Meet the last Borneo villager who still crafts his own blowpipe for hunting
A member of the Penan tribe on the island of Borneo, Balan is the last elder in his village who practices the craft of blowpipe making. The Penan blowpipe is a traditional hunting weapon with a unique design, and it can be crafted only with intense care and tireless manual labour. Balan the Blowpipe Maker is an excerpt from Ross Harrison’s 30-minute documentary Sunset Over Selungo, which profiles several members of the Penan tribe as their way of life is threatened by the effects of climate change and deforestation in the Borneo rainforest.
Director: Ross Harrison
video
Art
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
video
Anthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
29 minutes
video
Archaeology
At a prehistoric pigment mine, researchers glimpse our earliest moments in the Americas
25 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
video
Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes