'Person of the Forest, Borneo' The Penan people and Orangutans in the Borneo Rainforest
FOLLOW OUR EXPEDITION TO THE PENAN TRIBE AND ORANGUTANS OF THE BORNEO RAINFOREST
WE WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO USE THE RESOURCES ON THIS PAGE TO QUESTION, LEARN, CONNECT & THEN TO REFLECT AND CREATE THEIR OWN PIECE OF ‘PERSON OF THE FOREST’ ART
TO EXHIBIT ON THE WORLDGALLERY.ONLINE
Let's make this 'live', real and personal for your children
Why?
Deforestation for palm oil and logging is causing huge damage to the rainforests of Borneo. We travelled to meet the Penan tribe in Sarawak and explored their culture, knowledge and music. The Penan children joined in with ‘Last Chance to Paint’ by painting and drawing their rainforest and tribal village.
Palm oil is a super-efficient crop, meaning that we can produce ten times more oil on the same area of land compared to other oil crops like soybean oil or coconut oil. It is also less dependant on pesticides and fertilisers and is produced from African oil palms. The bad news is that these plantations are creating a huge loss of rainforest, over 80% in Borneo and adding many animals, including the orangutan, to the critically endangered list. We travelled to the far south of Borneo to Central Kalimantan and the Orangutan Foundation with the Indonesian Government allowed John Dyer to travel deep into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve to meet and paint the orangutans.
Where and when?
The Penan live in Mulu, Sarawak and are one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes although the majority of the tribe now lives in settlements. Mulu is a world heritage area. We painted with the Penan tribe and in the rainforest from September 6th to September 10th 2019.
From the 11th to 18th September we painted and learnt about orangutans. There are several reserves for orangutans in Borneo as so many have been injured or lost their homes due to deforestation. Spotting orangutans in the wild is very difficult so we will met the ‘forest people’ at the Orangutan Foundation in Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo to get a true sense of their beguiling nature and the sheer beauty of the tropical forests they live in.
Teaching Resources available to download now
The Born Free Foundation, with the help of the Eden Project and the Last Chance to Paint team have created downloadable lesson plans and teacher notes for learning about the Borneo rainforest and to follow the ‘Person of the Forest’ adventure.
The teaching resources contain drawing and painting tips as well as links to Geography, Science, English, SMSC and Citizenship curricula.
What do we want you to do?
We want you to use the art of John Dyer combined with our ‘LIVE’ video diary, the ability for you to send us questions from the children and our interactive blogs to immerse your school and children in the subject of the Borneo rainforest and to ‘travel’ with us.
The reflective space created whilst making a piece of art is the moment children will bond to the subject, learn & care
John Dyer
Encourage your children to question, connect and to then create their own piece of rainforest inspired art based on the Borneo rainforest plants and animals, the Penan people or orangutans and to upload it to our WorldGallery.online.
Help us to make real connections between peoples and to create the largest online art gallery celebrating the natural world. View the gallery now and get ready to upload your children’s art.
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BORNEO RAINFOREST
Martha-Lilly Dyer took lots of amazing photos that will inspire you and your children
Nyapun's home
Nyapun and his family
Outcomes
By spending time painting and drawing with the Penan tribe we will all learn a great deal about the rainforest and their culture. It will be a unique insight into tribal life and a privilege to work alongside the tribe.
The project will naturally bring up the complex issues surrounding agriculture, population, commercial use of vegetable oils, deforestation for logging and how we need to urgently find a balance in the future so that ecosystems and man can co-exist.
We hope that the children who engage in the project will have a chance to ask direct questions to the scientists and conservationists working with the orangutans and to talk with John Dyer as he embarks on his series of new paintings. They will also be able to ask the Penan questions and share their drawings and paintings with the children from the tribe. This cultural and scientific exchange should build lifelong connections.
Day 1 – Person of The Forest
Day 1 – Person of The Forest Hello everyone and welcome to our second chapter of Last Chance to Paint, “Person of The Forest”! We have been looking forward to this chapter and are delighted to say that we are LIVE NOW! After a very long day with some hair-raising near missed connections, travel time […]
Day 2 – Person of The Forest
Today we woke up refreshed after an excellent nights sleep. Even though it took until after breakfast for me to realise my shirt was inside out, much to my embarrassment, we set out for an exciting day. At “promptly” 8am, which turned out more like 8:30, we took a taxi to Batu Bungan, the village […]
Our exact location!
We are currently on the world’s third largest island in the rainforest of Borneo. Find our exact location via our Iridium satellite via this link: http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=4.057700&lon=116.049200 P.S. there is a large thunderstorm just starting with lightning and thunder booming over the rainforest!
Bat painting
First painting completed! 12×12 inches acrylic on canvas. This one is of the bat exodus from the caves in Mulu. I included a couple of Hornbill birds that we heard high in the rainforest canopy and some of the amazing butterflies too. Hope you like it. We are off up river later. John.
Day 3 – Person of The Forest
Today was hugely fun and hugely busy! This morning started with a boat ride, our final destination set as Clear Water Cave. En route we took an unexpected detour, a walk through Batu Bungan, the Penan village. The reason for our detour was due to low water level in the river meaning our boat was […]
Latest painting – Borneo ‘Clearwater Cave’ at Mulu
After a very busy day exploring two tribal Penan villages and the largest cave system in South East Asia I decided to paint the beautiful sight and experience of the crystal clear water bubbling up from underground from the Clear Water Cave where Martha-Lilly, Robin and I took a well deserved swim surrounded by rainforest, […]
Day 4 – Person of The Forest
HEAD OVER TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO WATCH ALL OUR VIDEOS SO FAR. DAY 4 VIDEO TO BE RELEASED 9am UK TIME 10th SEP (if all the tech works!) We had another fairly early start this morning to ensure we kept to the plan to leave camp at 8am. This morning we went to Deer […]
Today’s painting is of the Penan village of Long Iman
After visiting the amazing bat cave (Deer cave) at Mulu, I returned to base and spent the afternoon painting my experience of visiting the long house at the Penan village of Long Iman. We arrived at the village by motorised canoe and headed straight to the long house. This is the narrative in my painting […]
Day 5 – Person of The Forest.
Today is our last day in Mulu before we fly to the very southern tip of Borneo , Lamandau Wildlife Reserve. Sadly we said goodbye to Robin today, who took a flight back to the UK. We’ll really miss him as we continue our travels south but it has been so valuable having him on […]
Day 7 – Person of the forest
Hello! Today we left our hotel to take the journey to our next destination. This week, we are working with the Orangutan Foundation in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, Kalimantan, the very south of Borneo. Our journey began with a flight from Jakarta to Pangkalan Bun, which unfortunately was delayed by nearly two hours. When we eventually […]
Day 8 – Person of the forest
Today we woke up in Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, excited for what was to come. It’s all about Orangutans here! It was an early start, around 6am, to ensure we didn’t miss anything. This early start also meant that we were able to release our video via satellite! Yes it works! At 7am the first set […]
SMS from [email protected]
Lat-2deg42’39” Lon+111deg26’47” Alt+091ft GPS Sats seen: 10 2019-09-14 00:55UTC http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=-2.710925&lon=111.446555 Sent via Iridium GO!
Day 9 – Person of the Forest
It’s all about the monkey business today! We woke up nice and early again, ready for the day ahead, to the sound of Gibbons calling to each other across the forest. We’ve been told that most mornings they call to each other, and it was incredible to hear them. After posting yesterday’s video, via satellite, […]
Day 10 – Person of the Forest, Borneo
We woke up this morning to find the atmosphere filled with smoke from the forest fires which are burning across Borneo. The fires have a number of causes, natural, small holder farmers clearing forest and land, hunters and large scale deforestation for crops like palm oil. More that 4000 fires or ‘hot spots’ have been […]
Inspired?
Get your children painting and drawing now and send in their ‘Person of the Forest’ art so we can celebrate it and what we all stand to lose on the WorldGallery.onlineEnter soon to be part of the next Art Awards round
Chapter Sponsor
InnovaArt
Innova Art has kindly sponsored our ‘Person of the Forest, Borneo’ chapter of ‘Last Chance to Paint’ and we are very grateful to them. We use Innova Art paper at The John Dyer Gallery for our art poster range and Innova Art share our passion for art, education and connecting people to the environment.
“Innova Art is wholly committed to preserving the environment for future generations. As such we ensure that all of the materials for the base of our papers are ethically sourced, maintaining the future of the world’s natural resources.”
Supporter
Orangutan Foundation
The Orangutan Foundation is kindly helping with our ‘Innova Art – Person of the Forest, Borneo’ chapter of ‘Last Chance to Paint’. Ashley Leiman, OBE, the director of the foundation is helping us to plan and be able to see orangutans at the Lamandau wildlife reserve.
“The Orangutan Foundation runs its own programmes in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. We work in collaboration with The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry We place a strong emphasis on capacity building of key stakeholders who include local communities, local NGO’s, local business and regional government. With their inclusion comes conservation success and sustainability.”
Supporter
Steppes Travel
Steppes Travel have very kindly supported ‘Person of the Forest’ and the Last Chance to Paint team with their expert knowledge, advice and generous sponsorship. Steppes Travel have many working partners around the world that are involved in protecting the environment, including the Orangutan Foundation, and we are thrilled to be working with them.