By Soon Li Wei
KUALA LUMPUR: The joyful laughter of children echoed clearly from the foyer of Mutiara Spaces Show Gallery in Mutiara Damansara, Selangor, enlivening the atmosphere of a storytelling session that took place there one Saturday afternoon last month.
The event was led by Abyan Junus-Nishizawa and Farah Landemaine, co-founders of Anak Rimba Books, and their excited audience comprised 30 children aged between four and 10, seated cross-legged on the floor.
Holding a book titled ‘Jom Cuba Benda Baharu’ (‘Let’s Try Something New’) and using the right voice modulation to keep the children engrossed, Farah narrated the story of a young Sumatran rhinoceros named Ronda that lived “in the forest with Mama and Baba (Mother and Father)….”.
Abyan chose to tell the story of a baby dusky leaf monkey named Mimo, the central character of a storybook titled ‘Beyond Mimo’s Tree’. The colourful illustrations of the little monkey as well as Abyan’s adeptness at modulating her voice to reflect the character’s emotions, had both children and parents bursting into laughter.
‘Jom Cuba Benda Baharu’ and ‘Beyond Mimo’s Tree’ are among the six titles authored by Abyan and Farah and published under their Anak Rimba Books label, each book themed around an animal declared as extinct or almost extinct in Malaysia since 2019.
The kids must have returned home that day with a better understanding of Malaysia’s endangered animals and the importance of conserving their natural habitats.
Originally written in English, all six books have been translated into Bahasa Melayu, Spanish and Japanese and are available online and in major bookstores in Malaysia.
Met in Jakarta
Abyan and Farah’s collaboration goes back to 2015 when they first met while staying in Jakarta, Indonesia, where their respective husbands were working. (Both women are Malaysians married to foreigners. Abyan is married to a Japanese while Farah’s husband is German.)
“First we started a batik business in 2016. After a while, I asked Farah why not start another business by creating our own product,” recalled Abyan.
Speaking to Bernama via a Zoom interview, she said she told Farah about her idea of publishing a series of children’s books that revolved around the theme of conserving Malaysia’s endangered wildlife.
“Farah was willing to assist me… and that’s how we started Anak Rimba Books in 2017.”
Farah, who has a background in theatre and art, said for their first book titled ‘Why Don’t I Look Like You?’ they chose to highlight the tapir, with its story also dwelling on identity issues and the acceptance of differences in society, reflecting the authors’ own experiences of being married to non-Malaysians and living abroad.
“It had been Abyan’s dream to feature Malaysia’s endangered animals (in our series) that children can really connect to and also to educate them on how to be part of conservation efforts,” the mother-of-two added.
Abyan said Anak Rimba Books was the name they chose for their book series as ‘anak rimba’ means ‘children of the forest’ in English. In writing the books, their intention was to “let our children return to nature”, that is, make them more conscious of nature.
“Anak rimba not only refers to our children but also the baby animals living in our jungles. The animals we featured in our storybooks are like our children.
“Out of the six little animal characters we created, we consider Timo, the tapir, as our ‘eldest son’ and Mimo, the dusky leaf monkey, as our ‘youngest child’,” she said.
Their six books feature animal characters of six different endangered species – tapir, Sumatran rhino, dragonfly, Malayan tiger, flying fox and dusky leaf monkey.
As Abyan and Farah did not have any background in animal conservation work, they got in touch with the relevant non-governmental organisations to get more information when they embarked on their Anak Rimba Books project.
For example, for their books featuring the Malayan tiger and Sumatran rhino, they collaborated with RIMAU and Bringing Back Our Rare Animals (BORA) respectively.
(RIMAU or Persatuan Pelindung Harimau Malaysia was founded by Harun Rahman and Lara Ariffin, a husband-and-wife team of documentary filmmakers, while BORA was founded by Datuk Dr John Payne who worked with Sumatran rhinos in Malaysia from the 1970s until 2019, when the country’s last Sumatran rhino died.)
Learn from NGOs
Said Farah: “When we were working on our second book on the Sumatran rhino, we managed to talk to Dr John Payne. That was when we realised the urgency of protecting our endangered animals because we lost our last Sumatran rhino (in November 2019).
“It was a shock for us and we also realised the need to provide a bridge between the NGOs and pre-schoolers (and young children) because the latter constitute our next generation.”
For their latest book ‘Beyond Mimo’s Tree’, Abyan and Farah collaborated with The Habitat Foundation and Roots & Shoots Organisation in Malaysia.
The real challenge for the duo was to convey to children the importance of animal conservation “in a fun way” without showing them the scary part of extinction.
Abyan said by using creative storytelling, they give endangered animals and the environment a central stage as they want to cultivate nature-loving children and instill in them universal values such as kindness and respecting nature and animals.
“Imagine if all endangered animals were like these: awesome collectibles that children could truly connect with, rather than just the typical commercial animals. Why does a cute bear or a cute puppy on screen get all the attention? It would be wonderful if our endangered animals were given the same spotlight.
“After all, ‘Hello Kitty’ will never be in danger (of becoming extinct) and ‘Mickey Mouse’ will never become endangered. If our tapirs and rhinos or our brilliant tigers had the same level of recognition, I guess they would have a much better chance of survival,” she said, adding their Anak Rimba Books have received “an overwhelmingly positive response” from children, parents and preschool teachers.
Farah said after the book featuring Ronda the Sumatran rhino was published, they received a grant from Global Environment Care to come out with a children’s book about river care, titled ‘A River For My Family’.
“When we found out from this NGO that they go to preschools to talk to the children about rivers and their care, we kind of blanked out… they can’t be talking to kids about the PH level and tell them not to throw rubbish into the river!
“So they came to us and we developed a storybook for them. We focused on how children can interact with the ecosystem. Through our book, they learn that (some) animals can live in the water as well as outside the river,” she said.
Animated videos
Apart from publishing books, the duo has also done animated videos that are used as a side tool during their storytelling sessions with children.
They also hope to train more nature storytellers to assist them in raising awareness of conservation issues, especially among children, parents and preschool teachers.
“It is important to tell nature stories to our children as it’s a way to pass on knowledge to them. Our children are the next generation who will inherit and continue to take care of this planet Earth,” said Abyan.
Farah hopes that through their Anak Rimba Books series and storytellers’ workshops, they can produce more storytellers with a passion for raising awareness among children about the importance of environmental conservation and protecting endangered wildlife. – BERNAMA
