Wolka Namek (Let's walk with me, mate)

Hybrid tribesman Leo Mouyuend is walking the talk. After spending years protecting his Marind lands and culture through paintings, songs and videos, he is now Bibikem village head. He is now facing MIFEE companies head on.

This is a warning for next time you enter Bibikem.

Maybe in different villages you can just enter and clear forest as you please.

In other villagers maybe you can buy them based on how many logs.

We also want to improve. But you must talk to us first before entering this forest.

We support development. But you can't just take away our customary land.

We've mapped out our lands. They are unwritten, but marked.

We can live peacefully just by seeing those marks in the forest.

We've mapped out lands according to the clans.

One village to another.

A creek can be the border between people's lands.

There are many unwritten signs, but we all can recognise them.

We know nature because we are close to it.

We know which belongs to the Gebze clan, or the Awabalik clan, or the Moyuwend.

Those trees border our areas.

If you cut down those trees you will just create conflicts.

Clans could kill each other if you remove the border signs.

The forests and creeks are the signs given by our ancestors.

We can tell between clans and families.

Don't you just come here and lead us to conflicts.

You flash your money to us, and that can lead to conflicts as well.

Before people don't value trees with money, now they're beginning to see the monetary values.

I warn you.

Let's not kill each other because of the logs.

Don't get me started on land issues.

I used to paint the Mahuze clan. Sometimes people thought I'm a Mahuze.

[Leo preaches]: The second reading: "As God has promised to David, a saviour will come from his ancestry".

Here you can see the remains of old huts left by our ancestors hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

This is a testimony that there's no more unclaimed lands here.

Wherever you go, there are always land owners.

They are bordered by villages, creeks, forests and the savanna.

There's no unclaimed land. So whoever wants to enter must come and talk to us first.

You must determine what's right and wrong.

[Leo talks to the screening audience]: We try to explain about the changes we are trying to make in these videos.

We learned together to make these videos.

[Unlike most Marind] I still talk a lot because I grew up in the city and picked up that tradition.

But the villagers they don't talk much.

You're killing them by cutting down their trees.