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Bruno Manser Fonds
Heuberg 25
4051 Basel
Switzerland
phone +41 61 261 94 74
fax +41 61 261 94 73
updated 2001-07-03
Documentation "Mahnbaum für Bruno Manser"
Text for Bruno
by Amy Fedde
Bruno has made an incredible difference in my life for one I doubt I would have ever had the experience of living with the Penan had it not been for his film blowpipes and bulldozers. this film inspired me and a friend to "go hang" with the natives and get a taste of what the "real wold" holds. not a world of driving to a job and slaving away for hours to earn the money needed to buy leasure, food, and shelter. My first night with the Penan I could not get a wink of sleep . . . all I could do is write . . it mattered not that there was no light to write by . . .Ijust HAD to write . . . for the first time in my LIFE I had felt a real sense of HOME . . .HOME . . .that place were all your needs available . . . shelter was created from the trees and plants of the immediate environment . . . food was gathered from the area within a few days of camp . . . rest was natural . . .nothing to be bought but somthing earned from the labors of the day . . .and celebrated in with those you lived with. finally when I decided that I wanted to write by some light I attempted to light a fire . . . after many failed attempts . . . one of my hosts awoke and instantly had my fire going and went back to bed. I was entranced by the fact that I was in the forest with people whose ancestors had lived there in harmony for eons . . .they lived in a culture that had developed to meet the needs of their world thousands of years ago . . . I on the other hand came from a world that was developing dysfunction at an alarming pace and threatning the world of the Penan and fellow Dayaks . . . it made my head spin for the next 10 years . . . I went back to the USA more disillusioned about the world I grew up in than ever before . . .Ihad known that the great materialistic way had brought a LOT of distruction to the world . . . and that made me mad . . . it really hit home HOW much distruction it continued to bring . . .and how contagious materialism was to the extent that permit officers I talked to to get permission to enter the forest felt that the ONLY reason environmentalists wanted ancient cultures like the Penan be allowed to continue living as they choose . . . without interference . . . was because we wanted a living museum to visit and the governments of the leading world powers didn't want the economic competition of a "young power" such as Malaysia since the fall of 1990 I have been a humanrights speaker to local groups, I have participated in protests against loggers around the world, I have organized benifits on their behalf, I have gone to school to learn to be a more effective activist and I have gone insane trying to make more of a difference . . .more of a difference like Bruno and everyone at BMF and so many others that have put so much energy into helping the Penan . . . now . . .after much thought and therapy I have come to the conclusion that the best way to make a difference is to offer myself where I can . . . I know where I can make the greatest contribution is the same place where the Penan and Dayaks shared so much with me . . .at HOME . . .they taught me to live with the environment as simply as possible and to share . . . in there honor I grow and eat native and naturalized foods, offer my home as shelter to those who need a place to stay and share as much knowledge about ancient ways as much as people are willing to absorb and then some I wish I could do more . . . I just haven't figured out what that is other than what I am already doing . . . I had to work a lot with feeling like a failure since I couldn't save the Penan myself and I didn't have the money and or guts to do more spectacular feats of media grabbing. . . . I am very thankful to those who do . . . in the mean time I live as simply as possible for me . . .and incourage others to to the same . . . and remind them that many cultures had developed their way of life . . .that worked for them for eons . . . way before "popular" culture started mucking things up so badly . . . I honor Bruno for being so strong for the Penan . . . I honor the Penan for holding on so tightly to time honored ways for so long . . . I honor those who continue to work to make a difference for first peoples of the world . . . for they are our roots and without them . . . the rest of the world just withers and slowly dies away from lack of touch with reality
amy fedde, may 2001
Friends carry the totem through Berne, may 23rd, 2001