The Sape Master

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:27:47 +0000

Seven generations of music are said to be held by a Sape Master living in the Bakun Dam resettlement scheme, 180km southeast of Bintulu.

The Sape is one of the more well known traditional instruments of Sarawak, but few remain who can perform the music of former generations and in the style that represents that heritage.

The Sape Master from andrew garton on Vimeo.

Read the synopsis.
Download the micro-doc [WMV, 640×480, 128.9 MB].
Download the script: TS_SG_The-Headman (FINAL) [PDF 12 KB].

License

This micro-doc has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia license.

You may download, distribute and re-use this work as long as you:

understand the terms of the license;
acknowledge the Producer, Toy Satellite and Andrew Garton;
link back to this page:
toysatellite.org/sarawak-gone/the-sape-master/
link to or publish the link to the license:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/au/

The post The Sape Master first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

Series completed, but it ain’t over yet

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:01:50 +0000

There’s a kind of anti-climax when one gets to the end of a project, but not this one. Despite completing the last official episode of this series, it’s far from over.

As I write The Headman is gradually populating personal walls on Facebook, various blogs and websites in a bid to keep the issues it raises not only in public view, but that we remember the legacy left by Kelesau Naan who disappeared this week, three years ago.

Kelesau was known to have described the Penan as “mushrooms of the forest”. This statement resonates with a deep and profound knowledge of the connectedness of all things. As mushrooms grow from spore beneath the surface of the soil, so too do humans grow, feed and thrive from the forest floor to the canopies that protect them.

I learnt a great deal during my brief stay in Long Kerong. The Penan take nothing for-granted. Their needs are simple by our standards, but their way of life is immeasurably rich. For those that have seen life beyond the forest, they say this world robs them of their independence and way of life. That’s not to say they’re entirely against development. It wouldn’t take much to improve their standard of living. Solar power for lighting and refrigeration, improved and frequent access to health services and teachers that aren’t afraid to venture into and live amongst these people in the forests. But remove the Penan from the forest, both the people and tong tana, the closest term the Penan have for forest, will suffer.

Ethnocide

What we are witnessing with the removal of indigenous peoples from their customary lands is ethnocide. The anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis describes this as “the destruction of a people’s way of life” and notes that it’s considered acceptable and “appropriate” policy by the Malaysian government.

It takes only a single generation for entire communities to be denuded of their traditional knowledge, customs and way of life. I’ve seen it. In 20 years of work in Sarawak, supporting the efforts of my colleagues there, travelling to far flung communities and seeing the despair in the faces of elderly Dayaks, the loss to them and us is immeasurable.

Since 1999, when I started shooting there, over 20% of the remaining 25% of native rainforests I’d flown over, driven through or traced on maps has been torn out, leaving the forest to the scourge of palm oil where nothing but rats and snake survive. The rattan, forest foods and medicines, impossible to comprehend volume of species, both flora and fauna, and as ethnobotanist Wade Davis laments, a unique vision of life is being lost forever.

The prognosis may be dire, but I can only hope and persist in my work and support that of my colleagues, that it may not be as tragic as it seems today.

The post Series completed, but it ain’t over yet first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

The Headman

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:16:52 +0000

On the 23 October 2007 Kelesau Naan, the Headman of the Penan village, Long Kerong, left his wife at a rest area in the forest to check on his traps. He never returned. Two months later his remains were found scattered across the Segita River.

Download the micro-doc [WMV, 640×480, 243.00 MB].
Download the script: TS_SG_The-Headman (FINAL) [PDF 12 KB].

License

This micro-doc has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia license.

You may download, distribute and re-use this work as long as you:

understand the terms of the license;
acknowledge the Producer, Toy Satellite and Andrew Garton;
link back to this page:
https://www.sarawakgone.cc/the-headman/
link to or publish the link to the license:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/au/

The post The Headman first appeared on Sarawak Gone.

The Headman in post-production

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:31:52 +0000

The next Sarawak Gone series, The Headman, is finally in post-production. It was shot in and around the Penan village, Long Kerong, located in the Ulu Baram. It was to be one of the more significant journeys I had made and certainly one that imprinted a deeper connection with Sarawak’s forest communities, and indeed the forest itself.

The Headman is inspired by Kelesau Naan, the former Headman of Long Kerong, allegedly murdered whilst hunting with his wife in October 2007. His remains were found two months later, spread across a river-bed where it was known he had been headed on the day he went missing.

This series traces the life of Kelesau Naan through his son, Nick Kelesau, and the village and forests he had long fought to protect leading to the tragic circumstances of his disappearance.

I’m planning to have at least the first key episode completed by October 23, three years to the day Kelesau is said to have lost his life.

The post The Headman in post-production first appeared on Sarawak Gone.