A life that began with a dream on the Paku River.
A biography set among the Iban community of the Paku River, in the Betong Division of Sarawak, drawn from oral interviews and printed materials.
About the Book
This book begins with a dream. Not one of ambition, but the older kind that arrives in the deep hours before dawn. In the longhouses of the Paku, such a dream was not to be ignored. Sometime in the 1940s it sent a man out in his boat to ask for a child not yet carried, and the girl born of that dream grew up among weavers, beside a grandmother who received her pua kumbu designs from the spirit world as she slept.
The girl was never allowed to weave. Her grandmother set the loom aside so that the schoolroom could take its place, and from that refusal a life of extraordinary range unfolded. This book tries to hold that life in a single thread. It is, in its own way, an act of weaving: an attempt to bring a life onto paper, to fix the colours before they fade. The first draft is complete.
An Extract
The extract will appear here.A short passage from the manuscript is being prepared.
How Your Memory Becomes a Book
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Listening
A memory begins with a conversation. I listen to it as your family tells it, and write it down with care.
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Checking against records
Where I can, I set what I have heard beside printed materials and other accounts, so that names, places and dates are as accurate as they can be.
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Writing
Only then does a memory find its place in the writing, shaped to sit truthfully within the larger story.
Nothing is published about a family without their agreement.
About Me
I am Flora Remeo, an independent writer, and this is my first book. My work is to take spoken memories and printed records and turn them into a book a family can hold. I came to this story as a writer, and I stayed as something closer to a student. It is a privilege I do not take lightly.
Share a Memory
If your family still holds a memory of the Paku River, whether a story, a name or a place, I would be glad to hear it. Publishers and interviewees are welcome to write too.
You are welcome to write in Iban, Bahasa Melayu or English.
Kongsi Sebuah Kenangan
Jika keluarga anda masih menyimpan kenangan tentang Sungai Paku, sama ada sebuah kisah, sebuah nama atau sebuah tempat, saya amat berbesar hati untuk mendengarnya. Penerbit dan mereka yang pernah ditemu bual juga dialu-alukan untuk menulis kepada saya.
Anda dialu-alukan untuk menulis dalam bahasa Iban, Bahasa Melayu atau Bahasa Inggeris.