by Wade Davis
First published 1990
Wade Davis documents the lives and struggles of the Penan people as logging companies advance into their ancestral territories in Borneo's rainforest. The book captures the nomadic hunter-gatherers' deep connection to the forest ecosystem and their resistance to industrial encroachment. Davis presents the Penan perspective on environmental destruction through their own voices and testimonies. The work reveals how indigenous knowledge systems clash with modern economic pressures. At its heart, this is a story about cultural survival and the fight to preserve a way of life that has existed for centuries in harmony with one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems.
Genres: social-issues, anthropology, non-fiction, environmental-science, cultural, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-clash, environmental-activism, indigenous-perspective
Setting: Borneo, Penan
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
158 pages · Paperback · Western Canada Wilderness Committee