resurrecting deep forests

wonder | wander | women are currently working on a project close to our hearts and our homeland roots - the long lost mystical babaylans of Negros Island.

Concept Art by Mahala Urra

Native precolonial history is hard to confirm as the land was ancient and isolated. Original oral traditions practiced and handed down through generations by its inhabitants were systematically eradicated by a succession of colonizers.

Of particular interest to us are the Pintados and Negritos of our island home. The origins of these people is a much debated topic. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people.

Though they show strong genetic similarities with the pygmy tribes of Africa, Negritos are descendants of the indigenous Australoid populations of the Sundaic Region and New Guinea.

Predating the Austronesian peoples who later entered Southeast Asia, even classifying closer to Egyptians and Europeans than any Sub Saharan population.

Imagine our surprise then when we were treated to some forest pygmy chanting at a sound healing course we are enrolled at the New York Open Center.

This brought back memories of the Deep Forest album we fell in love with in the early 90s. It debuted a rare and unusual mix of ambient modern music and the songs of the pygmies of the Central African rainforest.

Here is another clip of the forest yodeling or yelli by these adorable kids and their Baka pygmy mothers.