CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
MANDY SHAM
THE NOMADIC PHOTOGRAPHER, JOURNALIST & FOODIE ON A QUEST OF SEARCHING FOR GASTRONOMIC PERFECTION
Through trekking the mountains of Georgia, camping under the starlit panorama in Wadi Rum and experiencing homemade meals in Bogotá, Mandy Sham's writing archives are led by her nomadic travel lust and unmatched food radar.
Our interview with the journalist is a glimpse into her remarkable life
Mandy Sham is not your typical travel photographer. Her wanderlust takes her to beyond-tourist places towards cobbled streets and corner bistros where she captures everyday life through a lens of romantic nostalgia. The soft glow and pastel hues of her images are an unmistakable signature of her visual genius. Her work makes us yearn to visit places we’ve never seen before and taste traditional homemade dishes that we didn’t even know existed.
By incorporating a balance of light and shadows in her shots, Mandy’s photographs portray a world of movement, emotions and beauty. Her visuals take us on a journey from the dunes of African deserts to the cinematic landscapes of the Balkans and the colourful streets of Europe.
Mandy’s interest is photography began after her dad bought her a Nikon J1 camera which she used to capture her experiences in Hong Kong where she spent a summer when she was still at university. For the years that followed she has been building an impressive portfolio on Instagram where her followers know her as peach.punk - a pseudonym that suits the calm colours of her photography and combines the edge she has as a female traveller who journeys off-the-beaten path.
Mandy’s aunt was the first person to spark her passion for exploring new destinations and over the years her love for travelling has only grown. Her solo trips, which she has been taking since her teenage years, have led her to incredible places from the top of mountains in Vietnam to the sun-kissed beaches of the Mediterranean and the food markets of Barcelona.
Based in Toronto, Canada, Mandy is constantly developing her multi-talents as a food lover, technical producer and journalist. As a foodie with an appreciation for culture and all things nomadic, Mandy has her own newsletter called Orenji, where she posts stories about her travels across the globe and invites her readers to virtually accompany her. Follow her on a visit to a teahouse in Asia, cool down with a glass of lemonade under the Caribbean heat and enjoy a homemade nabemono in a Japanese restaurant in the heart of the city.
We spoke to Mandy about her wanderlust and travel experiences as a foodie armed with a camera, a talent for writing and best of all a great appetite.
‘‘(...) Meals are the best when food is a labour of love—something equally meaningful to the one who brought it to life. Often, that happens in someone’s home—like when I had the beautiful opportunity to break fast with a Moroccan family during Ramadan (I met the son while on the plane to Marrakech). The food kept coming, and all of it was divine—the spiced, nutty bastilla most of all.’’
Mandy Sham
for NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine
NOMADSofORIGIN: You are a journalist by calling and a nomad by heart. How did you get into journalism?
Mandy: Through quite a roundabout, zigzag way. The short story is that I’d gotten an internship at my country’s national broadcaster as a technical producer, working the board on live radio broadcasts and mixing podcasts. My education is the feared “content creator” type — back when that was an aspirational word — but it also allowed me to learn all kinds of things and filter what I liked and didn’t like.
The obvious similarity among all the things I was passionate about was the storytelling — finding all the things that make us different, and finding ways to celebrate those things. Travel only cemented my passion for stories and people. I bounced around different technical and editorial roles at my organization, and eventually began working as a news producer — and reporting when I could, from different parts of the world.
NOMADSofORIGIN: From Sri Lanka to Mumbai and Tanzania, you have travelled to many places off-the-beaten path. What are the most intriguing destinations you have visited that are not on most travellers’ radar?
Mandy: Namibia can be somewhat hard to get to for many — but it is just so eccentric in the best way, with the kind of landscapes I’ve never seen anywhere. The desert is dusty, immensely large, and beautiful. Sometimes towns materialize as if from nothing. Sometimes there are taverns on the side of the highway. People speak a myriad of languages and carry their heritage with them everywhere. It’s got the surrealism of the Atlantic coast, plenty of dunes, and primordial stone towers that arise from the earth.
Another place that’s relatively off the radar — and comes highly recommended — is Georgia. It’s a country widely known for its hospitality, passion for food, and beautiful nature. Georgia is located in the Caucasus, filled with mountains, farms, and vineyards — but the regions differ quite a bit, from the Black Sea in the west to the capital of Tbilisi. Its location straddles east and west, and the most evident way that comes through is in food — nothing tastes like Georgian food, and I mean that in the best way. Food is deeply intertwined with seasonality here, and spiced with everything from marigold flowers to tarragon to blue fenugreek.
‘‘I’ve always being tied to the idea of stories as a very intimate and personal thing—something shared over a dinner table or scribbled in weeks-old snail mail.’’
Mandy Sham for NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine
NOMADSofORIGIN: Exploring the culture of a nation is closely intertwined with getting a taste of the local cuisine. As a foodie and food photographer + writer, what are some of the best meals you have had during your travels?
Mandy: I love this question, but where to even start?! I guess I’d preface this by saying meals are the best when food is a labour of love — something equally meaningful to the one who brought it to life. Often, that happens in someone’s home — like when I had the beautiful opportunity to breakfast with a Moroccan family during Ramadan (I met the son while on the plane to Marrakech). The food kept coming, and all of it was divine — the spiced, nutty bastilla most of all.
In a very different sense, I’ve also had one of the best meals of my life at Leo, in Bogotá, Colombia. The tasting menu explored all the regions of the country — Colombia being the second most biodiverse nation in the world — and corresponded each dish to ingredients from very specific areas. It felt like magical realism on a plate.
I’ll give one last shoutout to an egg waffle stall in Hong Kong, owned by an elderly Chinese couple on the second floor of a housing complex near Kowloon Tong. Egg waffles are ubiquitous in the city — I grew up with them, so there’s a certain nostalgia to getting a fresh one and roaming the streets of Hong Kong (or Canadian shopping malls). This one was special — you never saw the stall without a long line, it opened exclusively at night, and the waffles were doused with peanut butter and sugar.
NOMADSofORIGIN: What is your favourite cuisine?
Mandy: While While it’s hard to name one, I love just about anything that is maximalist, umami, and smoky — like the wok-fried Cantonese dishes of my childhood that impart a liveliness to fresh vegetables and cuts of meat, or the garlicky, bright yet herby dishes of Georgia. I also love the sweet, spicy party you get in your mouth from certain Mexican moles, or robust and fiery Indian and Sri Lankan curries. I also think the fusion of cuisines made by people from various backgrounds, especially in a place like Toronto — where I grew up — is some of the best food out there. One of my favourite restaurants here does a scallop kumquat ceviche, marrying Latin American flavours with Japanese ingredients.
Varanasi, India
Sacred Valley, Peru
Namibia
NOMADSofORIGIN: Do you have any travel memories you are particularly found of?
Mandy: There are a few that I keep close to me, mostly because they reminded me of how in spite of how big and unattainable the world is, people everywhere are just that — people. One memory I have is meeting a Jordanian couple and a pair of Argentinians by chance at a camp in Wadi Rum — we got along really well, talked about the world and back, and lit up our own campfire of blue flame further out in the desert at night. That was about the only time we were silent that day — laying down on the sand and admiring the stars.
Another story is dinner at a restaurant in Dandong, the Chinese border town facing North Korea. When a Chinese waitress asked our English-speaking trio something we couldn’t understand, the North Korean businessmen at the back of the establishment translated for us, loud and clear in English: “beer!” (Beer is, it appears, a universal language in many parts of the world.)
Experiences that have brought me close to nature are also super special — like trekking up to Thorung La Pass in the Annapurna region, under a wide panorama of stars. Or the time I bush camped in the Namib desert with strangers I’d grown close with in the course of two months. We spent that night cooking oryx and kudu steaks and digging into cups of Namibian wine.
NOMADSofORIGIN: From all the destinations you have visited, which one can you simply not resist going back to and why?
Mandy: Hong Kong will likely hold that space in my heart forever. I’m biased, of course — my parents are from there, and it’s also where I’ve spent brief periods of my life as a child, student, and tourist. I love how the limited space on the island, coupled with many people and many aspirations, create pockets of beautiful subculture and cherished shared histories. There’s a shared reverence for the dai pai dong, open-air food stalls that are quintessentially Hong Kong. You’ll find trendy restaurants tucked into old industrial buildings, and a constant juxtaposition of decay and re-invention. Hiking is ubiquitous on the island. It’s lovely to be surrounded by nature, the sea, and the sprawling energy of the metropolis.
Not everything is good. It’s sad to see the state of political freedoms decline, and things are complicated right now. But I very much still see Hong Kong as a second home, and I will continue to champion all the things that make it great.
‘‘The world is pretty big, and every effort on your part to make it smaller is one of the great joys in life. It doesn’t have to be halfway across the world—it could be the neighbourhood you haven’t yet gotten acquainted with, or a restaurant that cooks a type of cuisine you’ve never tried.’’
Mandy Sham for NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine
NOMADSofORIGIN: Your photography style is truly captivating. The nostalgic hint of your photographs has a vintage feel that shows through almost like a signature. Which photographs of yours are you most proud of?
Mandy: Thank you! It’s funny you mention nostalgia — it definitely runs deep in my work, and I see that reflected in many of my favourite photos. I also like the theme of otherworldliness — not with the aim of alienating a place, but of inserting a bit of magic into what might be considered someone’s everyday. I want to direct my lens at beauty in the world, and the following photos (from India, Jordan, Canada, Namibia, Spain, and Lebanon) give me that peace.
NOMADSofORIGIN: From eating tamales in Oaxaca City, to hopping on a marshrutkas across the Caucasus Mountains and enjoying a coffee on a balcony in Rishikesh overlooking the Himalayas - the stories in your newsletter are a celebration of the vibrant culture of places across the globe and the lifestyle of the locals. Considering how engaging your writing is, how did the idea of starting the newsletter come about and what keeps you inspired to keep working on more travel stories?
Mandy: I’ve always being tied to the idea of stories as a very intimate and personal thing — something shared over a dinner table or scribbled in weeks-old snail mail. I’ve used Instagram as a primary vector for those stories, because it is still very much a personal account that weaves photography into that narrative process (or maybe the other way around — bringing life and intimacy into stills).
As with podcasts, everyone and their mother has got a newsletter now — and I admit it’s something I love about something as lo-fi as email. Popping up in someone’s inbox with a story, read at one’s convenience by people keen on learning something new, feels like the best kind of renaissance.
Sharing adventures and experiences is a thing of life, but throughout the pandemic that has felt especially far away. At a recent brunch, it dawned on me that five of us were sharing stories about our lives — a simple act that hasn’t really taken place for the past two years — and that essence of closeness is something I strive for in my writing. There’s a thread of universality in what I’ve shared in my newsletter, driven by our collective desire to make the world make sense.
Ugab village, Namib Desert
Baku, Azerbaijan
Cholula, Puebla
NOMADSofORIGIN: Where would you like to travel to in the future that you have not yet visited?
Mandy: Patagonia has been calling my name for a long time, and I’m hoping to get there in the next couple of years to do a bit of trekking. Central Asia is very high on the list — I’m fascinated by the Turkic and Soviet influence woven into culture, architecture, and food. I’d love to see the steppes up north, and Tajikistan’s beautiful mountains. I’d also like to visit the Yemeni island of Socotra — it’s a place that looks absolutely surreal and beautiful, with dragon’s blood trees—and hundreds of other plants and animals that don’t live anywhere else in the world
NOMADSofORIGIN: How does travelling as a journalist differ to travelling as a tourist?
Mandy: These things work in the same vein as travelling for business versus leisure, but as a journalist I think your sense of place takes on a heightened responsibility — to tell stories that serve the people who share their experiences with you. You’re much more conscious of your time with those who agree to talk, and cautious not to distort that testimony for your own needs. In my view, that’s directly opposed to how exploitative tourism can sometimes be — the privilege of being on a tropical island that, in some or many cases, does all it can to shield you from the harder truths (and the cultural pride and joy, too) of living there.
Those moments of covering a nuanced story — and talking to locals keen on sharing their own lived experiences — have helped me along as a tourist, too. They’ve shaped why I think travel is valuable, and made abundantly clear the responsibility travellers have to respect the places they visit. In the end it is enriching — I find myself gravitating much more naturally to conversations with strangers, and it’s kept my own mind open and curious.
NOMADSofORIGIN: Thank you so much for this interview. Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Mandy: I’d share nothing more than a simple reminder: that the world is pretty big, and every effort on your part to make it smaller is one of the great joys in life. It doesn’t have to be halfway across the world — it could be the neighbourhood you haven’t yet gotten acquainted with, or a restaurant that cooks a type of cuisine you’ve never tried. Creating your own links with a community is an underrated and beautiful thing.
Read Mandy's Newsletter
Explore the photography we love and follow @peach.punk on social media.
NOMADSofORIGIN x Mandy Sham
This interview appears in NOMADSofORIGIN Magazine print #05 The Wanderlust Issue
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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