Monday, Dec 01, 2014

Can Peaceful Resistance Work?

Is there any hope for the rainforests of Borneo?

Is it only the Orang-utans that matter?

Australian journalist Paul Malone talking about his book The Peaceful People will make you pause for thought....


The Peaceful People – The Penan and Their Fight For the Forest

The story of the 40 year battle the Penan have fought for preservation of the rainforests of Sarawak.

The campaign, which once attracted the attention of luminaries like Al Gore and Prince Charles, receives little international attention today. But for the Penan -- the jungle nomads of Borneo -- it continues to this day.

While other more fearsome and numerous tribal people -- the Iban, Kenyah, Kayan and Kelabit – have perhaps reluctantly given way, the Penan have stubbornly resisted loggers and dam builders in their non-violent battle to preserve the jungle. Malone argues that they are the most peaceful people, not only because they have shown remarkable restraint in facing loggers and government authorities intent on destroying their land, but also because of their historic way of dealing with conflict. Colonial records show that even after their women and children had been massacred by people they had invited into their midst, Penan refused to mount revenge attacks. Explorers and administrators expressed amazement that with their unsurpassed stealth and jungle skills and their most deadly blowpipe poison, they did not ambush and kill adversaries who had done them wrong.

Those who have lived with the Penan, such as Australian missionary Phyllis Webster, now a 96 year old, and those who had government contact with them over many years, told Malone they had never seen an incidence of domestic violence, nor a Penan man hit another Penan.

In recounting the anti-logging struggle The Peaceful People delves into the mysterious disappearance of key players in the campaign, such as the Swiss environmentalist, Bruno Manser, who is presumed dead, and Penan leader, Kelesau Naan, whose remains were found in 2007 some months after Malone had interviewed him for a feature article published in the Canberra Times and the online outlet Malaysiakini. Kelesau’s death sparked further investigation and ultimately led Malone to write this book.

Along the way Malone discovered all sorts of Penan oddities. Although hunters, dependent on the forest game, the Penan had special relationships with pet animals -- that is any animal they had taken in and fed. A pig, which was game in the forest, would never be eaten, if it was adopted. ‘I have seen a Penan followed around by a tame hornbill with a red ribbon tied to its leg so that as it flew through the jungle it would be recognised and not shot,’ one administrator said. Today many Penan will not eat chickens around their settlements as they consider them to be pets. Unlike their neighbours the nomads do not sacrifice animals.

Speakers:

Paul Malone is a journalist with over thirty years’ experience having worked for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Australian Financial Review and the Canberra Times as its press gallery bureau chief and public service correspondent. He currently writes a weekly column for the Canberra Times. He first went to Borneo in 1974 with Kathy Robinson, then an anthropology graduate looking for a place to undertake research for a doctorate degree.

Kathryn Robinson is Professor of Anthropology in the School of Culture, History & Language at ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific. She has been researching in the neighbouring island of Sulawesi since 1976 and a principal focus of her research has been the impact of resource extractive industries for indigenous people?.

When: 6pm Monday December 1st, 2014

Where: Asia Bookroom, Unit 2, 1 - 3 Lawry Place, Macquarie. ACT

RSVP: By November 30, either by phoning 6251 5191 or Email Us

Admission by gold coin donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation

If you can't join us on December the 1st and would like to buy a signed copy of The Peaceful People, email us and we will organise this for you.