Author: Sophie Chao
Sophie Chao , May 17th, 2022
Two Indigenous Marind clan representatives peruse a map of their customary territories produced by local village members. Sophie Chao Excerpted from In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-…
Sophie Chao , October 19th, 2021
A Ganoderma fungus epidemic attacks oil palm trees at a plantation in Indonesian-controlled West Papua. Sophie Chao In October 2019, I traveled through an oil palm monocrop with…
Sophie Chao , November 19th, 2020
“Transition” by Papua New Guinean artist Philemon Yalamu. From Papua New Guinea: A New Dawn by Fondazione Imago Mundi/Luciano Benetton Collection. A Death in the Rainforest: How a Languag…
Sophie Chao , April 1st, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic gains momentum, various forms and scales of lockdown and self-quarantine are being imposed across the world to halt the spread of the virus. With…
Sophie Chao , January 22nd, 2020
The destruction of forests contributes to widespread drought through atmospheric processes that can seem like sorcery. Pixabay/Pexels To Indigenous Marind communities living in West Papua…
Sophie Chao , June 7th, 2019
Over the last decade, indigenous Marind communities in the rural district of Merauke, West Papua, have seen vast swaths of their forests and savannas razed to make way…
Sophie Chao , May 17th, 2017
Droning destruction — aerial view of deforestation in Merauke. Source: Sophie Chao. (Un)settling the Scene Alongside melting glaciers, marine oil spills and sinking islands, large-scale monocrop p…
Sophie Chao , September 20th, 2016
Clear-cutting of forests in West Papua for large-scale oil palm cultivation is in some cases turning local wildlife into orphans, reshaping the relationship between local communities and the envi…
Sophie Chao , April 26th, 2016
books and arts Lucas Bessire. 2014. Behold the Black Caiman: A Chronicle of Ayoreo Life. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 296 pages. Dust In this poignant and…