Shadow Puppet Theatre Research Articles

Contemporary Chinese Animation Design as a Reinterpretation of Traditional Cultural Connotations Based on Shadow Puppet Theater

Contemporary Chinese Animation Design as a Reinterpretation of Traditional Cultural Connotations Based on Shadow Puppet Theater

A Preliminary Study on the Integration Path of Shadow Puppet Theater Culture and Tourism in Min-Tai Region

A Preliminary Study on the Integration Path of Shadow Puppet Theater Culture and Tourism in Min-Tai Region

Study on the Development Path of Lingbi Shadow Theater in the Age of Self-media

As an intangible cultural heritage of Anhui Province, how to better inheritance and development is an important issue that Lingbi shadow theatre is facing now. This project mainly explores how Lingbi shadow theatre can make use of the fast and convenient self-media platform to reach the public in the age of self-media. Through the field investigation method, literature reading method and other research methods, we study the artistic characteristics and cultural connotation of Lingbi Shadow Opera, and analyse the dilemmas and reasons it is facing nowadays. According to the communication methods and advantages of self media, combining with the current development situation of Lingbi shadow theatre and the humanities of Lingbi County, we discuss how to combine Lingbi shadow theatre with self media to give full play to its cultural value, economic value, social value and so on. It is proposed to combine traditional media, new media and self-media, everyone can be a non-heritage communicator, and develop cultural and creative products, in order to expand the audience of Lingbi shadow theatre and achieve the common development of self-media and Lingbi shadow theatre. This study is based on the national policy of protecting intangible cultural heritage, the inheritance and development of Lingbi shadow puppet theatre, not to cater to the public to destroy its own cultural characteristics, and to strengthen the supervision of its output culture while using self media. In conclusion, through the results of this study, new vitality is injected into Lingbi shadow theatre, and it is hoped to provide some references and lessons for the inheritance and development of other intangible cultural heritages in China.

The integration of traditional culture and educational drama for young children based on the AdaBoost model

Abstract However, the integration of traditional culture and modern children’s theater education is not smooth in digitalizing big data information. Take shadow puppet theater. Its traditional culture is no longer as brilliant as yesterday due to the problems of not easy preservation and disconnected content. This paper focuses on integrating traditional culture and educational drama for young children based on the AdaBoost model. Firstly, we understand the principle, concept, and algorithm of the AdaBoost model by finding literature, constructing the AdaBoost-BPN prediction model and AdaBoost-WBLS model, and adopting ordinary BPN weak predictor, AdaBoost-BPN The AdaBoost-BPN prediction model and the AdaBoost-BPN prediction model with “weekend factor” were used to predict the traditional culture and educational drama of young children, and the prediction error evaluated the prediction results. Has higher integration training efficiency. In the integration weight update, different regularization update methods are used for different data categories to retain the features of the data and increase the inter-class distinction. WBLS is used as the base classifier and the optimization method of embedding WBLS in the AdaBoost framework to improve the performance of the integration of early childhood traditional text and educational drama. The results show that the AdaBoost-WBLS model has significantly improved G-mean on dichotomous and multiclassified datasets compared with similar models, with higher accuracy and better ability to handle unbalanced data. This study is conducive to planning the design of the teaching process according to the characteristics of the integration and change of traditional culture and educational drama for young children, and the combination of traditional culture represented by shadow puppet theater and children’s drama education is of great significance and value in guiding young children to establish the correct three views, stimulating their imagination and creativity, and promoting the development of their aesthetic education.

Analysis/Reflection on the Influence of Combining Chinese Shadow Play with Digital Art for Foreign and Domestic Audiences

This project focuses on the preservation and dissemination of Chinese Shadow Play, an intangible cultural heritage. In terms of methodology, digitizing traditional Shadow Play is an innovative attempt to break through geographical and content limitations to increase the audience and content diversity of shadow plays. The combination of traditional shadow puppet theater and 3D digital art can enrich the experience, increase interactivity, and lower the cost of viewing conditions, thus bringing the audience closer to shadow puppet theater. In terms of plot, traditional shadow plays’ content is limited to Chinese myths and fables, which is far removed from the modern tide of entertainment; instead, recent events and mixed-cultural elements can effectively innovate the scripts, integrate timely social topics, and explore new possibilities of shadow puppet content, so that shadow plays can become a cultural channel to reflect social issues. In addition, the project hopes to promote concern for the employment environment of older artists and disadvantaged groups in the process of traditional cultural creation, protect the traditional cultural creation environment, and provide a stable employment environment and community for shadow puppet craftsmen. Finally, unexplored financial value of shadow theater can be discovered via combining shadow puppet theater culture with the wider cultural and creative industry. We can develop new cultural and creative products while maintaining the traditional culture of shadow puppetry, such as integrating puppetry elements into everyday items and its proceeds of sell would give shadow play new commercial values.

Going “Viral”

Wayang kulit (traditional shadow puppet theatre) is one of the most important performing arts in present-day Java. Even during the pandemic, performers did not abandon their vocation and employed various online platforms to share their art. Although the use of social media for advertising and, occasionally, livestreaming traditional performances was not entirely unprecedented, the circumstances of 2020 have clearly contributed to the significant acceleration of these trends. Issues of global mediatization and virtual participation have become crucial elements within the shadow puppet theatre of the so-called jaman now (“the time of now”). Some of the most famous puppeteers of Central Java, Ki Cahyo Kuntadi and Ki Seno Nugroho, invented new formats, such as wayang elektrik and wayang climen, and adopted new marketing strategies to meet a new audience demand in a time of social distance. These new forms contributed to confirm and speed-up transformation processes already embryonal to the wayang art and drastically changed the function and fruition of one of the most important Javanese performing arts. Uniting practice-led research and digital ethnography, this article intends to offer an example of how oral traditions are affected by the social and technological reverberations of the pandemic era.

English Live Caption in a Javanese Shadow Puppet Theatre: Systemic Functional Linguistics for Appraising the Beauty of Sagopi

In the field of simultaneous translation, live captioning has not been sufficiently touched by research. There have been shifts in translating characterization due to this being done in real-time and on the spot. It is critical that target readers or viewers get the same impression of a character's personality as portrayed in the original work. Consequently, translations of literary plays must be thoroughly checked for fidelity. The objective of the study is to undertake an in-depth analysis of the live captioning provided in "The Life Struggle of Sagopi" puppet theater. It compares the character portrayal of the protagonist, Sagopi, in the original play and the translation. Employing a content analysis technique, all of the utterances describing Sagopi's beauty were collected. As a method for analyzing the data, the theory of Appraisal was utilized. When the described Appraisal elements are identical to those in the original, the characterization would be considered equivalent. The analysis reveals that the live captions do not fully represent the portrayal of Sagopi. While the description of Sagopi's beauty in the shadow puppet performance is detailed, the English live caption does not reflect this. In the target language, deletions and shifts of appraisals indicate the changes. The lack of culturally relevant terminologies and the time lag between the puppeteer's oral utterances and the translator's typing speed during live captioning are the main causes of the problem. Furthermore, live captioning is time and space-constrained. Almost always, it is a condensed version of the oral source text. This demonstrates how difficult it is to achieve the same level of appraisal as the original. This is not to suggest that viewers have no right to a high-quality translation. Despite its shortcomings, the written text in the form of a live caption is regarded as the finest way for foreigners to enjoy a puppet show.

Foreign Sindhen in Practice: New Teaching Strategies and the Impact of Practice-Led Research on Javanese Female Singing

Practice-led research has a long history in ethnomusicology and is currently reconsidered in many academic contexts all over the world. There has not been much literature written on the effects that a long-term active immersion in the music culture investigated can have on the “researched”, the “researcher” and the “research” itself. I experienced some of these effects as a native Italian who spent seven years learning, performing and researching in Java, Indonesia. I conducted my research led by the practice, inspired by the bi-musicality approach. Learning, performing and researching are approaches interrelated with each other and determine some interesting developments of investigation, not only within the research context, but in the research methodology itself. In this paper, I discuss the pros and cons of the practice-led research experience within the Javanese singing framework, considering the following specific aspects—new teaching strategies adopted by Javanese teachers to transmit knowledge to a foreign researcher; challenges encountered by a foreign singer on a shadow puppet theatre stage; the way in which local artists and audience take part in the research process and how the fieldwork might affect the researcher’s mentality and shape her/his approach. This article reflects on new outcomes produced by the encounter of practice and research, opening a debate about the possible collaborations and methodological exchanges between teachers, artists and researchers. It suggests that performing and understanding music should be heard and be included in the debate based on personal experience as performer and researcher.

The Effect of Time Management in Shadow Puppet Performance on the Audience Satisfaction

Indonesia has one of the greatest diversities in the world as reflected by its many cultures, languages, customs, and beliefs. This diversity can be easily seen in the East Java region which, despite its Javanese ethnic majority, is also populated by other ethnics, sub ethnics, and mixed groups. Shadow puppet theatre is a form of public attraction long existing in Java, even before the era of the Majapahit Empire. It is usually performed at night and takes a considerable time. In this multidisciplinary paper, it is hypothesized that good time management will increase audience satisfaction and in turn contribute to the sustainability of the theatre and Javanese culture. Based on the analysis of the survey, using partial least square by java web start program, it is found that, first, shadow puppet attraction positively affects to time management as 0.720. Further, the attraction leads to audience satisfaction as 0.558. Lastly, time management affects audience satisfaction as 0.258.
 Keywords: audience satisfaction; wayang attraction; wayang time management.

The Current Trend in the Fusion of Wayang Kulit Performance Styles from the ‘Keraton’ Tradition and ‘Folk’ Tradition

The research is financed by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia through Competency Grants . Abstract The aim of this research is to analyze the performance styles of wayang kulit purwa (classical shadow puppet theatre) from the keraton (court) tradition and the folk tradition in the past and present day. The research subject about the performance of wayang kulit from the keraton tradition is limited to Surakarta style wayang kulit performance, and the research subject about the performance of wayang kulit from the folk tradition includes East Javanese style and Kedu style. The problem discussed in this study is the cultural interaction between dalang (puppeteers) from the keraton tradition and the folk tradition. The research uses a qualitative method with an analytical descriptive analysis. The research data was collected through a library study, documentary study, observation, and interviews. The results of the research show that the performance of wayang kulit purwa in the present day has become diluted in terms of its performance style. Artistic elements from the folk tradition have been absorbed into the performances of dalang from the keraton tradition, and vice versa. The orientation of the performance of wayang kulit purwa in the present day is no longer simply for the audience to enjoy its storyline but also to entertain. Nevertheless, a complete aesthetical nuance is only present in wayang kulit performances from the ex- keraton tradition, while performances of wayang kulit from the folk tradition remain oriented to the nuances of gayeng (lively) and gobyog (dynamic). Keywords: wayang kulit performance, keraton tradition, folk tradition, fusion of styles. DOI : 10.7176/ADS/76-07 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

WayanginJaman Now: Reflexive Traditionalization and Local, National and Global Networks of Javanese Shadow Puppet Theatre

Doomsayers and traditionalists prognosticate that the dominance of digital media spells the end of traditional arts in Java, Indonesia.Wayang kulit(shadow puppet theatre), while still highly regarded as theatrical heritage, is said to be under particular threat due to the long duration of its plays, complexity of language and the need for prior knowledge of characters and situations. Such features are at odds with the short attention spans and need for instant comprehension and gratification of Gen Z – the youth referred to in Indonesian media as inhabitingjaman now(literally the ‘era of now’). While digital social media, including Facebook and YouTube, definitely offer up alternative forms of entertainment and amusement, they are also being used by traditional puppet practitioners to reinforce and expand communities of practice. Facebook provides platforms for comparative discussion and critical debate, while YouTube potentiates the inclusion of a geographically dispersed audience, including overseas workers.

Comedy of clowns in wayang kulit Kelantan performances

Pak Dogol and Wak Long are the principle clowns in wayang kulit Kelantan (A form of Malay shadow puppet theater). The wayang kulit dalangs (puppeteer) believethat Pak Dogol is not a comic character due to his dignified background, while his companion Wak Long is mostly considered to be a clownwho plays a comic role. However, in most wayang kulit performances both clowns have some comic scenes. Therefore, in this article the comic featuresof these clowns in wayang kulit performances are investigated. For this purpose, the comedy theories of Bergson are applied to four chosen performances, namely Dewa Sayap Tunggal Descends the Earth, Missing Laksmana (performed by Pak Rahim), Independence Day and Dewek. In brief, both Pak Dogol and Wak Long have some comic element in the performances, Wak Long moreso than Pak Dogol. Most of his comic techniques are related to verbal comedy, since he does not care about hierarchy and his wordsand phrases are often unsuitable for the situations he finds himself in. In some cases, Wak Long likes to mock others, especially Pak Dogol, while Pak Dogol is tolerant of Wak Long’s insults, further reinforcing the comedy. Furthermore, the fast movement of Wak Long’s puppet makes his comic character stronger, while the slower movements of Pak Dogol’s puppet provide a contrast. Generally,their comic features are classified as movement, situation and character comedy.Keywords: Pak Dogol – Wak Long – wayang kulit Kelantan – comedy – Bergson

The Pedagogic and Instructive Use of Art in Primary School: The Case of Shadow Puppet Theatre

The Pedagogic and Instructive Use of Art in Primary School: The Case of Shadow Puppet Theatre

CONTEMPORARY WAYANG KULIT PERFORMANCE: A CRISIS IN JAVANESE CULTURE?

Wayang kulit or shadow puppet theater performance has
 been greatly changing. Changes occur in many aspects such as in
 terms of the duration or length of the peliormance, its structure, the
 number of dalang who performs it,as well as the number of female
 singers (sindhen or waranggana) who accompany the dalang.
 Consequently, now wayang kulit performance is seen more as
 tontonan (entertainment) than as tuntunan (moral teachings). One
 of the main factors of this big change is the intrusion of western
 culture into Indonesia in general and Java in particular. This results
 in the reluctance of the young, especially, in watching this form of
 traditional art. Therefore, the changers) in the performance of
 wayang kulit or shadow theater is one of the efforts to make thisform
 of traditional art survive.

Wayang in Museums: The Reverse Repatriation of Javanese Puppets

Transported to museum settings, wayang puppets from Java (Indonesia) are inevitably disembedded from performance traditions and the techniques and events animating and framing them. But this essay argues that it is possible to involve puppets in processes of “reverse repatriation,” bringing home to objects far from their sites of origin, as well as catalyzing new dialogues in sites of storage, exhibition, and performance. Puppets in the British Museum collected in Java by T. S. Raffles during the 1810s are venerated by Javanese visitors, but generally museum visitors were more taken by wayang hip hop puppets acquired in 2016 and displayed alongside Raffles’s figures in the exhibition Shadow Puppet Theatre from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. (2016–17). The new puppets serve to challenge Orientalist preconceptions of wayang as an unchanging tradition. A wayang performance occasioned by the exhibition Die Welt des Schattentheaters: Von Asien bis Europa (The world of shadow theatre: From Asia to Europe) (2015–16) at the Linden Museum Stuttgart enabled an intergenerational dialogue about the tradition of wayang for a German Javanese diasporic family. A set of puppets collected in Java over several generations by a Chinese Indonesian family, gifted in 2006 to Simon Fraser University’s Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in British Columbia, has been used to explain stories of migration and multiculturalism in Canada. The private museum Rumah Wayang 2 (House of Wayang 2) in Tegal, Indonesia, is a way station for the puppets of puppeteer Enthus Susmono. Rather than safeguarding puppets, Enthus’s museum promotes his reputation as an innovator and whets appetites for his puppets’ future sale.

Global Modernities and Post-Traditional Shadow Puppetry in Contemporary Southeast Asia

Under global modernity, Southeast Asian shadow puppet theatre is being re-worked in art galleries, the internet, community arts contexts, intermedial collaborations and festivals. Even while cultural conservatives mourn vanishing traditions, a generation of Southeast Asian practitioners are seizing the codes of performance culture, inhabiting received forms and re-making them to speak to both local particularities and global issues. These post-traditional artists mine traditions for political parody and carnivalesque revelry, violating the sacred aura of puppets to assert their own authorship and critique heritage discourse and development policies. Puppeteers fashion new performance genres, ephemeral creations re-negotiating connections between the local and the global. Animators and game designers re-work the figures, performance dynamics, and stories of shadow play traditions in digital milieus. Such abductions and radical interpretations stoke debates about cultural identity and patrimony, aesthetic norms and moral values, individual agency and collective creativity, postcolonial exoticism and the politics of recognition.

Wayang Wong Sebagai Pusaka Keraton Yogyakarta

Soedarsono has written widely on the subject of Yogyakarta style wayang wong (a traditional Javanese stage show) as a dramaturgical state ritual in the Yogyakarta Palace. In general, wayang wong is a dramaturgy that can be described as a wayang performance presented by human actors. The term wayang wong may refer to all dramaturgies but its stories are usually taken from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics. Wayang wong includes dialogue which is performed by the dancers and is based on the art of wayang kulit or shadow puppet theatre. Based on the evidence found in a number of sources, it can be said that the creator of wayang wong in the Yogyakarta Palace was Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I who reigned from 1755 – 1794. From the time of Hamengku Buwono V, wayang wong was nurtured and developed until it reached its peak of existence during the reign of Sultan Hamengku Buwono VIII (1921 – 1939). During this period, wayang wong enjoyed its golden era, as could be seen from the number of wayang wong performances that were held, sometimes lasting for several days. However, after the death of Sultan Hamengku Buwono VIII, Yogyakarta style wayang wong experienced a decline in popularity. There were a number of different factors which led to the decline of this noble art form, including social and cultural factors, aesthetical factors, and the factor of patronage. Since its first appearance, traditional wayang wong was an important part of life, government, and state rituals in the Yogyakarta Palace. All of the Sultans from the Hamengku Buwono dynasty continued the tradition of wayang wong performances throughout their reign. In this sense, wayang wong as one of the noble cultures of the Yogyakarta court can also be understood to be a cultural heirloom. This has also been explained by Soedarsono in reference to the collection of serat kandha, or wayang wong story scripts that are kept in the Yogyakarta Palace. In addition, the position of wayang wong as a ritual performance was a blessing for the kawula dalem, or palace servants, who watched the performances. Performances of wayang wong in the Yogyakarta Palace were a form of state ritual which functioned as a ceremony to promote fertility and prosperity. The prayers surrounding this ritual were offered at the beginning and end of a performance and read by the pemaos kandha (narrator) of the wayang wong performance.Keywords : wayang wong, heirloom, court.

Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens, 1807–1914 éd. by Nicole Wild

Reviewed by: Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens, 1807–1914 éd. by Nicole Wild Evan Baker Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens, 1807– 1914. Nouv. éd. rev. By Nicole Wild. Préface de Joël-Marie Fauquet. Lyon: Symétrie, 2012. [526 p., ill., maps. ISBN 978-2-91437-348-7. i152,30] In 1902, Maurice Second noted in Théâtre des Boule vards 1789–1848 (Paris: Société française d’Im primerie et de Librairie, 1902) that from 1815 until 1830, the so-called “minor” Parisian theatres presented a staggering number of new works: 369 comedies, 280 melodramas, 200 opera-comiques, and 1,300 vaudevilles. The Opéra, the most important theatre of all, staged 1,455 performances of more than 400 operas (http://chronopera.free.fr [accessed 4 December 2015]). All of this data begets numerous questions: where, when, and in which theatres did these performances take place? What were the production capabilities of the theatres? Who were the directors and designers? Moreover, what regulations governed the number of theatres and genres performed? Many publications discuss individual theatres performing so many genres in nineteenth-century Paris—spoken theatre, opera, ballets, circuses, vaudevilles, its productions, stage design, social history, chronologies, and architecture of individual edifices. Little, however, has been published surveying all of the theatres of that time. The difficulties in investigating such a topic are immense. Documents lay dormant in numerous public and private archives; eyewitness and newspaper reports require cross-referencing; existing iconographic material sought out; and chronologies controlled. For many years, Nicole Wild was Conservateur en chef of the Bibliothèque et Musée de l’Opéra housed in the former Emperor’s Pavilion at the Palais Garnier, now a part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Her book reaps the fruits of her long researches and vast knowledge of nineteenth-century Parisian theatres and its associated genres: opera houses, spoken plays, circuses, dance, shadow puppet theatre, prestidigitation, ad infinitum. Nineteenth-century stage design is another |specialty of hers, having authored two important catalogues of the collection of designs, prints, and drawings in the Bibliothèque de l’Opéra, Décors et costumes du XIXe siècle. Vol 1. Opéra de Paris – Vol. 2. Théâtres et décorateurs (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1987, 1993). The Bibliothèque nationale made both volumes freely available online through Open Edition Books: http://books.openedition.org/editionsbnf/948 and http://books.openedition.org/editionsbnf/809 (accessed 4 December 2015). First published as Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: les théâtres et la musique (Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres, 1989), and long out of print, Wild’s new ouvrage supersedes this edition with new and updated data through 1914 and, equally important, includes additional rare illustrative material including thirty colour plates; eighteen contemporary views of the auditoria by the French engraver Alexis Orgiazzi (fl. ca. 1800–1839), are provided as well. A historical overview opens the book with a brief, but important, examination of the regulations governing theatrical performances (including opera and dance) in Paris. Laws promulgated by Napoleon I in 1806 and 1807 dictated the closure of a number of “minor theaters.” Upon the Emperor’s final overthrow in 1815, most theatres promptly reopened, much to the delight of the public addicted not only to opera, dance, opéra-comiques, and classical theatre, but also to mélodrames, vaudevilles, diorama, and the circus as well. By 1835, more than twenty-five theatres were offering performances of all genres, ten within walking distance of one [End Page 52] another, particularly along the Boulevard du Temple. In 1864, Napoleon III eased regulations allowing the establishment of café-théâtre, but at the same time ordered all theatrical pieces and libretti to be submitted for approval by the government censors. The three regulations appear as facsimiles in the appendices. The overview continues with a discussion of the names of the edifices, after its geographic location (Le Peletier for the Opéra), a monument (Théâtre du Panthéon), or a quartier (Théâtre du Luxembourg). A brief discussion of methodologies and the source material found in the riches of the Bibliothèque et Musée...

Buddhism Vernacular Architecture in Songkhla Lake Basin

The evidence of the historical development of the Songkla Lake Basin (covering Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Songkhla Province, and Pattalung Province) has been found since the 5th BE, and clearly noticed during the 12-13th BE as the port of Srivijaya Kingdom. Then in 16th BE, pieces of evidence of relationship with the Song Dynasty of China were found. During the 17-18th BE, Nakhon Si Thammarat played its role as the centre of Tambalinga Kingdom. In the 20th BE, many cities in the South were under the control of Ayudhya and Rattanakosin, the capitals, respectively. Political control and Buddhism were clearly seen. For economic circumstance, people lived their lives mainly on farming and doing agricultural activities. Due to the fact that farming needed much labour, people lived altogether. Communities expanded and temples were their centre. For the study of the floor plan of Buddhism vernacular architecture, it was found that the compositions and forms were similar to those found in the Chao Phraya Basin during Ayudhya and Rattanakosin period because of influence and relationship in terms of politics and Buddhism. However, due to its geographical aspects, the South has witnessed and experienced other cultures. This affected forms of architecture although the South has mainly been inspired by the Central Region, along with its own transformation and evolution. The study also found that the floor plan of temples is similar to that of the Central Region, for example Ubosot and the main Chedi were the main compositions, found in old temples, while Bua or small Chedi, keeping ancestors’ relics, were found in small temples, both outdoor or in the pavilion. The pavilions for miscellaneous purposes, because of the monsoon, were also found in the floor plan. In addition, vernacular architecture for shadow puppet theatre was also found generally.

Solar-powered shadow puppetry in a high school science classroom ‘illuminates’ a Navajo student energy forum

Abstract Enacting an energy forum using solar power-illuminated shadow puppets can serve as an effective method for actively engaging Navajo students in understanding the applicability and relevance of alternative energy in their lives and their communities. This article focuses on an education/outreach project that took place over the course of two days in a science classroom at Thoreau High School (THS) in Thoreau, New Mexico, with predominantly Navajo students. The education/outreach project described in this article is attempting to energize the National Science Education Standards for scientific literacy within the Navajo Nation with a dynamic and interactive artistic medium – solar-powered shadow puppet theatre – that is uniquely suited to the study of alternative energy. It not only supports scientific literacy, but also casts the students as authors of solutions to student-identified energy issues specific to their lives, their land and their concerns.