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The Last Wild Men of Borneo

Page 30

by Carl Hoffman


  “There became an underlying embrace”: Author’s interview with Jean Fritts, Paris, France, September 9, 2016.

  Bruno and Michael weren’t outliers: Author’s interview with Lawrence Blair, Legian, Bali, Indonesia, January 7, 2016.

  “Bruno wasn’t unique in what he wanted”: Author’s interview with Bruce Carpenter, Sanur, Bali, January 29, 2016.

  “My generation came of age”: Multiple author interviews with Thomas Murray in Paris in 2015 and 2016; Washington, D.C., in 2015; and Bali in 2016. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information attributed to Murray came from those interviews.

  He found Perry Kesner: Author’s interviews with Perry Kesner on many occasions in Paris in 2015 and 2016 and in Bali in 2015 and 2016. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information attributed to Kesner came from those interviews.

  “Shortly before ten in the morning”: Carl Bock, The Head-Hunters of Borneo: A Narrative of Travel Up the Mahakkam and Down the Barito (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1995 [1881]), 57, 65.

  “In the evenings there were always some amusements”: Ibid., 77.

  Bock’s curiosity had been “keenly excited”: Ibid., 78.

  “Here, surrounded by the graves”: Ibid., 78–79.

  Bock drew an intricately detailed color sketch: Ibid., plate 8.

  “Indonesia’s finest traditional sculptors”: Reimar Schefold and Steven G. Alpert, eds., Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the Dallas Museum of Art (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013), 134–35.

  Ten

  “On secret paths”: Bruno Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald 1984–1990 (Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2004), 327.

  In January, not long after Bruno’s second escape: James Ritchie, Bruno Manser: The Inside Story (Singapore: Summer Times Publishing, 1994), 238.

  “The communities that signed”: Ibid.

  In a coordinated action: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 326.

  On paper, at least: Tim Bending, Penan Histories: Contentious Narratives in Upriver Sarawak (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2006), 4.

  “Police squads appear repeatedly”: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 326.

  “I was part of that”: Author’s interview with Mutang Urud, Montreal, Canada, September 28, 2017.

  “In a way,” said Lukas Straumann: Author’s interview with Lukas Straumann, Basel, Switzerland, August 3, 2015.

  There is increasing belief: Scott Wallace, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes (New York: Crown, 2011), 398.

  Since at least the first European explorers: Peter G. Sercombe and Bernard Sellato, eds., Beyond the Green Myth: Hunter-Gatherers of Borneo in the Twenty-First Century (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2007), 303–11.

  They supplied forest products: Ibid.

  In exchange they received: Ibid.

  Amid the warring Dayak tribes: Ibid.

  “Longhouse aristocrats”: Ibid.

  “The relationship between longhouse people”: Ibid.

  The Brooke regime: Ibid.

  The Brooke government also forbade: Ibid.

  “I give my friend the name Spring”: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 325.

  The first blockades broke out: Wade Davis, Ian Mackenzie, and Shane Kennedy, Nomads of the Dawn: The Penan of the Borneo Rain Forest (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995), 132.

  “The bulldozers are quiet now”: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 314.

  “Furiously, some of the mad women”: Ibid., 330.

  “He wears John Lennon spectacles”: James P. Sterba, “Malaysian Tribe Fights to Preserve Forests, Win Native Rights,” Wall Street Journal, July 22, 1987.

  “The Wild Man of Borneo Leads in Blowpipe War”: Andrew Drummond, “The Wild Man of Borneo Leads in Blowpipe War,” Observer, April 1987.

  James Ritchie helicoptered in: Ritchie, Bruno Manser, 109.

  “I’ve built a hideaway”: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 320.

  In June, after Sahabat Alam Malaysia brought: Ritchie, Bruno Manser, 110–11.

  Penans “say yes to logging”: Quoted in Ruedi Suter, Rainforest Hero: The Life and Death of Bruno Manser (Basel: Bergli Books, 2016), 107.

  Finally, in October: Bending, Penan Histories, 99.

  A few weeks later the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly: Ibid.

  “The Europeans should blame the Penans”: Mahathir Mohamed quoted in Philip Hirsch and Carol Warren, eds., The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia: Resources and Resistance (London: Routledge, 1998), 96.

  In July the European Parliament: Lawrence S. Hamilton, “Tropical Forests: Identifying and Clarifying Issues,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, http://www.fao.org/3/a-u3500e/u3500e05.htm, accessed April 17, 2017.

  In November eleven Penan and Kelabit: Bending, Penan Histories, 100–101.

  In January even more blockades sprang up: Ibid.

  Harrison Ngau was arrested: Lukas Straumann, Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian timber Mafia (Basel: Bergli Books, 2014), 115.

  And, it was said, the government had placed: Ibid., 118.

  “In the company of two families”: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 445.

  In late summer 1989 he hiked: Author’s interview with Georges Rüegg, which included listening to the tape Bruno sent, with Rüegg translating.

  As he slashed through the undergrowth: Ibid., 657.

  Eleven

  Pit vipers are not the world’s deadliest snakes: Jim McGuire in email to author, November 15, 2016; also “Haemotoxic Venom,” Snake Bite Assist, http://snakebiteassist.co.za/venoms/haemotoxic-venom/, accessed April 4, 2017.

  “In the field”: “Snakebites,” MSD Manual, http://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/injuries-poisoning/bites-and-stings/snakebites, accessed April 4, 2017.

  While he was trying to massage his leg: Manser, Tagebücher aus dem Regenwald, 657–58.

  “I can only dream”: Ibid.

  Meanwhile, new blockades: Straumann, Money Logging, 126.

  Georges’s wife, Fabiola: Author’s interview with Georges Rüegg.

  Twelve

  In 2001 the total value of tribal art: “The Rise of the Tribal Art Market,” Art Media Agency, https://en.artmediaagency.com/116776/the-rise-of-the-tribal-art-market/, accessed April 18, 2017.

  One statue alone: Ibid.

  Indonesian tribal art: “The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Oceanic, and Indonesian Art—Volume One Totals $11.5 Million,” http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/BID/4317127130x0x709921/357E446C-2D0E-4CA5–9EB3–00B4EAABDD14/709921.pdf, accessed April 17, 2017.

  At Parcours des Mondes in Paris: Mark Johnson, “Tale of a Sculpture in Paris,” Science & Tribal Art, http://scienceandtribalart.com/discovery/tale-of-a-sculpture, accessed April 17, 2017. Also see “Report from Paris,” The Tribal Beat, October 16, 2013, http://thetribalbeat.blogspot.fr/2013/10/report-from-paris.html, accessed April 17, 2017.

  Goetz exuded a sharpness: Author’s multiple interviews with Alexander Goetz in Bali, Indonesia, in 2015 and 2016.

  Over decades beginning in the 1950s: Eric Pace, “Samuel Eilenberg, 84, Dies; Mathematician at Columbia,” New York Times, February 3, 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/03/nyregion/samuel-eilenberg-84-dies-mathematician-at-columbia.html, accessed April 18, 2017.

  In 1972, 186 nations signed: Although information about the UNESCO Convention and cultural property laws is widely available, my understanding of them was strengthened by interviews with Tess Davis, director of the Antiquities Coalition and an attorney specializing in cultural property; and Victoria Reed, Monica S. Sadler Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Unless otherwise noted, all information comes from those conversations.

  Attorneys have successfully argued: Ibid.

  All of which means: Tom Mashbert and Max Bearak, “The Ultimate Temple Raider?: Inside an Antiquities-Smuggling Operation,” New York Times, July 23, 2015.

  Like
wise the government of Cambodia: Author’s interview with Tess Davis.

  In Jakarta one day: Author’s interview with the curator of the ethnology collection at the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta, March 14, 2016.

  Thirteen

  “He was so small”: Author’s interview with Martin Vosseler, Basel, Switzerland, September 16, 2016. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information concerning Vosseler and his activities with Bruno came from this interview.

  “He was like Jesus Christ”: Author’s interview with Jacques Christinet, Basel, Switzerland, September 13, 2016. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information concerning Christenet and his activities with Bruno came from this interview.

  In the United States, he and Mutang: S.Res.280—A resolution to express the sense of the Senate concerning the tropical rain forests of Malaysia, https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-resolution/280, accessed April 4, 2017.

  In Canada: Ruedi Suter, Rainforest Hero: The Life and Death of Bruno Manser (Basel: Bergli Books, 2016), 143.

  In France: Ibid.

  In London: Ibid.

  In Germany: Ibid.

  In Japan: Ibid.

  The Eastern Penan had vague notions: J. Peter Brosius, “Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representations of Indigenous Knowledge,” Human Ecology 25, no. 1 (1997): 56–59.

  As Western writers: Ibid., 62.

  The anthropologist Peter Brosius: Ibid., 59.

  “I realize Bruno that you are besieged”: Wade Davis to Bruno Manser, undated, archives of the Bruno Manser Fund, Basel, Switzerland, accessed September 3–5, 2015.

  On June 20, 1991, Bruno received: Executed contract, archives of the Bruno Manser Fund, Basel, Switzerland, accessed September 3–5, 2015. Unless otherwise noted, all information concerning Bruno’s Warner Bros. film options came from these archives.

  At the G7 Summit: Stephen Kinzer, “Swiss Protester Fighting for World’s Forests,” New York Times, July 28, 1991.

  Pressure on Malaysia was mounting: Mohamed Mahathir to Bruno Manser, March 3, 1992, archives of the Bruno Manser Fund, accessed September 3–5, 2015.

  The journalist Ruedi Suter: Author’s interview with Ruedi Suter, Basel, Switzerland, September 14, 2016. Unless otherwise noted, quotes from Suter come from this interview.

  Fifteen

  “I had no family”: Author’s interview with Jacques Christinet, Basel, Switzerland, September 13, 2016.

  “I got a very light and clear state of mind”: Author’s interview with Martin Vosseler, Basel, Switzerland, September 16, 2016.

  Bruno traveled to the Congo: Ruedi Suter, Rainforest Hero: The Life and Death of Bruno Manser (Basel: Bergli Books, 2016), 221–233.

  He traveled to Mexico: Ibid., 217.

  On a train in Switzerland: Ibid., 155.

  “It was his character”: Author’s interview with Roger Graf, Zurich, Switzerland, September 17, 2016.

  In typical fashion: Author’s interview with Rudi Suter, Basel, Switzerland, September 14, 2016. Unless otherwise noted, quotes from Suter come from this interview.

  In April, Bruno filmed himself: Suter, Rainforest Hero, 269–270.

  He went anyway: Ibid., 273.

  He obtained a Swiss passport: James Ritchie’s Facebook page, accessed April 18, 2017.

  He also ran into the journalist: Ibid.

  As Ritchie raced around trying to find him: Ibid.

  Upon arrival in KL: Ibid.

  The Swedish filmmakers: Author’s interview with Edmund Grundner. I spent parts of two days with Grundner at his house in Halien, Austria, on August 8–9, 2015, and we met three more times in Bali in February 2016. Unless otherwise noted, all of the quotes and information, including letters, about Grundner and Manser in this chapter came from those interviews.

  “He was tired”: Suter, Rainforest Hero, 292–93.

  Months later Charlotte Belet: Author’s interview with Georges Rüegg, who had a copy of the letter.

  Sixteen

  “Our original home”: Biruté M. F. Galdikas, Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995), 252.

  Seventeen

  He didn’t know me: Ni Komang Erviani, “Sacred Art Thefts Anger Balinese Hindus,” Jakarta Post, July 6, 2013, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/09/06/sacred-art-thefts-anger-balinese-hindus.html, accessed on April 18, 2017; and “International Cooperation Requested to End Theft,” Jakarta Post, October 4, 2010, http://www.thejakartapost.com/amp/news/2010/10/04/international-cooperation-requested-end-theft.html, accessed April 17, 2017.

  After a vicious family feud: Kate Taylor, “A Collection of Tribal Art Is Embroiled in a Modern Family Feud,” New York Times, October 5, 2008.

  The donation in 2009 endowed: “Yale Indo-Pacific Art,” Council on Southeast Asia Studies, http://cseas.yale.edu/links/yale-indo-pacific-art, accessed April 17, 2017.

  “The heydays are over”: Author’s interview with Ruth Barnes, New Haven, Connecticut, November 4, 2016.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  Note: Page references in italics indicate photographs.

  Abang Openg, Abang Johari, 183

  Adventures in Paradise (Michener; television show), 34

  Afghanistan, Palmieri’s travels in, 60–66, 96

  Agan (Penan man 1), 130

  Agan (Penan man 2), 301

  Along, Menyit, 287–288

  Alpert, Steve, 160–161

  Amazon, indigenous people of, 171

  American Museum of Natural History, 143–144

  Annenberg, Walter, 313

  Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association, 148

  art and artifacts collection

  authenticating, 204–213

  early interest in indigenous artifacts, 3–4, 142–148

  Grundner and, 275–276

  legal issues of, 213–216

  modern-day galleries and exhibits of, 306, 307–309, 313–314

  Murray and, 148–153

  Palmieri’s early collecting, 1–2, 7–10, 140, 141–142, 148–162, 216 (see also Palmieri, Michael)

  in Pontianak, 249–250

  in Putussibau, 250–257

  in Samarinda, 239–249

  Asmat (people), 146, 147–148

  Astana (palace), 259

  Avian (Inuit child), 143–144

  Bahau (people)

  art and artifacts of, 154

  culture and rituals of, 155–156

  Bali (god), 78

  Bali (place)

  description of, 10–11, 85–86, 201–207

  dukun (shamans) of, 9–10

  Dutch settlers in, 86, 90, 157

  Jalan Tangkuban Perahu (street of antique shops), 207–213

  Javanese descendants in, 31, 86–87

  Palmieri’s move to, 38, 85–94

  tourism in, 3, 87

  Barbier-Mueller, Jean Paul, 147, 150–151

  Barbier-Mueller Museum (Geneva), 147

  Barley, Nigel, 81

  Barnes, Ruth, 313–314

  Basap (people), 277

  Bataks (people), textiles and artifacts of, 150

  Batu Lawi (mountain peak), 184–185, 295, 311

  BBC London, 179

  Belet, Charlotte, 275, 278, 309

  Blick (Switzerland), on blockades, 178

  blockades. see logging and resistance

  Bock, Carl, 93–94, 157–158

  Bokemeier, Rolf, 123–124, 127

  Bolick, Petra, 267–268

  Borneo. see also Brooke, James (Rajah of Borneo); Dayaks; Manser, Bruno; Palmieri, Michael; Penans; individual place names

  colonial history of, 105–107 (see also Brooke, James (Rajah of Borneo))

  description of, 11

  Kalimantan (Indonesia) part of, 8

  modes of travel to, 235–240, 283–288
>
  Palmieri’s arrival in Long Apari, 31–32

  Sarawak (Malaysia) part of, 5

  “wild men of Borneo,” 90, 122

  Borneo Post, on blockades, 182

  Britain, Sarawak rule by, 105–107. see also Brooke, James (Rajah of Borneo)

  British Museum, 144, 146

  Brooke, Charles, 106

  Brooke, James (Rajah of Borneo)

  Astana (palace), 259

  Brooke family reign in Sarawak, 105–107

  exploration by, 51

  Penan and Dayak exchanges managed by, 172–173

  in Sarawak, 79–80

  as self-proclaimed rajah, 11, 90

  Brosius, Peter, 172, 224

  Bruno Manser Fund (BMF). see also Graf, Roger; Rüegg, Georges

  Kaelin and, 282–289

  Manser’s departure from, 274–275

  Manser’s management and, 170–171

  ongoing work of, 282

  Bugis (people), 31, 242

  Busang (people), art and artifacts of, 154

  Cambodia, art collection laws, 215

  Carpenter, Bruce, 148, 151, 153, 307

  childbirth practices, of Penan, 117–119

  Christinet, Jacques, 221, 265–267, 268–269, 271, 275

  Cornfeld, Bernard “Bernie,” 66

  Covarrubias, Miguel, 85, 87

  crocodiles, Dayak beliefs about, 91, 256

  Dallas Museum of Art, 140, 160–161

  Danau Sentarum National Park, 250–257

  Davis, Wade, 223–224, 230–231

  Dayaks (people). see also Iban Dayaks; Kayan Dayaks; Kelabit Dayaks; Kenyah Dayaks; Modang Dayaks; Ngaju Dayaks

  artifacts of, 93–94, 140, 142, 154–162, 245, 247–249

  beliefs of, 1–2, 7–10, 21, 88–94, 97–99, 106, 234, 235–238, 255–256

  Dinda (Dayak Rajah), 157–160

  Graf and, 111–114

  ikat textiles, 149–150, 210, 260

  kepala kampong (Dayak village headman), 98

  longhouses/homes of, 11, 97

  missionaries and, 99, 100, 102

  modern-day prices for art of, 203

  Palmieri’s arrival and, 31–32, 89–90, 94–102

  Penan trade with, 76, 90, 172–173

  rituals of, 91–93, 154–156

  statues found by Palmieri, 1–2, 7–10, 159–161

  totem poles, 97, 99

  tribes of, overview, 90, 166

 

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