While on a reporting trip in Cambodia, I documented a very special Bunong ceremony. After first meeting in the village, I rode with members of the community on small motorbikes, up and down muddy trails and across streams, until we reached a shrine deep within their ancestral forest. They were preparing a sacrifice and feast for the following day, asking the forest spirits to protect them from an international development project threatening to consume half of their land.

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As night fell, I spent the evening documenting their preparations and worship, while the shrine became a flurry of activity. They busied themselves with preparing a pig for the ensuing feast. Their work also included chopping bamboo shoots for Bunong stew and readying wax and bamboo shafts for the ceremony. Once everything was complete, everyone camped at the shrine in hammocks. The forest, central to both ancestor worship and daily foraging, also holds a burial ground.

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Their ceremony and unified front may have saved their forest, their ancestors, and their traditions.

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The next day, project representatives and government officials visited in order to better understand the conflict. The development project has not advanced within their forest since this ceremony in mid-2023, and its end date in 2026 is fast approaching. Their ceremony and unified front may have saved their forest, their ancestors, and their traditions.

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About

Andrew Califf is a photographer and journalist with a background in anthropology and archaeology. He primarily covers stories on conservation, climate change, and Indigenous rights, with an underlying interest in how people interact with their changing environments. This is a central element of his photographic projects, as he draws on his anthropological background to create images that capture subsistence strategies and the feedback loop between people and the unique environments they rely upon.

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www.andrewcaliff.com