Hunting a Symbol of Hope

This content may be disturbing to some viewers.

In the depths of the secondary forests of Upper Baram, a group of Penan hunters catch and kill a wild boar. For thousands of years Penan communities have lived off hunting and foraging. However, after deforestation everything changed. As Mutang Tu’o says, When the forests were cut down all of the animals ran away. In this way, the return of the boar to the secondary forests is a symbol of hope. A material example that the animals have returned to the land.

When Mutang Tu’o travelled the planet in the activist campaign “Voices of the Rainforest” he spoke at the White House, in the UN headquarters and with parliamentary officials in Canada, Japan, Australia and the UK. In all of his talks with politicians he told them, “we Penan people are hungry”. Forty years later, as the secondary forests slowly begin to grow back, several of the palms and fruit bearing trees are once more producing fruits, and so slowly the boars are returning.

For many audiences, this clip will be regarded as very confronting and even disturbing. However, across Sarawak these videos are not only celebrated, but often shared and distributed far and wide with appreciation. In Penan communities, everyone has first hand experience with the killing of animals and or the carving of game into meat, distributed across the community. Whilst the rest of the world often consumes meat and animal products with no idea of how the animal lived or how it died, in Penan communities it is a part of life. There is gratitude for the animal and a respect of how one life can sustain another.