VOA标准英语2011--Indonesian Documentary Highlights Tribes

Indonesian Documentary Highlights Tribes Fighting Developers and Conservationists

A new documentary about a school in a remote rainforest in Indonesia highlights how education is helping¹ indigenous² people to stand up for their rights. In addition to learning to read and write, the students also learn how to organize themselves against outsiders. The students are confronting both the developers who want to cut down their tribe's forests and the conservationists opposed to tribal³ foraging⁴, hunting and fishing practices.
The documentary Guru Rimba, which means jungle teacher, is a profile of the teacher and students in a unique school located in the rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The film starts off showing the new teacher's difficult journey to reach the remote classroom and it then shifts to focus on the lives of the children living in the school. From there it pivots⁵ again to show how the students are leading the efforts of the 3,000 Orang Rimba or jungle people in the Anak Dalam tribe to protect their land.
While the film struggles to maintain a coherent narrative⁶, it features rarely seen footage of the children who attend the jungle school. It also provides a unique insight into how the modern world is threatening the indigenous people's traditional way of life.
Filmmaker Vivian Idris lived for weeks at a time in the mosquito-infested jungle and was given rare permission to film the students at the school.
"The most rewarding part, of course, also to be able to be part of their society," said Idris. "I mean, to sit with them, to sleep with them, to eat with them, you know."
Idris says she was restricted for the most part from filming women. Girls are also not permitted to attend school which is located away from the villages. The boys who attend live at the school and study for weeks at a time.
The school was founded by anthropologist⁷ Butet Manurung over a decade ago. She says it took a year to overcome the suspicions of the indigenous people who saw no benefit to education and even believed pencils and pens to be taboo⁸.
"They cannot even hold the pencil," she said. "They think it is an evil. Because every time they went to the market and selling their stuff, people in the market always have their pens, and then counting, and then always come up with the numbers they don't like."
The indigenous people live in a designated national park area called Bukit 12. Manurung's educational outreach program was originally funded by Warsi, an environmental organization. Manurung eventually left Warsi because she did not agree with its conservationist curriculum advocating against any farming or even small land use projects in the park.
"I come with a different opinion,"she said. "I thought they need to know about life skills. They need to know what their right is and I want them to go for it by themselves."
The Orang Rimba are caught between environmentalists and developers that are destroying Indonesian forests at the rate of 100 million hectares per year to make way mostly for lucrative⁹ palm oil farming.
Pengendum, a 20-year-old former student of the school, is now helping to organize the tribes to protect their way of life. He says the national park was made by the forest ministry¹⁰ without involving the jungle people and jungle people could be scattered¹¹ because the rules do not involve us at all.
He says the school has given the Orang Rimba the academic skills and the confidence to stand up for their rights. And he hopes the documentary will tell their story to the world.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

3 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

4 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句

5 pivots   

n.枢( pivot的名词复数 )；最重要的人（或事物）；中心；核心v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的第三人称单数 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开

参考例句：

• The success of the project pivots on investment from abroad. 这个工程的成功主要依靠外来投资。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The novel pivots around a long conversation between two characters. 这部小说是以两个人物的对话为中心展开的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

7 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

8 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

9 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

10 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

11 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。