CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
INDONESIA ON THE BRINK OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Rising sea levels are sinking Jakarta faster than any other city on Earth and people are losing their homeland. The environmental cost is unbearable and Indonesians are forced to relocate their capital city to the tropical rain forests of Borneo
Words: Aleksandra Georgieva
Photography: Radoslav Bali, Magdalena Love, Kal Visuals
21 August 2020
Imagine a place like a hundred countries blended into one. Every person different from the next, much like the land that covers over 17,000 of the surrounding islands. A kaleidoscope of humanity, flora, fauna, scenery, culture and food. There is a place on Earth just like this – a land with massive potential for exploration and adventure.
Spread for 5000km across the equator, one finds the beguiling nation of Indonesia. Here diversity is what unifies people. Every island is unique. Sumatra hosts an army of 100 volcanoes, some still active, while Sulawesi's coastlines treasure diving haunts and white-sand beaches. The Balinese culture is deeply embedded in the mystery of the spiritual, while the Asmat people of Papua still preserve the animist belief system dating back to ancient times. Tales of the twisted history of the Banda Islands are whispered among locals while Jakarta buzzes with tourist crowds. The idyllic harmony in nature leave humbling and almost heart-stopping views of wild animals, coexisting in plain sight among unspoilt nature.
The Indonesian wilderness greets you with the promise that yours are the first footsteps to grace the land. This country is a rare place to visit on this planet. It intoxicates you with a sense of adventure while you sail the empty sea past the Kei Islands or sit at the open door train to Java. An orang-utan will swing past you through the trees. Ancient ruins will lay at your feet guarding tales of the times the mystifying West Timor village was built from the ground up.
Indonesia is a land like no other. A kaleidoscope of islands, people, nature and adventures that spoil any human fortunate enough to have experienced the Indonesian charm. But Indonesia is not what ancient times remember it to be. It is no longer simply a land of great adventures. It is 2020 and a new era is upon us. Humanity creates a lifestyle that leaves a print on every destination across the globe. Like a haunting ghost that stretches its hands, the effects of global warming touch even the most remote regions on the planet – from the overpopulated megalopolis cities to the least inhabited places on Earth. From the highest peaks to the deepest ocean floors and from the deepest forests to every coast humanity leaves a footprint.
It is 2020 and a new era is upon us. Humanity creates a lifestyle that leaves a print on every destination across the globe.
It is 2020 and Indonesia is sinking. Late last year it was announced that the capital city of Jakarta faces an unmanageable climate threat. President Joko Widodo said the burden on Jakarta was “too heavy” and Indonesians will soon have a new capital – the island of Borneo, home to some of the world’s greatest tropical rain forests. However, the move comes at a great economic cost. The relocation will cost $33bn, or if done improperly, fleeing one ecological catastrophe will only lead to another.
The coastal city of Jakarta is extremely vulnerable to the rising sea levels, which have been imposing a great and constant threat on coastal cities across the globe in recent decades. Traffic congestion, unregulated draining and pollution are just the tip of the iceberg that is taking Jakarta underwater. The neighbourhoods at highest risk are already sinking by 20cm per year – faster than any other area in the world.
Jakarta is the home to nearly 10 million residents. The majority of the people are likely to remain in the city, which is predicted to remain a significant financial and commercial centre. Yet, the administrative functions of Jakarta are to be moved about 1,000km to Kalimantan, which is part of the island of Borneo, also shared with Brunei and Malaysia. The government states that relocating the capital city closer to the centre of all 17,000 islands aims to create a more positive environmental impact and to tackle some of the inequality issues among the local residents. While the planning minister Bambang Brodjonegoro ensures citizens will rehabilitate rather than disturb the existing forests, conservationists fear the pressure such relocation would bring upon the rain forest habit species.
The word refuge used to apply only to those seeking shelter from humanitarian and economic conflicts such as war times but in modern times there is one more factor to add to the list of life-threatening factors that entire nations around the globe fight on daily basis. The concept of an environmental refugee is beginning to take shape and people will merely be the ones to set the path that so many other species might follow. With the death of entire regions of tropical rain forests, rare species such as the endangered orang-utans are on the brink of extinction.
Whatever the future holds for the vivid nation of Indonesians, one thing is for sure – the effects of climate change are already taking a toll upon the country’s nature and the local citizens. Global warming sinks entire cities underwater, kills tropical crops, forces animal species outside their natural habitat. Jakarta is merely one of many examples of people forced outside the borders of their homeland due to devastating consequences of climate change.
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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