Whereas these circumstances might have substantial impacts on the environmental rights of Indonesians and their kids, elevating consciousness about local weather litigation has been difficult for environmental campaigners, mentioned environmental lawyer Sekar Banjaran Aji, who can also be a campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia.
“Local weather litigation as a subject may be very troublesome and [complex] even for adults,” Sekar Banjaran informed the Eco-Enterprise Podcast.
In response, Greenpeace Indonesia labored with journalist and creator Titah Aw and illustrator Sekar Bestari to supply a sequence of kids’s books that simplified these subjects into narratives that may very well be simply understood.
On this podcast, they share:
- How they mixed key info and imaginative parts to inform local weather tales
- Why it is crucial for tales of local weather change and litigation to be informed extra extensively
- What mother and father and kids have discovered from studying the books
- How the creator and illustrator’s personal experiences with nature formed their environmental advocacy
Edited transcript:
Are you able to introduce the books briefly and the way the thought for them took place?
Sekar Banjaran: I’m a part of a small challenge inside Greenpeace Indonesia centered on the local weather litigation marketing campaign. All through the marketing campaign, we met individuals who impressed us to save lots of our forests and communicate up about local weather change and local weather justice.
However local weather litigation as a subject may be very troublesome and segmented even for adults. We confronted the issue of creating this marketing campaign [accessible] for everybody. So, we met with Titah and Sekar Bestari to debate how we might deliver this story to a wider viewers. We selected storytelling through kids’s books, and we brainstormed concepts to select from our many tales.
We have now 5 books. The primary one is Exploring the Nice Forest. The second is about our tremendous crew, One Day as a Forest Firefighter. And the third ebook is The place Does the Haze Go? – it’s concerning the transboundary haze that occurred throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, and likewise Singapore.
The fourth ebook is Salawaku, Defend of the Forest. It’s concerning the story of indigenous folks in Papua who’re saving their forests. And the final ebook is a really touching story, The Forest is Our Mom, additionally from the indigenous Papuans.
In October 2024, Greenpeace Indonesia launched a sequence of 5 kids’s books centered on environmental safety and local weather litigation. Picture: Greenpeace
Titah, in The place Does the Haze Go?, you personified of the Haze. You’ve labored as a journalist for many of your profession and that is your first time writing kids’s books. What was that course of like and the way have been you impressed to provide the Haze a persona?
Titah: For that particular story, The place Does the Haze Go?, we first should know that haze is a sophisticated situation. It’s a standard expertise for most kids on Borneo and Sumatra, however not many realise and perceive that it’s truly a sophisticated drawback.
Right here in Indonesia, we regularly blame the haze itself [for poor health] when on the root of the issue, the haze is definitely only a aspect impact [of wider issues]. I personified the haze in an try to compress this advanced situation in a kid-friendly means, making it simpler for them to know. When writing kids’s books, we now have to play with our creativeness. On this case, I attempted to think about the way it feels to be the haze that’s being blamed for therefore many issues, when truly the haze itself doesn’t need to be there.
Was it troublesome for you, as a journalist who normally has to jot down about info, to consider it in a extra imaginative means?
Titah: As a result of this local weather litigation ebook sequence is predicated on actual circumstances which have been advocated by Greenpeace, utilizing info as a baseline for the story was not an issue for me.
The true problem was how one can compress advanced points into 20 pages or 24 pages. When one web page is just one sentence, we now have to compress a whole lot of issues into bite-sized items for the youngsters.
That leads me to the illustrations, which I believed informed as a lot of the story because the phrases did. Sekar Bestari, what was your course of of selecting which animals, folks or characters to attract?
Sekar Bestari: In comparison with Titah, who principally writes about what occurred in actuality, I principally work on my creativeness. So, the problem for me was to stay to actuality in order that the books have been acceptable (and) consultant.
Once I drew the characters, I needed to stick with their attribute options. Rinai, for instance, lives in Sumatra the place they’re principally of Malay descent, in order that they have lighter pores and skin in comparison with different characters. Tera, who’s from Papua in Salawaku Defend of Forest would have a darker pores and skin complexion. I want to stay to that straightforward actuality as a result of I don’t need to misinform the youngsters.
The larger problem for me was additionally to symbolize the animals the fitting means. They aren’t one thing that I see each day, so I wanted to run a background verify with a biodiversity skilled. We requested, is that this an actual insect in that space? What sort of patterns do they really have? I needed to stick with that earlier than I leap to my creativeness.
Illustrator Sekar Bestari (left) and creator Titah Awe (proper) labored with Greenpeace Indonesia to supply a sequence of kids’s books about environmental safety and local weather litigation within the nation. Picture: Greenpeace
There are two books about Papua, one about their relationship with the forest and the opposite concerning the salahwaku, which is their defend. The latter explores how the Papuans use each nationwide legislation and conventional beliefs to defend their forests. How sensible are the examples within the books – do youngsters see this observe making a distinction in actuality?
Sekar Banjaran: That’s an excellent query – we even have an actual case of defending the land of the indigenous Awyu tribe in Papua. We needed folks to know precisely how the Awyu reside and have fun their customary legislation.
We additionally need kids to know that Indonesia doesn’t solely consist of individuals in Java or within the west of Indonesia – we need to present youngsters that the nation is definitely very various with totally different cultures. We hope they are going to save our forests higher, as a result of our case truly failed on the Supreme Court docket [last November]. So we hope to depend on telling this story to increasingly folks.
How have kids responsed to the books thus far?
Titah: Because the books’ launch, what has been heartwarming is that a number of of the readers’ mother and father informed us that a few of the kids have memorised the books. They mentioned the books have began discussions with their kids concerning the atmosphere, from one thing so simple as asking what lives on the timber exterior their home. That straightforward query results in many discussions concerning the atmosphere.
We’ve heard that some kids actually just like the fifth ebook, the Mom is our Forest. One child has memorised it and began to inform their mother and father and everybody round them, “Don’t harm my mother! Don’t harm the forest! If the forest is broken, my mother will even be sick.” They’ve that understanding from this ebook and that response may be very heartwarming for me as the author.
Sekar Bestari: I acquired a message from a guardian that learn the books to their youngsters nearly each day, even 3 times a day, till the books’ bindings have torn aside! It’s heartwarming for me to listen to that they actually wish to learn it repeatedly, and are obsessive about it, even.
Titah: I feel that sort of response reveals us that we want extra kids’s books out there that talk about actual circumstances. We’d like extra books that not solely talk about imaginative issues, however sophisticated points even, as a result of kids can also perceive these sorts of points.
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We are likely to assume that kids have easy minds and don’t care or don’t perceive local weather change, however…they do perceive they usually do care about their atmosphere.
Titah Aw, creator
Would you say that you simply’ve had private experiences with the atmosphere in your childhood which has helped you grow to be extra environmentally conscious?
Sekar Banjaran: As somebody from Java, I truly practiced Kejawen [a Javanese religious tradition that combines elements of animism, Buddhism, Islam and and Hinduism] with my grandfather. One of many rituals included praying with the timber and crops round us, each morning and afternoon.
By means of these experiences, I felt very near my environment, together with the land, the crops round me and the animals. That made me acknowledge that I can not reside alone – I need to reside [in harmony] with the human and non-human beings round me. And that taught me to like and have fun nature and the atmosphere extra.
Titah: It was comparable for me as a result of I come from a suburban space in East Java, the place I spent extra time on the sector than on screens. I keep in mind working round with my mates and pets, selecting wild fruit and enjoying underneath the rain. I barely touched handphones, which have been nonetheless uncommon in my housing space.
Possibly the realisation of seeing the Earth as a residing factor for me got here from once I noticed my mother speaking to her backyard, to her orchids and different flowers. Whereas watering the crops, she would casually say, “Oh, I hope you bloom properly; don’t die, please be wholesome.” I keep in mind asking my mother, “Can the crops hear that?” And she or he mentioned, “In fact, crops reside issues, in addition to every thing round us.”
That’s perhaps one of many core reminiscences I’ve that led me to my present beliefs about environmental points.
Sekar Bestari: Like Titah, perhaps I’m one of many fortunate ones as a result of my mother and father love the outside a lot that my father crops nearly every thing in our house backyard. My brother has haemophilia [a disease in which blood does not clot easily]. So we grew sirih (betel) crops that can be utilized to cease the bleeding. I watched my father make the drugs from the house backyard itself. That’s the place I felt related with the outside.
Sekar Banjaran Aji, environmental lawyer and Greenpeace Indonesia campaigner, has advocated for local weather litigation as a mechanism for indigenous Indonesians to safe rights to their native lands. Picture: Greenpeace
Is there something you’ve learnt from the method of manufacturing these kids’s books that you’d apply to your future work as a journalist, Titah, or in illustrating ebook covers, Sekar Bestari?
Titah: Earlier than I labored on this challenge, I not often made work that speaks to kids. As a journalist, I principally produce articles and narratives for adults. Throughout this challenge, I discovered how one can communicate to kids, and I realised that we are able to’t assume kids don’t perceive these sorts of points. We are likely to assume that kids have easy minds and don’t care or don’t perceive local weather change, however from this expertise, I discovered that they do perceive they usually do care about their atmosphere.
So one in every of my greatest classes from this challenge was that we have to speak extra about these points with kids as a result of they’re those who will reside on this planet and inherit the earth.
Sekar Bestari: I agree – kids are sometimes handled as an afterthought for vital points like local weather change. However once I learn issues to my child, I additionally discovered one thing.
I assume that is additionally a part of the aim for these books, that when mother and father learn them to their youngsters, the mother and father will even study one thing from them. It begins with ourselves, from a small organisation just like the household.
Titah: I’ve one thing so as to add – throughout my work as a journalist, I met many environmental activists. I realised a standard trait they share is that the explanation why they nonetheless have the vitality and keenness to work on defending nature, regardless of all of the challenges they face, is as a result of they’ve core reminiscences concerning the atmosphere from their childhoods. These are both experiences they’ve had or what they’ve learn as kids. So I would like this ebook to be a part of the core reminiscences that (kids immediately) can carry all through their lives. We hope that sooner or later they are often defenders of nature as properly as a result of they carry these reminiscences.
If our listeners are serious about studying the books themselves, how would they have the ability to get a duplicate? And are there any future plans for the sequence?
Sekar Banjaran: These books are a part of our efforts to make Greenpeace extra (financially) impartial, so you may obtain the books through donations to Greenpeace through this hyperlink.
As for our future plans, because the books are written in Indonesian and English, we’re in discussions with our worldwide colleagues on whether or not we should always translate them for extra kids world wide.
