This award-winning author and journalist flew with mercenaries bush pilots in Congo, reindeer mounted in Siberia, and wrote the most book background on Michael Rockefeller disappeared in New Guinea: Savage harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, colonialism and Tragic Quest for Michael Rockefeller primitive art. It will be the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival from October 1 - 5.
What was the last adventure?
I got a piece out in Outside magazine recently about a return attack in September in Papua New Guinea, a group of Australian trekkers. The story was a long, deep dive into what really happened and, in particular, how the attack was to steal less Western tourists - as has often reported at the time - that long-simmering issues internal cultural and economic disparities. But as Savage Harvest, he showed what can happen when Westerners go to distant places and complex they do not understand.
What was your most difficult project to date
Savage Harvest - Written about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller was the most difficult and rewarding story I've ever written. It involved nearly two years of research in the deep archives in the Netherlands and the United States and the profound statement and that took me to the Indonesian Papua twice, each time for two months, during which I dug events that were 50 years in an incredibly rich and complex culture. This meant learning a new language, or at least the basics of one; living in a remote village without electricity or plumbing stores or with family, alone, for a month; weaving together the history of Papua, the story of the so-called "primitive art" collection, the history of Dutch colonialism, the history of the Asmat, while a coherent story and we hope that the riveting provides not only entertainment, but an overview of all these things.
What inspired you to start your mission to write a book on the mystery of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller?
I began to travel to remote locations to the same age as Michael. In my 20 years, I saw the dead bird, the film, he first worked on, and his story resonated with me not only his death, but his curiosity and need to go first. His death has taken on the quality of myth - Michael disappear in a foreign field that was hard to penetrate for us Westerners - an idea taken from the accounts at the time of the press. Writing a LIFE photographer after a day of research Michael: "They say that if a man falls in the mud, he can not stand unaided ..." I did not know to be true - the Asmat had been rolling in the mud, spreading it on themselves, walking into it and live in it for 40,000 years.
When I began to think of the story as a possible book project, I traveled as a journalist in some of the nooks and crannies of the most distant world, and I saw these distant places as real places full of real people with real stories who, with effort, are no strangers to all but penetrable, untangleable. And there was enough of the disappearance of Michael that I thought there was more to know; I thought it was not a myth, but a real person who disappeared in a real place and that I might be able to break through with patience and perseverance.
Initially all questions to the living jungle Asmat met with silence. Tell me about your inquiries in New Guinea and how you broke that silence.
I can not really say that I "broke their silence". On my first trip to Asmat I went to town twice, and once brought some village elders to the government center of Agats. At first, I wondered about the events that led to his death, the events that have implemented its inevitability - a war between two villages and raid the Dutch government that left five dead as punishment for this war - and 'Asmat events were quite forthcoming and recalled in detail, as they do because they are a people without writing where the narration and singing is a rich tradition. But when I specifically asked about Michael, I met with prevarication and obfuscation, though never outright denial.
Frustrated and short of money and time, after 60 days in Papua, I went home and started writing. But one day I just stopped. It was clear to me that I did not know enough - I did not understand the complex Asmat, place, culture; I did not understand hunting head and cannibalism; and it hit me that I am guilty of the worst sin of journalism - that I had traveled too fast, that I had been skydiving and expects these proud people simply reverse all their secrets, things that were inextricably related to their sacred world. And I do with a whole host of people -. A translator of man and boat and a cook and assistants
This is when I changed things - I learned Bahasa - not much, but a lot more than I thought possible - and returned to Papua and moved to the village alone. I asked nothing for weeks. Just ate with them, smoked with them, talked with them, lived with them and listened to. And I was lucky, because the village was built a new game, the home of a new men, and it was a time of celebration, singing, dancing and drumming and they welcomed me among them. After about three weeks, I finally started me to ask new questions, but this time those very specific that had to do with the lines of the village family and politics, and was the answer to these questions who confirmed to me that their parents had killed Michael Rockefeller.
How your quest in 2012 compare to Michael Rockefeller in 1961? What was his biggest mistake?
Well, he bought up art and I was looking for stories, history and the complex plot that led to his death. We were both treasure hunters, of a sort, but he traveled very fast, with a lot of money and so he wanted to understand how and why objects he collected, he also ignores, to some measure, its sacred component - it deals in the souls of men. Had he been less money, he was older, I think it might have slowed down, were forced to rely on friendships and more personal, and that could have saved him.
The first nine pages of your book 'Savage Harvest' is a step by step account of sacred ceremony of Asmat and the fatal end of Rockefeller. Describe this ritual and why you think it was within their cultural ethics to do so.
The Asmat did all sorts of things that are taboo or were, in Western culture. They hunted heads. They ate human flesh. The men had sex with each other. They shared the other women at a time. They could drink urine from each other. But these things were also entitled to them, as usual, that communion. And although they fought with each other, they also lived in incredible harmony in their world, in balance with it, and their war was nothing like the destruction that occurs and has occurred in much of the rest of the world. Ironically, Michael was killed because a Dutch official punished a town by Gunning to fight against its major engine men. Michael was killed by the ancient myths of origin Asmat in which the first world brothers learned to create new men by the fruit, seeds - heads - men. For us - and now - it looks horrible
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Do you have some wisdom to share for young writers?
Read, read, read. Read widely and deeply.
You saw both of this world. What is the most common factor that we all share as human beings
We are all subject to great emotions that power everything we - love, anger , jealousy, fear, loss, loneliness, wondering who we are and how we got here. Each myth and history and religion is struggling with the same issues.
We look forward to seeing you in Bali!
Thank you!