Clark - The last whalers: three years in the far Pacific with a courageous tribe and a vanishing way of life

Copyright 2019 by Doug Bock Clark

Cover design by Lucy Kim

Cover photograph copyright by Doug Bock Clark

Author photograph by Liana Engie

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Map of Lembata by Jeffrey Ward

Map of the Eastern Lesser Sunda Islands copyright by Jean R. Weiner, originally published in Lundberg (2001), Being Lost at Sea, and in PhD thesis Lundberg (2000), Lamaleraland: Tales of Whales and Whale Hunters.

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ISBN 978-0-316-39063-7

E3-20181129-JV-NF-ORI

For all the Lamalerans, past and present, especially those who appear in these pages, and for BKB, R.I.P.

Tenang-tenang mendayung,	Row calmly, row tranquilly,
Didalam ombak selepas pantai.	As the waves are loosed upon the shore.
Tenang-tenang merenung,	Daydream calmly, daydream tranquilly,
Ditengah taufan hidup yang ramai,	In the middle of the typhoon of life,
Ditengah taufan hidup yang ramai.	In the middle of the typhoon of life.

Hymn sung during Misa Arwah, the Mass for Lost Souls

For by Art is created that great Leviathan called a Common-wealth, or State, (in latine Civitas) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651

The Hariona Family

Yohanes Jon Demon Hariona: A young man striving to become a harpooner, custodian of the motorboat VJO

Fransiska Ika Bribin Hariona: His younger sister

Yosef Boko Hariona: His grandfather

Fransiska Grandmother Bribin Hariona: His grandmother

Lusia Sipa Hariona: His mother

Maria Mari Hariona: His youngest sister

The Seran Blikololong Family

Ignatius Seran Blikololong: Renowned harpooner and shipwright, trying to teach his sons his trades

Teresea Palang Hariona: His wife

Yosef Tub Blikololong: His eldest son

Willibrodus Ondu Boeang Demon Blikololong III: His middle son

Benyamin Ben Kleka Blikololong: His youngest son

Maria Ela Hermina Elisabeth Began Blikololong: His youngest daughter

The Mikulangu Bediona Clan

Fransiskus Frans Boli Bediona: Head of the Mikulangu lineage of the Bediona clan, shaman, and captain of Kna Puk

Maria Kleka Blikololong: His wife, younger sister of Ignatius Seran Blikololong

Bernadette Bena Bediona: His youngest child

Andreus Anso Soge Bediona: His younger relation and Jon Harionas fishing partner

The Wujon Family

Siprianus Sipri Raja Wujon: Head of the Wujon clan, a Lord of the Land

Marsianus Dua Wujon: His son, also a Lord of the Land

Other Lamalerans

Yosef Ote Klake Bataona: Friend of Jon Hariona, sometime harpooner of Kna Puk and VJO

Fransiskus Gonsals Sals Us Bataona: Patron of Jon Hariona, owner of VJO, businessman, and former mayor of Lamalera

Aloysius Enga Alo Krofa: Boyfriend of Ika Hariona

Solor Archipelago

Lamalera Beach

This is a true story. I witnessed many of these events. Scenes that I did not observe were reconstructed from interviews with participants and, when available, historical records. When accounts diverged on minor points, especially regarding hectic events like a hunt, I privileged the view of the person whose perspective frames the passage. When there were major differences of opinion about an occurrence, I made this explicit in the text. Notes to sources can be found at the end of this book. For rendering thoughts, feelings, or spiritual experiences, such as the Lamalerans communion with their Ancestors, I relied on the testimony of participants. Dialogue in quotation marks represents, most often, words I heard or, occasionally, words that were reconstructed by participants. All other speech is paraphrased. As with hunting a sperm whale, this book is the work of a village.

June 27, 2014

Jon

B aleo! Baleo!The hunt is on! The cry resounded through the village. A minute before, a motorboat had raced into the bay, and its crew had screamed the signal to the men on the beach, who themselves had taken up the cry. Now every man, woman, and child who had heard their alarm was adding a voice to the shouted relay, until all fifteen hundred souls in the ramshackle houses and surrounding jungle chorused that the sperm whales had been sighted.

When the clamor reached Yohanes Jon Demon Hariona in the decaying home he shared with his grandparents and sisters on the cliffs above Lamalera, he grabbed a baseball cap with frayed threads tasseling its brim, a battered plastic water jug, and a pill bottle stuffed with tobacco confetti and dried palm-leaf rolling papers. Then he dashed down steps chiseled into the stone of this Indonesian island, pushing aside hallooing children as he went.