AS WORLDS DIVIDE – COMMUNITY IMPACT
For all those who have seen the As Worlds Divide film, given support or followed the progress of this Mentawai, social impact project over the past ten years, check out this short video update from the community: We greatly appreciate your ongoing support and donations. For further details about this cultural education program, including monthly progress reports, visit our Indigenous Education →
WAFSAC HAS BEEN EXTENDED!
The ‘Watch a film, save a culture' wafsac reached its 30th day last Monday. Whilst we’ve yet to reach our targets in terms of funds raised, we are extremely grateful and moved by the level of support you’ve given over the past month – particularly by how far the voice of Indigenous Mentawai has been carried across Australia and around the →
WHAT IS #WAFSAC?
Four months ago we premiered our documentary As Worlds Divide at Federation Square, Melbourne, and in collaboration with the Indigenous Education Foundation (IEF) launched the #wafsac - ‘watch a film, save a culture’ fundraising drive. We’ve since held public screening events in Torquay, Redfern, Bondi, Avalon, Newcastle, Forster, Sawtell, Byron, Casuarina, Burleigh Heads, Northcote and Mallorca – raising more than →
AS WORLDS DIVIDE FILM LAUNCH AND #WAFSAC CAMPAIGN
Thank you to everyone who attended the As Worlds Divide film premiere event last Friday, the 24th of March. The level of support and generosity for Suku Mentawai and the ‘watch a film, save a culture’ #wafsac campaign was truly inspiring. Together, we raised $20,000 for their cultural and environmental-based indigenous education program (CEEP). We’d also like to extend our thanks →
AS WORLDS DIVIDE PREMIERE, TICKETS ON SALE
We’re proud to announce that tickets to the premiere of our feature documentary film, As Worlds Divide, are now on sale. This event will take place at Deakin Edge, Federation Square on March 24th and will also celebrate the launch of our new charity, Indigenous Education Foundation (IEF), ‘watch a film, save a culture’ #wafsac campaign and a cultural / photographic →
PREPARING OUR FILM’S RELEASE CAMPAIGN
These past few months we have been busy researching and developing a strategy to release our feature documentary film, As Worlds Divide. Our primary objective is to utilise the film’s release to help fund the 10-year implementation of Suku Mentawai’s Cultural and Environmental Education Program (CEEP) – and thus prevent the loss of their precious Indigenous knowledge. Last Tuesday we gathered →
FILM OUTREACH STRATEGY
I have been a little inactive here these past few months, but for good reason. Having finally finalised the film’s production – yes, very happy – it has provided some much-needed time to catch up on the happenings of the Foundation; namely, identifying weaknesses and planning steps to strengthen and move forward. One key component of this planning is the film’s →
A GREAT RESULT!
The fundraiser event went really well. The day was a lot of fun and we managed to raise well in excess of what we’d hoped. Thank you for all the generous donations and support. Unbelievable. Please click on over to iefprograms.org/fundraiser-raffle-day-a-huge-success for results, photographs and a wrap up of the day’s event. Thanks and stay tuned for some exciting developments →
$2000 LAST-MAN-STANDING DRAW!
I find the fund-raising aspect of this project quite challenging and so it generally gets pushed aside in the hope that the task will just disappear, but of course it doesn’t. It grows. Until finally there comes a time such as this where opportunity and need wonderfully collide and action simply must be taken. Fact of the matter is we need →
WIN THIS LIMITED EDITION MENTAWAI PHOTO!
We plan to commence work on the Suku Mentawai program before the end of the year. However, to do so, we need to raise initial funding through IEF. If you’d like to win this certified limited edition (artist proof #1) photo of native Mentawai - framed, be in the running by purchasing a raffle ticket for $2 each or $5 →
BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENT THUS FAR!
What might you wonder if you found a species of plant now struggling to survive in the exact same location it had flourished in for thousands of years – even after being provided a variety of enhancements to help it grow? …‘What is it that has suddenly caused this change?’ perhaps. Over the past six years I’ve been researching and documenting →
SUPPORT AGAINST INDIGENOUS DISPLACEMENT
To reveal a little more of what this project hopes to achieve and to give those interested in supporting its cause a chance to do so, I'm launching a two-week fundraising campaign selling t-shirts to raise money for the not-for-profit indigenous education initiative. To see the entire range of men's and women's t-shirt designs and to learn exactly how you'll be →
FISCAL SPONSOR
As Worlds Divide has been approved by the Documentary Australia Foundation as a project suitable for philanthropic support and is now provided fiscal sponsorship. Meaning any financial support given toward the project's completion will be fully tax deductible here in Australia. Which, given the 'real damn close' stage the project is now at, could prove somewhat beneficial. You'll find the →
LIFE AND DEATH IN MENTAWAI
Each time I return to Mentawai I discover something new about the people and about the way they deal with the often-confronting circumstances that arise during their lives. This recent experience presented all that and more. Arriving in the port town of Siberut, Arla and I were greeted by news that my friend Aman Masit Dere was ill. His condition though →
WHAT IS REALLY BEST FOR THE COMMUNITY?
Infant mortality is indeed a sensitive subject and, for all things related, difficult to know how best to approach when discussing on a public platform. My dilemma, after having observed an unexpected sense of functionality in a people coping with losing what I’d consider to be an abnormally high number of infants, is that as a result of this I →
MOVING FORWARD
The project is at a stage where I’ve begun contacting and presenting to those I hope can help take it that next step toward release. Which is extremely exciting. Interestingly, I’m observing that people are generally really busy. Meaning that for many opportunities I await response. Admittedly I’m not as aggressive in pushing for people’s time as I perhaps →
GETTING TO KNOW THE SHAMAN, SIKEREI
I wanted to share this sequence of images with you and so thought I’d accompany it with a few observations I find interesting about the Mentawai shaman, Sikerei. Firstly, to become Sikerei is to devote ones life to teaching, healing, and protecting the people; this is their role. One important component of this role involves learning from their predecessors the →
PROJECT OVERVIEW
To clarify exactly what this project entails and hopes to achieve I have formulated a vision board; a simple step-by-step infographic identifying the problem, how this was found, the solution, and a pathway to achieving its long-term goal. I have posted a copy of this here for you to examine. As you can see, the film, BUI MAREUREU BAAP As Worlds →
NEW MENTAWAI UMA
I’ve just returned from a relatively short trip back to the Islands, which, as always, was wonderfully uplifting. The motive for this particular journey came via an invitation to attend a cultural celebration held for the construction of a new Uma (long house), which was built last year by Sikerei, Aman Masit Dere and his son, Aman Kacau. As is →
KEY DOCUMENTS
To give a brief update on the project, I’d like to share with you the news that two key documents, which are particularly vital to establishing the project’s direction and further development, have now been completed. The first of these documents, the Indigenous Mentawai Community Research Report, presents a detailed analysis of the baseline survey alongside secondary/pre-existing research data; establishing a →
KEY INFORMATION, UPDATED
Given that the teaser and synopsis featured here on the film’s website no longer represented what the film is actually about, in light of the recent realisation and subsequent changes to the story, I've now replaced them with versions that actually do. Which you can view here below or otherwise in the designated areas found on the website, as per →
MENTAWAI SONG: SIKEREI
In light of the information presented in the previous post, and indeed the disposition its inspired, I wanted to post something a little more light-hearted, like a song. Well, a mixture of two songs actually. With the more predominant praising the healing and shamanistic abilities of Sikerei – as illustrated by the visuals shown in the video; and the second, →
TWISTS AND TURNS
To suggest there’s been a lot happen with this project over the past few years, in terms of the number of developments moving forward, backward and, more often than not, in circles, would be somewhat of an understatement. In fact, when considering the unconventional path it’s followed – particularly when knowing that, as I am still learning, it’s a path →
TO DIVERT THE ATTENTION FOR A MOMENT…
Dear reader, Whilst I’ve found working on the analysis report and program these past few weeks to be incredibly fascinating, and exciting too – allowing me to simulate what I presume to be the practices of a university student – I’ve now reached a point where, to progress, I must digress. The focus, in the hope of re-establishing productivity via the →
