Nomads of the dawn

The Penan of the Borneo Rain Forest, by Wade Davis, Ian Mackenzie & Shane Kennedy. Pb., 144 pages, ills., 1995 Text: English

'We yearn for the sounds of the forest. We have always heard these sounds. And now it is harder for us because we hear the sound of bulldozers. And that is what we always talk about, we women, when we get together. How will we live, how will we thrive, now that we have all these new problems? To us the sound of bulldozers is death. We weep when we see the forest that has been destroyed, when we see the red land. It is hard for us to look at the red land.' Lejeng Kusin, Ubong River, May 1993.