https://www.borisruth.com/stills-1 daily 0.75 2026-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1680483581306-IYAX1TCKZGDXFLDCDYQR/2R3A8255.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1769573289630-HLPB1N1BNOJ53PNC10YZ/img-17.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1769573267294-PVP4RMTDWEQEB0IBEWUG/img-1.jpg Stills An excerpt of a serene journey through Road 132 in Eastern Quebec and its sceneries. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1774504713839-UXWMOY2N580COH0ZJ6HR/2R3A6773.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/ead75456-029e-440f-90a5-b51d0e735343/2R3A1856.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/3b900d9c-85d1-40ba-9e89-1bf82add79a6/2R3A1881.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/0e5b2edc-8a25-45a9-b704-ee0077efa1c8/2R3A1773.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/cb2ae886-ce01-45a5-beae-578f7a441fdd/2R3A2318.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/2e55954d-79a0-496c-85e0-128f48131565/2R3A2349.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/4d9f9deb-9933-4cd8-aba7-4f44b9284719/2R3A2314.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/b13fbc53-09ac-4544-8e4c-25b1807fc655/2R3A2299.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1b12edd6-706b-4eb9-b362-7a48ccb8e3eb/2R3A1817.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/86ec527c-e9e1-4b20-80c9-fba06aeddabd/File+30.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/9b433798-50dc-49cf-ae10-62fda5f461bf/2R3A9187.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/16d1a4bd-43ad-4267-915f-9a47358a3409/2R3A8903.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/cab52a31-5b4a-49b5-9955-3c5fd1252dea/2R3A8916.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/a7b43317-d46c-43e2-a8ad-89340e2934f0/2R3A0995.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/c74ecf12-dcf1-413a-914a-2079e1e570c6/2R3A0035.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/660f001a-cae0-4a3d-9bb9-b67ed0795dbc/2R3A9175.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/162cf256-c5d1-4498-9dc2-c9365e2a72db/2R3A9165.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/c289faf4-4901-4d89-ab2f-af4ca44d5a3f/File+1.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/7212570a-b00c-4c1f-8dda-4fbd4c510b16/2R3A0986.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/2b8b1dab-6014-4dfa-aac0-9538dc2b551e/File+22.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/a622ae4c-dc86-415a-a21d-631ef5d903b8/2R3A0088.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/e4fe693c-2518-4159-afef-d162e55edb69/2R3A1774.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/72e91cb1-e374-4c31-9b75-c80a937627ba/2R3A1826.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/ca26b921-1270-4677-a8ad-d4843570c9a1/2R3A1782.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/f1ccc25c-6e09-4b27-b4f3-d47ab1fffd5a/2R3A1858.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/16ef8e63-4737-4337-85e5-a07209babfe2/2R3A2286.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/d3e2df2e-8e3b-45b0-ab5c-3de881abf522/2R3A8899.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/27a8df2c-4cac-4aa0-ae20-935a27b706f2/2R3A8220.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/cffdde03-c9a7-4077-90a1-6721d4e8c1f9/2R3A8467.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/90b64121-a194-4f2e-a0a0-48eda9010da0/2R3A9312.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/73f9ad65-5d33-47fb-9d9a-f919be64529d/2R3A9189.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/6f63a0cc-5cef-47ae-89d3-82ba84cb56de/2R3A9238-2.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/205323f8-6b82-43fb-a1a7-1ea160d68559/File+10.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/a766718f-e4dc-49e6-a080-49cf1d6cfde4/File+16.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/e1ca2347-3bef-48d0-85a9-c4b649382b71/File+27.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/9b37e1e8-0907-47fa-8a2b-648a60bf7c20/2R3A9928.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/ba017b81-3b21-4586-a362-f26064760d3f/2R3A9886.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/7bb7d66c-7ec0-4f96-bd49-0720d6988351/2R3A8399.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/89b0b73f-f8a0-4eaa-9e7d-fd1645c3f300/2R3A9899.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/a4068590-1f6a-4a23-9886-54c649e69673/2R3A9994.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/31d97a53-d026-4a3a-b1ca-d7e873f37b88/2R3A9962.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/9d74275b-3647-48c5-8f45-2f976eeeaa7f/2R3A0991.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/7ea18eb2-63e2-4fe4-ba6c-27664fcae00d/2R3A8773.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/84cdbf80-9530-4aed-a738-a7af7deaf8b8/2R3A0998.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/b8af916e-8626-4b7d-8824-50002659b154/2R3A1002.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/9a8b54f7-1a22-4828-986f-d811b1081e2c/2R3A8400.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/dc5a28a6-02dd-4981-8b5e-eba38aa24302/2R3A9158.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/e542c346-2bcc-49c5-9e83-7f65a15ec1bd/File+14.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/60b723a2-82f9-447a-8af8-97464d56155b/2R3A0084-3.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/c29134ae-314a-4522-8251-dd4eb2819955/File+7.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/bf3dcc25-bb47-4b07-9671-7f7a8a43a8eb/2R3A0061-2.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/bbd8714c-1637-42e4-95d9-ca010435564c/2R3A8255.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/a9b5e2b5-2806-43e0-ac02-326dd4872fba/2R3A8241.jpg Stills - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/6db6a488-76ee-4f24-bb90-fd875143ff46/2R3A8401.jpg Stills https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/101e8960-f049-427f-8e61-682a3d9a6fc2/2R3A8395.jpg Stills https://www.borisruth.com/stories daily 0.75 2026-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644859085632-QZAGMIJ862Q7UCT0UAV4/IMG_5314.jpg Stories - The Dominican salt mine of Las Salinas, a place between worlds for haitians looking to tether themselves to a better place. In Las Salinas, the sun conspicuously shines as the southern breeze always blows one way, the view from the bay, topped by a wall of windmills, is an everyday scene, a whistle far away makes itself heard, as a dozen men rush in-between the salt deposits towards a source — The meaning of this whistle is purely contextual, “the wagon is off the rails!”, “let’s go” and “here” can be some of those meanings. Some 518 years ago in what is today The Dominican Republic, Christopher Columbus, while trying to protect himself from the weather, found Las Salinas by accident near Puerto Hermoso village, situated around Las Calderas Bay, near the city of Baní — Attempting to protect it from others, it ended up turned into a salt business that was, and still is, one of the most important salt mine in the Caribbean at that time. Ginal remembers his past very well, as one of the many Haitians working in the salt mine they share a common past; Born in Port-au-Prince, he was raised in Haiti’s gaze, his interests, friends, love affairs and life were shaped by this part of the island, however, he was also shaped by his motherland’s convoluted history. After years and years of conflict, corruption and, more notably, the earthquake of 2012 he decided to leave the country in order to live a better life in the Dominican Republic; having been working at the salt mine for 4 months now his upbringing keeps him from ever looking back, he’s aware his current life is not the best but, in contrast with where he comes from, how could he ever? “We were not okay, we never were” he replies, when asked about why he left. Being passionate about business and driving, he says he’s lucky to be here, but when he feels weak he prays to keep his head “above the water”. Haiti itself used to be a french colony, at a time when affairs were more of a matter of possession between European powers than anything else, France and Spain ended up splitting the island of Hispaniola in two, those two parts being the Dominican Republic and Haiti. However, the two powers, while treating their respective islands in an equally bad fashion, managed their own differently. The way France treated Haiti had a lingering effect on its economy that still has nefarious consequences to this day; One of the first problems was the way the European power overused the land’s soil and resources for quick profit, which made the land dry and hardly usable. From a bird’s eye view, it can be (in)famously seen by the stark contrast between the Haitian and Dominican side of the border. Second important event was whenever France put Haiti in a 21 billion dollars debt and participating to the country’s economical collapse. Those two events are one of the many events leading to Haitians ultimately fleeing the country’s poverty, like Ginal, who ended up working at the salt mine. As early as 8, when the sun rays give us no excuse to remain in bed, the first workers show up; Often tired, often groggy, as their bodies are still far asleep and dreaming in different ways, first, they hang their bags — each one has his own preferred place, a habit that writes itself in the details, as a tradition that needs to be respected. Then, when enough workers are present, they randomly pick a number from a baseball cap that will determine their occupation for the day. There is a profound sense of luck and serendipity as some cheer and dance at having been chosen for a less tedious task than others, who will then have to take on the more dangerous and hard ones. While this might seem whimsical of some to find such enjoyment out of it, it can only be a testimony of the tediousness of the day to come. Later, as everybody is in their place, they will then repeat the same routine, over and over, until night falls — Some will pick the salt up from the pink hued flats to bring it to land in wooden boats, some will shovel it into the same old rusty wagons — As one brings them to the top of the main structure, others will then pour the precious ore into entire mountains of whites until dusk where they all gather to share followed by their departure in the same solitary white truck going back to the city. And yet, no matter how much this space excites our most basic senses: the sunlight, the wind, the crackling noises, the working conditions of these men are harsh and difficult — This harshness comes from many sides, but is mostly physical as collecting salt is physical by nature. The thing is, all the tools these men use date to as far back as before the 2000, from the tracks to the wagons, the wooden infrastructure, the smell of salt and rust fills the nose, while the screech of the struggling rails becomes the sound of difficulty. Every inch of this place is ancient and represents a factor to take into account as it makes simple tasks more or less tedious — for example, in order to bring back the wagons of salt they need to be pulled by a machine, however, because of the rails and the wheels are rusty, the wagons will often leave the tracks, then the workers need to gather together in a difficult act of lifting the heavy wagon full of the precious commodity using a wooden stick as levis. The wagon going off track is a recurring scene and it can happen an average of 3 times before getting to the top. Yet, nothing is done about it even though it is a dangerous practice that has left some wounded in the past, says Tano. There’s also the fact that these workers work with salt, and there’s a general rule saying that you cannot come back to work if you got injured, even if it means having a small cut, says Tano. But a lot of these men require work in order to sustain themselves in what amounts to an incredibly brittle livelihood, and cannot afford not to come everyday and work from dawn to dusk. Despite all of these restrictions they still push their bodies and tools to their own respective limits — Under the 35 degrees sun, or in the middle of a storm, these men work tirelessly, day by day, for a quota that needs to be met no matter what. The reality is, they have no choice because of how easy they are to replace. In the Dominican Republic, if what you’re looking for is cheap manpower you will have plenty, the men working these jobs do not do it because they want to but because that kind of work is at the very bottom of what you can get. “Human Rights Watch estimated that 70,000 documented Haitian immigrants and 1,930,000 undocumented immigrants were living in the Dominican Republic” meaning there’s an abundance of people who left Haiti to flee from the poverty and in need of work, but two thirds of the jobs are not in formal workplaces and lack the necessary regulation. Some want to leave, but ultimately they can’t, “I’ve been working here for so long I can’t remember — more than 20 years.”, says Bienvenido, worker and elder of the salt mine. As he talks about the harshness of the job he adds “Even if I wanted to leave I can’t, I’m poor”, and it’s not as if they would have any one from the government to protect their rights either — The government is well aware the vast majority of these workers are haitians, and shrouded in anti-haitian resentment, the country itself lacks concern when it comes to regulation of those “jobs from the bottom”, knowing fully well it mostly impacts them. The very omnipresent sense of community of the workers there is an important factor of resilience to be taken into account if we’re talking about how these workers have been able to stay here for so long. Whenever they gather, they share about their daily lives, women, they joke around, talk about the news, their friends and can remember their upbringing and cheer their existence there as an accomplishment, but can also freely talk about the intricacies of said upbringing, their worries and advice each other on various issues. The Dominican Republic benefits from a very important expansion you can witness in everyday places, like the sight of people entering a mall who recently just opened, the sound of cars stopping in a brand new hotel nearby, the music from this new restaurant by the beach you would always go to. By comparison the salt mine is an exception, it’s a place where time doesn’t exist, it never expands, it always stays the same, and days look alike, everything has been more or less the same for centuries, and workers feel it, where many of them cannot even remember how long they’ve been working there. We tend to think, hardly rewarded labor, or something close to an elusive definition of slavery wouldn’t have passed the test of time, that such a system would be dismantled due to never being able to find people willing to do such a dangerous and unrewarding job. And yet, being an haitian in the Dominican Republic makes you complementary to such workplaces, your life and such places become intricately connected by the circumstances of history. This place is not bad, in itself, and one underlying reason why people would turn a blind eye about the conditions of this salt mine is because, most of these people have a history of fleeing their country; In some ways, they are refugees, and in that aspect, the salt mine of Las Salinas is a place that represents the baseline of the life they sought, a place of in-betweens for those between befores and afters; Living in the Dominican Republic, the food is always affordable, there are always new houses being built where older ones will become even more affordable, new jobs are often created due the ever expanding economy, and from there, they can only go up, and while some haven’t left this place for years, what matters is to have opportunities waiting for them. The mine is one of the many limbos between what they had and the standard we often take for granted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1669172069168-8EGH79NL3QXPJ889OX7Y/IMG_2264.jpg Stories - Hmong Fruit In the Amazon rainforest of French Guiana, a community of Laosian refugees has been thriving and reshaping an entire country’s relation to food. The Hmong people were a population of farmers living on the Laosian hills. However, persecuted during the Vietnam War, they were displaced 40 years ago from their homeland by France who proposed to then populate one of their colonies in the Americas. The French government at the time thought the similar climate and vegetation would be a natural fit for them. And so, they were given land to plow and grow vegetables on, they didn’t have a choice and they needed to survive, so they adapted. Despite the aggressive racism they faced at their arrival, they were able to break through and save their culture. Now living in the small town of Cacao, they are now responsible for 60-80% of all the fruits and vegetables grown on the territory — essentially feeding a nation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1656526395280-DQYW4I86UJUZGQFX24BZ/IMG_9475.jpg Stories https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1686291939113-EUTDAJ3C1YP9I3DGNCTU/2R3A0736.jpg Stories In Bali, where spirituality and natural wonders enmesh, the Balinese people take to the beach to celebrate Banyupinaruh—an occasion that unifies communities and honors wisdom. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855033867-A737Y4LDYXYJAXZASWDN/7.jpg Stories - 'There aren't enough schools' The Cuban asylum seekers told TNH their children have had no access to an education. Ramos said he was promised in October that his children would start school soon, but he has received no further updates since from the authorities. While Ramos goes to work, his son and his daughter, Camila – pictured above in the family’s tent with a carer – spend their days hanging around the camp with the children of other asylum seekers. On arrival in Cayenne, his former partner, the children’s mother, left them to go and work in the territory’s illegal gold mines. In November, Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, a senator for the French territory, rejected a court order for the state to school 18 migrant children from Haiti, Palestine, Peru and Syria, saying the system already lacked spaces for locals. Sophie Donzenac, a spokesperson for the local authority, or préfecture, told TNH the government was doing what it could but said that even if the migrant children could be tested and allocated places there was nowhere for them to go. “There aren't enough schools, and there aren't enough funds to build schools or hire personnel,” she said. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1736550098867-FVJIOFY4VV38AZ4UBJHB/photo-40.jpg Stories - On the Indonesian Island of Sumba, Traditional Weaving Helps a Threatened Community Thrive Publised in Montecristo Magazine and Frontline On photo: Asti, a helper from the Melolo weaving house. In the shade of a thatched communal weaving house outside Melolo, Hana's hands move with practiced grace. Her wooden heddle stick glides through brilliantly dyed cotton warp threads—indigo blue, morinda red, turmeric yellow—conjuring patterns that have adorned Sumbanese cloth for centuries. Beside her, her daughter watches intently, learning not just a craft but a language: crocodiles for protection, horses for wealth, ancestral spirits watching over the living. This is tenun ikat, the resist-dye weaving technique that has defined Sumba's cultural identity for generations. But on this small Indonesian island, barely 200 kilometers long and perched at the eastern edge of the archipelago, the ancient art is becoming something else entirely—a lifeline in a warming world. An Island on the Edge Sumba can often be defined by its endless limestone hills and arid soil where little vegetation can grow. Located in one of Indonesia's most severely climate-sensitive regions and considered an ecological forefront for desertification, this fragile ecosystem beats to the rhythm of three things: the abundance of water for crops, animals, and people; the upholding of their millennia-old textile-making tradition; and the carrying of their ancient Marapu belief. East Sumba has always been arid, its landscape shaped by hot north-Australian winds and limestone savannahs. But over recent decades, the wet season has contracted from six months to just three, leaving farmers scrambling to grow enough rice, corn, and cassava to feed their families. The dry season now routinely brings extreme droughts exceeding 60 days without rain, turning the already sparse landscape into a sun-scorched expanse where little can survive. The eastern part of Sumba has lived on the constant brink of drought manifestation, but for the past decade, this precarious balance has dwindled, resulting in a decrease in agricultural and livestock activities and the displacement of populations off the island. As warming climates dry the land and water finds itself scarcer than ever, those barren limestone hills immortalize Sumba's enduring beauty—and its deepening crisis. When the Rhythms Break For generations, life here followed a predictable pattern. During the rainy season, Sumbanese people would work in the fields; in the dryer season, they would stay at home weaving their tenun ikat to later sell at markets or keep as heirlooms. But with a warming climate came shorter rainy seasons, affecting the growth of cereals and sustenance for animals. Climate change and COVID-19 severely impacted the island's livelihood, causing irreparable loss of harvests and unprecedented economic strain. As harvests dwindled, the local population needed to compensate somehow. Despite the average monthly salary hovering around 150 US dollars, the textiles themselves tell a different economic story. Each fabric sold at local markets costs at least 300 dollars due to the lengthy creation process. In the UK, such fabric could easily reach 1,500 pounds at resale. But many pieces never leave the island—they're used for everything: as a gift from a mother to her child, as a cover against the cold of night, as currency for a dowry, as a book narrating stories of successes and losses, as adornment, or even as a symbol of a life well lived in funeral ceremonies. The Fabric of Identity Tenun ikat Sumba, or Sumbanese woven fabric, is a textile made from cotton naturally growing on the island. It reflects the enduring cultural heritage shaped by centuries of tradition. Each piece is meticulously crafted, representing a profound connection to Sumba's rich heritage and its Marapu belief. From the cotton to the herbs and woods used for dye, every fabric is purely made out of the island's natural elements, reflecting the health and challenging environmental conditions of the island, necessitating resourcefulness and sustainability from its people. The symbols on Sumbanese fabric narrate stories. Each of the roughly 70 traditional motifs has a very specific meaning and are often used to talk about the story of either the island or the person and family that made the fabric. There are skull trees recalling pre-colonial headhunting, omega-shaped mamuli pendants representing fertility and marriage exchange, shrimp and lobsters symbolizing renewal and regeneration. Motifs including animals, plants, and spirits feature prominently, symbolizing the interconnectedness of the natural and spiritual worlds—the crocodile represents strength and protection, while the horse symbolizes wealth and power. The process is painstakingly slow. A single traditional piece of tenun ikat cloth can take up to a year to complete, passing through 42 stages of work. The technique involves binding warp threads in patterns before dyeing them, creating the signature slightly blurred designs that make each textile unique. These fabrics are the quintessential symbol of Sumbanese identity and a core part of how the culture is expressed in everyday life. From the cotton to the dye to their thick and enduring fabric lasting up to a century, each woven thread interconnects every single person and aspect of Sumbanese society in the most subtle of ways. Colors Born from Aridity Sumba's vibrant colors are derived from natural ingredients found across the island. The intricate dyeing process, adapted to the island's arid climate, showcases the Sumbanese people's ingenuity in utilizing their environment. Indigofera tinctoria herbs provide the blue dye via fermentation. Red comes from the roots of the fruit-bearing morinda trees. Yellow flows from turmeric. All of these plants are hardy enough to grow in the difficult dry conditions that devastate conventional crops. Unlike water-intensive commercial cotton cultivation, Sumbanese ikat takes full advantage of the eastern part's arid climate. In the face of a warming climate and dwindling harvests, it is exactly this use of the island's aridity that allows Sumbanese people to make a fabric that is essentially climate-change-proof and a reliable economic solution to loss of harvests. The textiles, recounting millennia-old narratives, deeply mirror the island's arid climate and are an extension and symbol of the island's wellbeing. A Tradition Opens Its Doors Within the communal weaving house—a place meant for making traditional textiles—dedicated women come together to share skills, stories, and traditions, fostering a sense of unity and heritage. Sumbanese women come to the weaving house as often as needed, benefiting from all the community and tools necessary to create their very time-consuming fabric. Through this collective effort, they find community and resources to carry on the legacy of their culture through the creation and export of their textiles. But the weaving houses now welcome new faces. After school, children like Audi often help, offering support to older women while they weave—helping in the creation of dye, fetching tools and water, taking the opportunity to learn the craft themselves and later pass it on when they become older. Whenever she's not directly helping with the textile creation process, Asti, one of the helping children of the Melolo Valley, tends to the younger kids while the parents of the weaving house are busy. Then there's Umbu Nadwa, carefully taping together individual threads for the color-binding process. As a man, he represents the evolving culture—his practice of tenun ikat breaks a long tradition where only women of an advanced age were allowed to weave and manipulate the elements of the island to make the fabric. But following the resurgence and subsequent democratization of the textile, young women and men are now allowed to weave, partaking in the tradition and putting their own stories and essence into it, intertwining ancient Marapu belief through contemporary creativity. His participation brings a fresh perspective to Sumba's weaving tradition, infusing it with innovation and inclusivity, ensuring its relevance and vitality in contemporary society. Weaving a New Economy In 2020, in efforts from the local government and the population to offset the increasing effects of water scarcity, they decided to focus their efforts on the production and export of their traditional textile. All these hopes of exporting this ancient textile coalesced into the east Sumbanese community of Melolo, a small cradle of peace situated in a shy but arid valley located inland close to the coast, empowering weavers in a network that allows them to export their craft abroad and make the community thrive. Rambu Ana acts as a facilitator of cultural exchange and middlewoman, serving as a conduit for exporting Sumba's rich heritage abroad through its famed textile. Through her intermediary role, she promotes cross-cultural understanding and appreciation, showcasing the artistry and craftsmanship of Sumba's weavers on the global stage. Through resellers like her, the cloth reaches buyers in online marketplaces, antique shops, and even modern international brands. The people of the island turned this revival into a dynamic pursuit, coming as an opportunity to export traditions and stimulate Sumba's own growth as its number one cultural export. Be it across Europe, Asia, or North America, the textile, once confined to tradition, now serves as a medium of togetherness to share Sumba's cultural narrative globally, as well as support local communities aiming to offset the impact of ever-diminishing harvests. The Sacred and the Commercial Always seen during cultural ceremonies such as the Pasola or the Penuburan—a funeral where people celebrate someone's passing—Sumbanese textiles find poignant expression, woven into funeral rites as a symbol of reverence and tradition. Certain patterns honor the ancestors at a funeral, while others bless a marriage. The fabrics are often buried with their owner along with their most precious belongings. This quintessential presence underscores the fabric's deep cultural significance, woven into the fabric of Sumba's social and spiritual life. For the Sumbanese, who follow the animistic Marapu belief system, these textiles don't merely adorn—they connect the living to the dead, the earthly to the spiritual, the present to deep time. Sumbanese culture is fundamentally about the interconnectedness and inter-reliance of their people with one another. Weaving textile isn't just a cultural activity; it itself is part of the invisible fabric that permeates every node and fiber of their cultural makeup. The creation of this ancient textile is for the Sumbanese the cultural medium that connects all: nature, people, animals, places, memories and generations, past and future, sunrise and sundown—and sunrise again. Threads Woven Forward As Hana's heddle stick moves through the warp one more time, a horse takes shape—legs stretched in full gallop, a symbol of wealth and power that has adorned Sumbanese textiles for centuries. Her daughter watches, memorizing the pattern, learning which threads to bind and which to leave free for the dye to penetrate. Using age-old tools and techniques, Hana will pass her knowledge and skills to her daughter, ensuring the continuity of Sumba's weaving tradition for generations to come. Outside the weaving house, the landscape tells a story of challenge: cracked earth, sparse vegetation, springs that have vanished. But inside, in the cool shade, the old knowledge persists—transformed, yes, opened to new hands, adapted to new markets, but fundamentally unchanged. The crocodile still represents strength. The ancestral spirits still watch. And the Sumbanese still weave, binding their past to an uncertain future, one thread at a time. With the island gaining more and more momentum due to its exponentially increasing tourism industry—looking for a simpler experience than what may be found in Bali—Sumba's future remains largely positive. But the threat of water scarcity remains a serious issue at hand. Still, thanks to its climate-change-proof textile embodying the tenacity of its natural environment and people, Sumba has everything it needs to weave its own fate. The Pattern Emerges As Hana's heddle stick moves through the warp one more time, a horse takes shape—legs stretched in full gallop, a symbol of wealth and power that has adorned Sumbanese textiles for centuries. Her daughter watches, memorizing the pattern, learning which threads to bind and which to leave free for the dye to penetrate. Outside the weaving house, the landscape tells a different story: cracked earth, sparse vegetation, springs that have vanished with the forests. But inside, in the cool shade, the old knowledge persists—transformed, yes, opened to new hands, adapted to new markets, but fundamentally unchanged. The crocodile still represents strength. The ancestral spirits still watch. And the Sumbanese still weave, binding their past to an uncertain future, one thread at a time. In a world reshaped by climate change, perhaps this is what resilience looks like: not resistance to change, but the ability to incorporate it into the pattern—to take the new threads and weave them into the tapestry of life, creating something both ancient and entirely new. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1774503027884-8TMMH5UP81MGTQQSUJUU/img-47.jpg Stories https://www.borisruth.com/for-editors daily 0.75 2024-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310102159-UJOXJ5RL2L96VG9W0BFK/IMG_7059.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310102159-UJOXJ5RL2L96VG9W0BFK/IMG_7059.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309095615-64Y56DDCTLHCZTKDAWDQ/IMG_6441.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309171190-O5Y1POYAUUH42MIU0OQ4/IMG_6456.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309270804-Y3AED0K93HTFW1SRDUPV/IMG_6500.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310121497-UHXU74Y7UOR89TKDW13E/IMG_6871.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310065832-J1YRMR1QBPAIDA9OW2RI/IMG_6822.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309236456-JETU7TDCLKTCRDW3NT53/IMG_6469.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309250624-GNMGD9BKGV82KYJVFIB8/IMG_6470.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310260594-39UN2N2PH4MI7JB64UUW/IMG_6352.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664310236477-SR1ST1OJH7P853NMV24Q/IMG_6873.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664309023379-RVFY7YJO41TMZSFH9YFC/IMG_6424.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664333307823-S5ZTCI0V8B78P5LFNM4W/IMG_8983.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664308955878-W3TA2BHX54WIHGNFG851/IMG_6409.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509548117-06U0EDK53JLPL2Z8G19Z/IMG_0607.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509534460-O6VGJLW5TT9ZJISMD0WT/IMG_0600.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664510328916-HSMHAS0ZG5JBLLAV4IQ0/IMG_0601.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509591591-HGG5SJBE1IKIBSSZ0SUX/IMG_0635.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664510003387-S86FB5C7XGVCDWCJA1DY/IMG_0642.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509632213-I0ZCYYIQF4WED153F3XW/IMG_0660.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509647477-UW0TSBQEKMMEEARUPPT3/IMG_0662.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509656820-FNUPS2HGAPN5WSKQHWDN/IMG_0664.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509782126-19S159WJFT6VIU28Q9Y9/IMG_0672.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509775774-Q4IHI6FVJ3ZQ5T43V9XL/IMG_0666.jpg Barev https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1664509720251-NU7RC64S3WSOAXEZWZQ2/IMG_0682.jpg Barev https://www.borisruth.com/zahras-story daily 0.75 2024-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032348586-ZN9NG2WFGMVFR1KHIK45/Zahra-15.jpg Zahra's story - Zahra's story Zahra is a 29 years old iranian woman living as a refugee in Montreal. Being from Tehran, she was born with a severe congenital limb deficiency which defined the world around her. For most of her life, she struggled from all sides as she’s always been denigrated by society. Others would give her dirty looks, leave a public pool if she entered it; Unable to study normally, or even date, her life was difficult. Dating for her in particular wasn’t a humane option; With the marriage custom called Sireh (or Mut’ah) she used to be sold off by the Mullahs to men for temporary consumption. But the regime’s pressure was the hardest on her. During the scorching heat of summer, she recalls, she decided to go around town with a loose hijab, as not to overheat, but when an agent of the regime took notice of her hair he proceeded to threaten her if she didn’t fix it immediately, even if her disability made it especially difficult. She tried resisting but to no avail, so she fixed her hijab the best way she could. She says: “You know, I can not live as a person, because I’m a girl (...) To be a girl in my country is hard, but just imagine for me.” Her decision to leave alone, backpacking with a prosthetic leg across Turkey, the US, and arriving in Canada, is a feat in itself, but it came as no surprise; After losing her father and brother a couple years ago, her mother and sister were the only people able to support her, however, the strain from the regime’s oppression and the need to take care of her kept getting increasingly heavier on them, so Zahra decided to take it upon herself to seek refuge elsewhere. She has been in Canada for 5 months now, but she hasn’t heard from her family for months, since the regime has been tightening the grip on all communications. She herself hopes her sister didn’t go to the protests since she has a baby, Zahra feels sad as she is unable to walk among the tens of thousands of iranian people. She passionate about it because this protest is different according to her; Living under oppression from the regime, women are tired of all the things happening to their country. Despite the violent and deadly crackdowns on the protesters, she says they’ve reached a point where they’re no longer afraid of being killed for their freedom. According to her, it was never about religion, these protests are the cause of the sheer injustice Iranian people face under a regime that denies their most basic rights. Living as a woman and a person with a disability crystallized all of her country’s shortcomings. Now, she is alone, and yet she doesn’t regret her decision. Coming to Canada was essentially a way for her to “gain a 2nd chance'' as she puts it. She wants to be somebody and live humanly, having dreams of being a public speaker to advocate for others’ rights, or indulge in a normal life. But the road ahead is a difficult one as she explains. Receiving a measly $71 per month she struggles, and has been working hard in order to gather support from others, making friends along the way and new memories. Before she left, her mother told her “for 29 years I’ve fought for you to become somebody” Zahra explains it’s because of these words and the will of her people to fight for freedom that she’s able to fight for her dreams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032348586-ZN9NG2WFGMVFR1KHIK45/Zahra-15.jpg Zahra's story - Zahra's story Zahra is a 29 years old iranian woman living as a refugee in Montreal. Being from Tehran, she was born with a severe congenital limb deficiency which defined the world around her. For most of her life, she struggled from all sides as she’s always been denigrated by society. Others would give her dirty looks, leave a public pool if she entered it; Unable to study normally, or even date, her life was difficult. Dating for her in particular wasn’t a humane option; With the marriage custom called Sireh (or Mut’ah) she used to be sold off by the Mullahs to men for temporary consumption. But the regime’s pressure was the hardest on her. During the scorching heat of summer, she recalls, she decided to go around town with a loose hijab, as not to overheat, but when an agent of the regime took notice of her hair he proceeded to threaten her if she didn’t fix it immediately, even if her disability made it especially difficult. She tried resisting but to no avail, so she fixed her hijab the best way she could. She says: “You know, I can not live as a person, because I’m a girl (...) To be a girl in my country is hard, but just imagine for me.” Her decision to leave alone, backpacking with a prosthetic leg across Turkey, the US, and arriving in Canada, is a feat in itself, but it came as no surprise; After losing her father and brother a couple years ago, her mother and sister were the only people able to support her, however, the strain from the regime’s oppression and the need to take care of her kept getting increasingly heavier on them, so Zahra decided to take it upon herself to seek refuge elsewhere. She has been in Canada for 5 months now, but she hasn’t heard from her family for months, since the regime has been tightening the grip on all communications. She herself hopes her sister didn’t go to the protests since she has a baby, Zahra feels sad as she is unable to walk among the tens of thousands of iranian people. She passionate about it because this protest is different according to her; Living under oppression from the regime, women are tired of all the things happening to their country. Despite the violent and deadly crackdowns on the protesters, she says they’ve reached a point where they’re no longer afraid of being killed for their freedom. According to her, it was never about religion, these protests are the cause of the sheer injustice Iranian people face under a regime that denies their most basic rights. Living as a woman and a person with a disability crystallized all of her country’s shortcomings. Now, she is alone, and yet she doesn’t regret her decision. Coming to Canada was essentially a way for her to “gain a 2nd chance'' as she puts it. She wants to be somebody and live humanly, having dreams of being a public speaker to advocate for others’ rights, or indulge in a normal life. But the road ahead is a difficult one as she explains. Receiving a measly $71 per month she struggles, and has been working hard in order to gather support from others, making friends along the way and new memories. Before she left, her mother told her “for 29 years I’ve fought for you to become somebody” Zahra explains it’s because of these words and the will of her people to fight for freedom that she’s able to fight for her dreams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032264041-JJ0XCUOTOWV55TVZHT57/Zahra-1.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032257040-FWYZVE3O6KGY5CT3CUUV/Zahra-2.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032270022-EJ0NRNNXP4IA6620J3GN/Zahra-3.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032309671-56YMH4CLPCWXFCXN8KPG/Zahra-8.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032275828-LEQKP8EQ98ZFQ7PQNA5O/Zahra-4.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032307524-YO2Q6DK28HRWVG84S9XK/Zahra-9.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032335969-LITBYTR9AN4LPRV746EV/Zahra-19.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668032313324-F27R3B4P5OSTAUJ891H6/Zahra-12.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668301932801-SHSQQ3LHP97QF8N93PX7/Zahra-21.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668301981346-8572DKOWYKX3A7G6NSFB/Zahra-22.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668301980370-CLKRRJRTDSQ4RLRII5SO/Zahra-23.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668301999521-7TA2Y5KBOKFLQU1XYIAK/Zahra-26.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668302019916-FFVKK0E7BBAQG0I01QVM/Zahra-30.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668302043423-3AZVY63ITBVMEVP79BFT/Zahra-35.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668302054296-7S7T7RMNCUF7F8UUVCNI/Zahra-37.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668302077447-XTFHJU1GT71MBYJE2SWC/Zahra-39.jpg Zahra's story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1668302080575-802LNZJZ6CE7GK6JBFR5/Zahra-40.jpg Zahra's story https://www.borisruth.com/home-1 daily 0.75 2026-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437439169-OI1MLDPQJYNX84WO8L51/2R3A9232.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437439169-OI1MLDPQJYNX84WO8L51/2R3A9232.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437270135-3U6SOBFENKLX98QK61FP/2R3A8381.jpg A River's End Whether in Canada, Australia, Scandinavian countries, or even Switzerland, the process remains the same: an authority—Church, State, or their alliance—takes hold of children from a minority population with the aim of erasing their cultural identity to replace it with the dominant culture. This program is summarized by the three verbs "educate, evangelize, colonize," which form the subtitle of 'Allons enfants de la Guyane.' , written by Hélène Ferrarini, and the possibility of this documentary project in French Guiana. This investigation, published last year, reveals a concealed aspect of the recent history of this French department located in the Amazon and poorly understood. This documentary work is meant to show that, for almost a century, “Amerindian” children and, to a lesser extent, Maroon descendants of African slaves, were taken away from their families and villages to be interned in homes run by religious authorities. While the last institutions of this kind closed their doors in Canada some thirty years ago, Amerindian homes in French Guiana persisted until very recently. In fact, there is still one in operation in 2023 in Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock, albeit on the verge of closure. Hunted by the gendarmes Since the 1930s, priests and nuns have gathered children as young as 5 or 6, sometimes even 2 or 3 years old, and kept them within the homes until the end of their schooling. From 1949, the territory became a French department: the Church and the secular Republic now collaborated in this deculturation enterprise. It was the gendarmes who would search the villages for runaways or threaten recalcitrant parents with imprisonment. The Kali'na population, already weakened and fearful, struggled to resist the pressures. Over nearly a century, all families saw one or more children sent to the homes. Even if these children returned to their families for brief stays, they forgot their mother tongue and lost the familiarity with the environment upon which the education of these hunter-fishermen relied: "Observing, looking, breathing, feeling, speaking, repeating the gestures I had memorized, that was my school, and one day I was told that it was not a good school," recalls jurist and indigenous activist Alexis Tiouka in his preface, adding, "It was a policy of assimilation without return." He passed away in late November 2023. Pioneering work Feelings of shame regarding one's origins, humiliating punishments, beatings, food deprivation, the pain of becoming a stranger in one's own family—these testimonies are deeply moving. As Alexis Tiouka puts it, "They wanted to kill the Amerindian but keep the man": to employ them as lumberjacks, laborers, or domestic workers. Denial and silence The movement initiated by Hélène Ferrarini's investigation will undoubtedly see developments. Contacted by phone, the author notes that the Grand Council of Elders and other indigenous associations want to initiate the legal process of acknowledging the violence endured, aiming for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. However, she adds, on the side of the authorities, the newly arrived bishop denies the events, and the silent prefecture shows discontent through administrative blockades. Despite its differences, the picture painted by the situation resembles in many ways the atrocities Canada acknowledged and for which the government and Church have apologized. French Guiana, and consequently France, cannot avoid taking a stance on these practices and finding a way for different cultures populating the territory to coexist. NOTES: No one can deny France and North America have had a long and violent history with their colonialism, while the last Canadian residential school closed in 1997, French indigenous communities within the former colony of French Guiana still suffer from colonial era institutions that never went away. Such is the case with its last active residential school. In the discrete rainforest of French Guiana, a department of France that is generally regarded as either a green hell on earth, or as a platform for its european rocket launcher, two thousand indigenous children of the headwaters of the Amazon were taken away from their families, forced by the state and the church. There would ensue a mentally and physically violent campaign, in what is colloquially called a residential school, or a "Home". The goal was to evangelize them through a system designed to weaken and permeate the bond between family, children and their rainforest-bound memories and culture. The first Home of Mana was built in 1935, the goal back then was clear, missionaries being unable to convert the local indigenous communities to religion to a European way of life, figured they were able to take children from indigenous villages and convert them from a very young age to the education desired. France not only acted as a facilitator in that regard but it legitimized and gave away the necessary resources to the church to achieve what could be considered a large scale cultural genocide . As Alexis Tiouka, a renown kali’na activist said “The goal was to kill the indian and keep the man”. To that end, there were several tools put in place by both the church and the state; First, children were taken away from as young as possible. Ideally 3 to 4 year olds so that their knowledge of their culture and language were muddled and easy enough to forget over time. The families who opposed the practice would be retaliated against by the missionaries commissioning the local police to forcibly remove the children away from their families or at least coerce them into doing so with the threat of financial penalties or prison. Both French Indigenous residential schools and Canadian Indigenous residential schools were institutions established by their respective governments to assimilate Indigenous children into Western culture, but there were some key differences between them. In France, Indigenous children were primarily sent to boarding schools run by religious organizations, rather than directly by the government. These schools were established in the late early 20th centuries yet still remain today, and were designed to "civilize" Indigenous children and strip them of their Native identity. In Canada, Indigenous residential schools were imposed by the government and operated from the 19th century until the 1990s. These schools were part of a larger government policy of assimilation and were often run by the church. The Canadian schools were notoriously harsh, with physical and sexual abuse being common. While both French and Canadian Indigenous residential schools were aimed at assimilating Indigenous children into Western culture, the French schools were less loosely controlled and more discreet and subtle about their abuses. To this day, while only the last residential school remains active on French soil, the abuses themselves have become increasingly more hidden as scrutiny about the situation has dramatically increased in the past year. The violence the children of the homes would face was of many natures, but was mainly of three types: familial, the physical, or cultural. The children currently going to the residential school are children of the village of Trois-Saut, a remote village located 3 days away. Due to the distance, lack of middle school in the village, and the constitutional obligation parents have to send their children to school, they do not have a choice but to send their children away to the only place able to receive them. When the children arrive, they have to face a new education that deprives them of everything they’ve received up until now, the warmth of a family, the familiarity of their foods and traditions, the presence of a community. Many children cannot bear the change of scenery and fleeing is a frequent phenomenon. Because of these frequent acts of rebellion they are often punished by the nuns in charge. Such is the story of Dylan, a now-17 year old from the Wayapi people who spent 3 years at the residential school. Being from Trois-Saut, he was at first delighted about the change. Despite the presence of cold and harsh new “parents'', the newness of it was an attractive prospect from the get go. But as time went on, he quickly realized his days would be far more difficult than anticipated. At 13 years old, he had to see his classmates, friends, and community fall under the recurring punishments of the nuns. He himself would be a victim of it. When asked if he already received physical punishment, yes, he nodded. When asked how he felt when it would happen “I was angry, a lot of the time I wanted to hit her back.”, he replies. He and other indigenous kids from the residential school had to steal food from the pantry because the nuns would regularly withhold food from them if they misbehaved. “If you’re punished it’s forever” he adds. The nuns had, and still have, a tight grip over their education and to this day limit the usage of their ancestral knowledge, “If we were between us we’d speak wayapi but if not we had to speak french (…) we’re told we have to speak french. (…) she’d tell us ‘speak french’.” he tells me. At the age of 16, he was able to leave as he started high school in a different place. But to this day it’s difficult for him to reconcile with what happened. Since the children of the residential school are from Trois-Saut, during back to school time, their families go through a 3 day long journey to St-Georges that can cost up to 2 thousands euros to drop their children who’ll stay there for the next few years. They gather in St-Georges in flocks for a brief time and then go back home on that same journey. None of the children going to the residential school will be able to talk to their parents for months due to the lack of reception/internet in Trois-Saut. When children of either the residential school of St-Georges or the host families of the littoral are kicked out of their place of stay by either the nuns/priests, parents have no way of knowing what happens to their children. Many of whom end up homeless despite being minors. Ngos such as L’Effet Morpho help children in such helpless situations. The nuns: The nuns that were the direct perpetrators of these atrocities — that are still alive and still in charge of the last active residential school — confessed to their wrongdoings but added that it was necessary to correct the children and give them a bright future. “These children are not civilized, we are trying to help and give them the tools to enter society. We want to give them what was given to us, a french education" says one of them. She then blamed indigenous families for giving a faulty education to children and not preparing them for the real world. Sister M herself, who’s been operating in the first residential school in the territory more than 30 years ago says that it’s all very unfortunate and that no matter what may have happened it came from a place of honesty and a real desire to help. Now due to the growing scrutiny they face regarding their actions, they feel trapped, and unable to interact with the children they’re supposed to take care of because they know that no matter what they do they will face severe backlash. Recalling bittersweet memories of what has been lost: A blue gown, white buttons facing upward, a blue belt; Removing each blade of grass, one by one, in the blistering sun — These are Kady’s earliest memories in the residential school of St-Laurent-Du-Maroni. Originally from the village of Awala-Yalimapo, along the Lawa river, and home to the Kali’na people, her family was coerced to give her away when she was 4. However, she doesn’t have any recollection of her life before she turned 8, saying the bulk of her early life resides in her sister’s memories of her constant cries. “I don’t know what you did that day, but one time they punished you and had you remove each blade of grass from the garden under the sun; I told them it wasn’t fair and I would do it in your place but they refused.” her sister recalls. “Even if there would be no grass in the garden we would have to do it, every time. Sometimes, we were forbidden to eat, or isolated from the others.” she adds. Having only known the residential school system for her entire life at 15, at the time she couldn’t process the pain such a place created in her. It was only along the years, as the unconscious pain lingered in the back of her mind, that she started realizing the gravity of her past. During the weekends she had permission to visit her parents, but as they had been forbidden to speak kali’na at the school, she progressively forgot her native tongue. She would never be able to communicate with her mother ever again. When visiting her parents who didn’t speak a word of French, she remembers to this day the pain of feeling like a stranger to them — being unable to tell them how she is, who she is, what her life is like, and vice versa — only being able to answer in yes and noes. At the tender age of 12 her mother died while she was in the Home. She was unable to properly communicate nor grieve with her father until she was much older and able to reclaim her culture. This is the intended consequence of the residential school system in French Guiana, meant to weaken the bond between the culture, the children, the families, until after the parents and grandparents, the aunts, the uncles have passed, the culture is lost and only remains the civilized indian. In the photo, she’s wearing one of the traditional shawls proudly worn among the First Nations. During her time in the residential school, this sacred piece of cloth was taken from them and hid away, only taken out when presenting them to visiting officials from the mainland or special occasion* — displaying them like animals in a zoo. Many cultural and sacred artefacts of their culture were erased from their lives, from the face paintings that adorned their skins, to the length of their hair, worn with pride and dignity. Guillaume Kouyouri was taken to the residential school of Iracoubo when he was 6. Being a Kali’na Tīlewuyu from one of the 5 remaining families of his region, to him, these ‘Homes’ represented the natural continuity of what the system had become. “Wake up, pray, eat, do your chores, go to school, survive” he says, survival being the key word here. Days were monotonous in the pain and treatments he and other children of the Home would be. “When you’re not in your natural environment, you can’t learn anything, you can’t exist.” He adds, then adding that it was a disembodied experience because of how little his existence meant to the priests. “We were treated like less than nothing, to them we were worthless.” His life began to change around 13, when he decided against the priests’ will, to force himself to learn his culture and reclaim it, practicing it with other indigenous teens in secret. The reason why, unlike north america, indigenous communities of France were never able to gain cause, is because France is fundamentally unable to recognize their rights because it would go against their politics of only one french people, united and undivided. This policy of unification at all cost is at the root of the impossibility to bring about any meaningful acknowledgement from the government, and with that reparations. That and it would be having to acknowledge the current atrocities happening in St-Georges-de-L’Oyapock to indigenous children of the Amazon. Today, many indigenous individuals across all generations suffer from the legacy of this lingering system, trapped within a limbo of painful memories and the inability to move forward due to the lack of accountability. They lack a voice and a say regarding the affairs of their own people. It would be fair to say that unlike Canada and the US, agency is a right they’ve lost a long time ago and never got back. Even the rest of the population is unaware of all the atrocities. Moreover, it isn’t just the residential school system and its legacy, but all the parallel institutions they must face, such as still having to live far from their parents for high school or university in host families that only sees them as sources of funds and glorified maids, or the lack of future prospects the youth faces when they decide to move back to their villages, leading to yearly waves of mass suicides due to the profound feeling of inadequacy, the constant shutting down and censoring of their plight from those with power, the lack of support and the willful denial of their very existence by the nation that once tried to destroy them. Generational trauma isn’t just something that was carried from the past, it is ever present, and with the challenges they face, self-reinforcing. And the children are suffering and dying because of it, and no one will say anything because it is not overt — because of the false belief somebody else will take care of it, or talk about this story. No matter who you ask within indigenous communities of French Guiana, there’s this, ongoing, sundering sense of dismay within their hearts, for all the lives that have been and will be lost. “I was never able to be with my mother the same way, she became a stranger and it broke me.” says Alexandre, 56 years old, crying as he tells the story of the hammock he’s clinging on, that his mom wove for him 50 years ago before he went away. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437173961-5N6GUR4M6GRV5EFH7F5O/2R3A1536.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437137555-ZAWP5JIWTZO6DZ0I38MY/2R3A1448.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437155572-UNO5TFXMP4Z98Q976FZZ/2R3A1484.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437155466-00572WO3CFF5KPWZVD2W/2R3A1496.jpg A River's End Three children walking inside the residential school. Indigenous children of these ‘Homes’ are known for running away. Often in an attempt to go back to their families in vain. I talked to a nun, sister Bénédicte, who was fairly transparent of the nuns’ treatment of indigenous children. Often justifying it with the need to discipline them, since they do not listen and do not know how to behave themselves in society. But now there’s so much scrutiny around these homes that the nuns have started to keep a low profile. They seem to be torn between the call to save the children and the reality that these children’s situation entails. Establishments like these are at the forefront of the waves of mass suicides indigenous communities of the region have been facing for years, due to loss of their cultures and being displaced from their family to come back to the lack of any positive prospects for them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437208893-K9A9FW2VC9IQZAYYBL0B/2R3A2058.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1702199917222-XGFRWS23AB03LLVZJJNT/2R3A1869.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437174290-YMAMQTAKXKW90NTV3DBU/2R3A1553.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437208325-3G95M7X2ELYALQ4W1LKP/2R3A1914.jpg A River's End Cristína. Member of the Kali’na people, her family fled French Guiana to escape from the atrocities of the residential school her mother and grand mother were parts of. She now lives in Oiapoque, a brazilian town across the French-Brazil border where she now enjoys a peaceful life. Since former residents and their families have been coming forward just now, we’re starting to piece together the full extent of the damages Homes did throughout the years. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1670540783757-CSWNG5LIY0OCB5JSN0TI/2R3A1875.jpg A River's End Cristína holding a photo of her family’s time in the church-led indigenous residential school. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437189624-6GNISYKMAQRPDT9OI2YC/2R3A1857.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1675181817512-4BZ9JC6BAQ8X9HIWRXY4/2R3A8815.jpg A River's End Before sunbreak, indigenous children from the village of Trois-Palétuviers preparing to go to school at 6am (45min boat ride to St-Georges). Some of these children used to eat for lunch in the residential school. Many of their elders and parents went to the residential school as well but as time went by less and less residents from the village needed to go. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1675922544359-4EWVYB9KUOOI6HA4HHBK/2R3A1536.jpg A River's End NOTES: No one can deny France and North America have had a long and violent history with their colonialism, while the last Canadian residential school closed in 1997, French indigenous communities within the former colony of French Guiana still suffer from colonial era institutions that never went away. Such is the case with its last active residential school. In the discrete rainforest of French Guiana, a department of France that is generally regarded as either a green hell on earth, or as a platform for its european rocket launcher, two thousand indigenous children of the headwaters of the Amazon were taken away from their families, forced by the state and the church. There would ensue a mentally and physically violent campaign, in what is colloquially called a residential school, or a "Home". The goal was to evangelize them through a system designed to weaken and permeate the bond between family, children and their rainforest-bound memories and culture. The first Home of Mana was built in 1935, the goal back then was clear, missionaries being unable to convert the local indigenous communities to religion to a European way of life, figured they were able to take children from indigenous villages and convert them from a very young age to the education desired. France not only acted as a facilitator in that regard but it legitimized and gave away the necessary resources to the church to achieve what could be considered a large scale cultural genocide . As Alexis Tiouka, a renown kali’na activist said “The goal was to kill the indian and keep the man”. To that end, there were several tools put in place by both the church and the state; First, children were taken away from as young as possible. Ideally 3 to 4 year olds so that their knowledge of their culture and language were muddled and easy enough to forget over time. The families who opposed the practice would be retaliated against by the missionaries commissioning the local police to forcibly remove the children away from their families or at least coerce them into doing so with the threat of financial penalties or prison. Both French Indigenous residential schools and Canadian Indigenous residential schools were institutions established by their respective governments to assimilate Indigenous children into Western culture, but there were some key differences between them. In France, Indigenous children were primarily sent to boarding schools run by religious organizations, rather than directly by the government. These schools were established in the late early 20th centuries yet still remain today, and were designed to "civilize" Indigenous children and strip them of their Native identity. In Canada, Indigenous residential schools were imposed by the government and operated from the 19th century until the 1990s. These schools were part of a larger government policy of assimilation and were often run by the church. The Canadian schools were notoriously harsh, with physical and sexual abuse being common. While both French and Canadian Indigenous residential schools were aimed at assimilating Indigenous children into Western culture, the French schools were less loosely controlled and more discreet and subtle about their abuses. To this day, while only the last residential school remains active on French soil, the abuses themselves have become increasingly more hidden as scrutiny about the situation has dramatically increased in the past year. The violence the children of the homes would face was of many natures, but was mainly of three types: familial, the physical, or cultural. The children currently going to the residential school are children of the village of Trois-Saut, a remote village located 3 days away. Due to the distance, lack of middle school in the village, and the constitutional obligation parents have to send their children to school, they do not have a choice but to send their children away to the only place able to receive them. When the children arrive, they have to face a new education that deprives them of everything they’ve received up until now, the warmth of a family, the familiarity of their foods and traditions, the presence of a community. Many children cannot bear the change of scenery and fleeing is a frequent phenomenon. Because of these frequent acts of rebellion they are often punished by the nuns in charge. Such is the story of Dylan, a now-17 year old from the Wayapi people who spent 3 years at the residential school. Being from Trois-Saut, he was at first delighted about the change. Despite the presence of cold and harsh new “parents'', the newness of it was an attractive prospect from the get go. But as time went on, he quickly realized his days would be far more difficult than anticipated. At 13 years old, he had to see his classmates, friends, and community fall under the recurring punishments of the nuns. He himself would be a victim of it. When asked if he already received physical punishment, yes, he nodded. When asked how he felt when it would happen “I was angry, a lot of the time I wanted to hit her back.”, he replies. He and other indigenous kids from the residential school had to steal food from the pantry because the nuns would regularly withhold food from them if they misbehaved. “If you’re punished it’s forever” he adds. The nuns had, and still have, a tight grip over their education and to this day limit the usage of their ancestral knowledge, “If we were between us we’d speak wayapi but if not we had to speak french (…) we’re told we have to speak french. (…) she’d tell us ‘speak french’.” he tells me. At the age of 16, he was able to leave as he started high school in a different place. But to this day it’s difficult for him to reconcile with what happened. Since the children of the residential school are from Trois-Saut, during back to school time, their families go through a 3 day long journey to St-Georges that can cost up to 2 thousands euros to drop their children who’ll stay there for the next few years. They gather in St-Georges in flocks for a brief time and then go back home on that same journey. None of the children going to the residential school will be able to talk to their parents for months due to the lack of reception/internet in Trois-Saut. When children of either the residential school of St-Georges or the host families of the littoral are kicked out of their place of stay by either the nuns/priests, parents have no way of knowing what happens to their children. Many of whom end up homeless despite being minors. Ngos such as L’Effet Morpho help children in such helpless situations. The nuns: The nuns that were the direct perpetrators of these atrocities — that are still alive and still in charge of the last active residential school — confessed to their wrongdoings but added that it was necessary to correct the children and give them a bright future. “These children are not civilized, we are trying to help and give them the tools to enter society. We want to give them what was given to us, a french education" says one of them. She then blamed indigenous families for giving a faulty education to children and not preparing them for the real world. Sister M herself, who’s been operating in the first residential school in the territory more than 30 years ago says that it’s all very unfortunate and that no matter what may have happened it came from a place of honesty and a real desire to help. Now due to the growing scrutiny they face regarding their actions, they feel trapped, and unable to interact with the children they’re supposed to take care of because they know that no matter what they do they will face severe backlash. Recalling bittersweet memories of what has been lost: A blue gown, white buttons facing upward, a blue belt; Removing each blade of grass, one by one, in the blistering sun — These are Kady’s earliest memories in the residential school of St-Laurent-Du-Maroni. Originally from the village of Awala-Yalimapo, along the Lawa river, and home to the Kali’na people, her family was coerced to give her away when she was 4. However, she doesn’t have any recollection of her life before she turned 8, saying the bulk of her early life resides in her sister’s memories of her constant cries. “I don’t know what you did that day, but one time they punished you and had you remove each blade of grass from the garden under the sun; I told them it wasn’t fair and I would do it in your place but they refused.” her sister recalls. “Even if there would be no grass in the garden we would have to do it, every time. Sometimes, we were forbidden to eat, or isolated from the others.” she adds. Having only known the residential school system for her entire life at 15, at the time she couldn’t process the pain such a place created in her. It was only along the years, as the unconscious pain lingered in the back of her mind, that she started realizing the gravity of her past. During the weekends she had permission to visit her parents, but as they had been forbidden to speak kali’na at the school, she progressively forgot her native tongue. She would never be able to communicate with her mother ever again. When visiting her parents who didn’t speak a word of French, she remembers to this day the pain of feeling like a stranger to them — being unable to tell them how she is, who she is, what her life is like, and vice versa — only being able to answer in yes and noes. At the tender age of 12 her mother died while she was in the Home. She was unable to properly communicate nor grieve with her father until she was much older and able to reclaim her culture. This is the intended consequence of the residential school system in French Guiana, meant to weaken the bond between the culture, the children, the families, until after the parents and grandparents, the aunts, the uncles have passed, the culture is lost and only remains the civilized indian. In the photo, she’s wearing one of the traditional shawls proudly worn among the First Nations. During her time in the residential school, this sacred piece of cloth was taken from them and hid away, only taken out when presenting them to visiting officials from the mainland or special occasion* — displaying them like animals in a zoo. Many cultural and sacred artefacts of their culture were erased from their lives, from the face paintings that adorned their skins, to the length of their hair, worn with pride and dignity. Guillaume Kouyouri was taken to the residential school of Iracoubo when he was 6. Being a Kali’na Tīlewuyu from one of the 5 remaining families of his region, to him, these ‘Homes’ represented the natural continuity of what the system had become. “Wake up, pray, eat, do your chores, go to school, survive” he says, survival being the key word here. Days were monotonous in the pain and treatments he and other children of the Home would be. “When you’re not in your natural environment, you can’t learn anything, you can’t exist.” He adds, then adding that it was a disembodied experience because of how little his existence meant to the priests. “We were treated like less than nothing, to them we were worthless.” His life began to change around 13, when he decided against the priests’ will, to force himself to learn his culture and reclaim it, practicing it with other indigenous teens in secret. The reason why, unlike north america, indigenous communities of France were never able to gain cause, is because France is fundamentally unable to recognize their rights because it would go against their politics of only one french people, united and undivided. This policy of unification at all cost is at the root of the impossibility to bring about any meaningful acknowledgement from the government, and with that reparations. That and it would be having to acknowledge the current atrocities happening in St-Georges-de-L’Oyapock to indigenous children of the Amazon. Today, many indigenous individuals across all generations suffer from the legacy of this lingering system, trapped within a limbo of painful memories and the inability to move forward due to the lack of accountability. They lack a voice and a say regarding the affairs of their own people. It would be fair to say that unlike Canada and the US, agency is a right they’ve lost a long time ago and never got back. Even the rest of the population is unaware of all the atrocities. Moreover, it isn’t just the residential school system and its legacy, but all the parallel institutions they must face, such as still having to live far from their parents for high school or university in host families that only sees them as sources of funds and glorified maids, or the lack of future prospects the youth faces when they decide to move back to their villages, leading to yearly waves of mass suicides due to the profound feeling of inadequacy, the constant shutting down and censoring of their plight from those with power, the lack of support and the willful denial of their very existence by the nation that once tried to destroy them. Generational trauma isn’t just something that was carried from the past, it is ever present, and with the challenges they face, self-reinforcing. And the children are suffering and dying because of it, and no one will say anything because it is not overt — because of the false belief somebody else will take care of it, or talk about this story. No matter who you ask within indigenous communities of French Guiana, there’s this, ongoing, sundering sense of dismay within their hearts, for all the lives that have been and will be lost. “I was never able to be with my mother the same way, she became a stranger and it broke me.” says Alexandre, 56 years old, crying as he tells the story of the hammock he’s clinging on, that his mom wove for him 50 years ago before he went away. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1702200357503-G95GBKRD3Z709MB282V6/IMG_1533-4.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437246855-2D52SR057HOHI0QVGCXS/2R3A7937.jpg A River's End Photo of sister M, who used to be part of the residential school system 30 years ago. “It’s unfortunate they (indigenous communities) reacted this way, you spend your entire life caring for them and that’s what happens.” Notes: nuns unable to accept the reality of their acts They acted from a pov of love and care regardless of the reality of the culture but didn’t realize their acts were instrumental in creating a dead end society https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437225531-AJNUBOFZW15K9S4967HY/2R3A2280.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1670539776003-NAE0VULTNA2GH6TYYU2H/2R3A1536.jpg A River's End - France had residential schools, too — and one is still operating. (Similar to the title of a nytimes podcast) (Temporary subhead -- to change acc. angle) Facing the last residential school of a French outpost in South America, its indigenous communities weigh upon the survival of their culture with a nuanced Alt subhead: Facing the last residential school of a French outpost in the Americas, its indigenous communities weigh upon the survival of its culture with a nuanced sense pride and concern for the future. (too long) Notes: In front of the portal of the last active residential school in French Guiana, France, where indigenous children are taken from their families and raised in christian institutions with the goal of raising them to be ‘civilized’ while stripping them from their original culture. The Catholic Church had a policy of forced assimilation — allied with the strong authority of the police, refusing was not an option. Young people were and still are educated in French, in an authoritarian setting far from their families. The children were not forcibly taken away from their families as in Canada, but were separated. The first residential school was established in 1930, when French Guiana was still a French colony. The state funded the practice since the law separating state and church still does not apply in this French department. Since 1930, eight residential schools have been opened. One is still in operation. The one still in operation is where children of the river have to go to so they can attend school. “Home indien/Indian Home” is a colonial era term for residential schools in French Guiana. The violence the children of the residential school faced/face have three forms: Familial: The children were ripped from their families at a young age. Nuns would negotiate with the state to get the children from the youngest age possible (often as early as 4 years old) because it's easier to convert them. There would happen a radical change in their habits while the children were/are prevented from reaching out to their families. They were divided into clans, in the Home, meant to separate them and better control them, each clan was equivalent to one family. Cultural: The residential homes were designed to make cultural markers disappear completely. For example they would receive a buzzcut which would humiliate them since first nations of the region are extremely proud in their hair, justifying it because "Indians are dirty and have lice". They were forbidden to speak their language and would face psychological and/or physical violence if they did. They were stripped from all their belongings except one thing, a hammock. Every morning at 5 they were woken to pray or bath in the early morning river. They had their roucou markings taken away from them as well (roucou is a reddish/brown pigment made from the seeds of a nut used to mark the skin) and were attributed numbers like cattle. Physical: If they misbehaved, they would get, in the best cases, hit with a baton. An interviewee called Alexis Tiouka told me the baton was called tutuce, and they had to raise their hands while the nun would hit it and they were forbidden to lower their arms due to the pain. They would also be forced to stand for hours, or use the bible against them as a means of punishment (kneeling in the sand, stretched arms and the bible needs to stay on the arms elevated which they are forbidden to lower). They would also get disciplined with beatings on rare occasions and sexual abuse was heavily infered as well; Young girls who would get pregnant were hidden away and their children's fairer skin was covered in roucou to hide the carnation born from sexual violence. We don't know what became of them. These policies were meant to weaken the bond between the children and their families, their culture. They were also designed to empty the villages and convert them to christianity. Essentially, according to many of the old residents, the goal was to kill the indian, and keep the man. The nun I spoke to told me this as well, verbatim "Ces enfants ne sont pas civilisés, nous on essaye d'aider et de leur donner les outils pour entrer en société. On veut leur donner ce que, nous, nous avons reçu, une éducation française/These children are not civilized, we are trying to help and give them the tools to enter society. We want to give them what was given to us, a french education". To this day, while there are still children in the current Home, first nations all over French Guiana are facing the consequences of the colonial legacy left by France. In 2022 there have been a wave of mass suicides in Trois-Saut (the village from where the current residents comes from, home to the Wayapi people). Among those who died, there were 4 teens. These suicides are explained by many factors but it all boils down to the system of residential homes, host families, and then coming back to their villages — after spending their entire lives in the a mandatory system they were forced into without any positive future prospects. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672756437742-OL2DD30GFBIUP6BO8NUL/2R3A8378.jpg A River's End The old residential school of Sinnamary in ruins. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1671418543244-KE9D6BTC28ULSIR1PHOM/2R3A7550.jpg A River's End Guillaume’s land. *Theme of reparation and the land of indigenous communities and how it’s been stolen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437227124-HYCQGX07HR60HJC7V91C/2R3A7608.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673484206018-VI8SCNOXV9JT32Z4ALKC/2R3A8824.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1670539610454-FSYE49FYB1FCUAOJD1SU/2R3A1526.jpg A River's End Portal of the residential school. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673481625872-CGXIHLFB1YL5MQD8TQS5/2R3A8954.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673481193788-0W5VYH0VPU3FKTP45RYZ/2R3A8827.jpg A River's End Photo of a school boat from the village of Trois-Palétuviers going to St-Georges to drop children of the village. While the residents of the residential school all come from Trois-Sauts, some of the residents of their village used to go to the residential school. The children/teens on board are familiar themselves as some of them used to eat there for lunch. There’s a clear divide between them and the children of the same age at the residential school since the nuns have forbade the children to interact with non residents outside of school hours. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745438795650-MM2NQEQBHKNQRFP1SJUA/2R3A8692.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437296643-DU8PC6E4DPR1HPU99ZNT/2R3A8709.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1702199885751-5DS52UR225EAMRNBCASD/2R3A8680.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1702199885669-NCLL0GQMRIPLOBHV3ZC5/2R3A8662.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437275245-OPWK0S7795HS845DPYNJ/2R3A8612.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437349946-Y17S7QDZCIE080JIM871/2R3A8904.jpg A River's End Families of Trois-Saut during a brief stay in St-Georges. Since the children of the residential school are from Trois-Saut, during back to school time, their families go through a 3 day long journey to St-Georges that can up to 2 thousands euros to drop their children who’ll stay there for the next few years. They gather in St-Georges in flocks for a brief time and then go back home on that same journey. All of the children going to the residential school won’t be able to talk to their parents for months due to the lack of reception/internet in Trois-Saut. When children of either the residential school of St-Georges or the host families of the littoral are kicked out of their place of stay by either the nuns/priests or the families, parents have no way of knowing what happens to their children. Many of whom end up homeless despite being minors. Ngos such as L’Effet Morpho help children in such helpless situations. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1670541942098-IZG3V6W5ZVK29LXYDY1H/2R3A1437.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437352533-U2RMUJSCUG19S5P5JMYJ/2R3A8912.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437369599-DFEUW9F620G0B7ZYI211/2R3A8925.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437309517-GY1RGY2HRKBIW1PWYG4E/2R3A8736.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672757465713-FCXN0X871TBVHRJQZX6E/b08bac2_1668008831755-mep-guyane-def-56.jpeg A River's End The "home" of Iracoubo, in the north of Guiana, in the 1950s. BACKGROUND OF ARNAULD HEURET https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672757463630-J264IA3TWVEZLD2LHRRE/1200x680_sinnamary-alix-resse.jpeg A River's End Photo from Alix Lesse in the residential school, the “Home”, of Sinnamary. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673483717405-JO20SB959Q64BMDN5DE8/2R3A9281.jpg A River's End Dylan (fake name), a 17yo from the wayapi people, he used to go to the Residential school of St-Georges until last year. He stayed 3 years. He suffered physical punishments and witnessed the same violent and humiliating treatment that occurred for decades on himself and on his friends and community. Quotes (recording available): “If we were between us we’d speak wayapi but if not we had to speak french (…) we’re told we have to speak french. (…) she’d tell us ‘speak french’.” “One time we were praying and I laughed, she pulled my shirt and told me she’d rip my ear.” When asked if he already received physical punishment he nodded yes. When asked how he felt when that would happen he said “I was angry, a lot of time I wanted to hit her back.” “I’m not the only one (who would flee), several others would too.” “Sometimes we had to steal food in the pantry because we were hungry.” (They would steal ingredients from it and give it to a janitor/surveillant to cook it for them secretly and give it to them the next day). “Once, she (the sister) took a piece of bread from the trash and told him (a resident) to eat it.” “The punishments we got were not being able to eat dinner, to clean, but if you’re punished it’s forever.” “every morning we have to get up at 5am, pray and clean three times per day.” I met him via the NGO L’Effet Morpho. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673481954462-LR5BC32NP7IDEA26BCGM/2R3A9064.jpg A River's End Traditional indigenous hammock. Made from a special cotton fiber. The creation of these hammocks is rare nowadays. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1671418413436-TSF46968IN7U98XMZZMC/2R3A7580.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1673481757876-AYYOKN8YKP1AK655TF6K/2R3A8974.jpg A River's End Alexis Tiouka, indigenous activist who went to the residential school of Mana at 6 years old. Quotes: “When we arrived, they would cut our hair. It was humiliating because our hair is our pride and they were aware of that.” “The goal was to kill the indian and keep the man.” (Will add his story here) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437333828-6TTCKQ16ESB2W1TTTXKM/2R3A8827.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1671421203404-39NVAOH1PFUBVZ1TLGMF/IMG_2041.JPG A River's End Seeds of roucou. Roucou is a cultural marker that is used as a red pigment by indigenous tribes of the Amazon. Indigenous children of the residential schools were forbidden to wear any. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672756840797-MGIGAI3LM9DU5K1CMU2D/2R3A8283.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672756657632-MC4E8M51GEWY7TD9ZPCP/2R3A8351.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1670539420139-J3DGKR8W3VQG3542CKGT/2R3A1496.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1672757025654-19MDSNV5S8Y0SLDBBVSE/2R3A8270.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1671417955119-Q4YNCJN0OEF4BSC9L2EA/2R3A7613.jpg A River's End Notes: The problem with French accountability and why everyone is so afraid to change anything and face the truth compared to Canada. Big diff with Canada in how the higher ups tackle the question of indigenous communities. Some gov head said there are no indigenous ppl in France. Theme of national unity at all cost at the expense of others. How it reinforces the problems of Homes and the plight of the first nations here. Growth of him and his people stunted by post colonial legacy still going on today. France diluted their influence and people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745438858802-IO1CMW34QS9UXB2GOD93/2R3A8237.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1675147699137-YLNK518VGE2TTO91XVP5/2R3A1689.jpg A River's End Along the France-Brazil border where St-Georges is located, where the story takes place. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437395582-TXJPSM6MJFPJDGF3D9F9/IMG_1533-3.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745438836921-RMM2P9AL2GMCK66MJTDJ/IMG_1531-4.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1671418449422-FHTB8DJU1Q99V60L8OS0/2R3A7486.jpg A River's End https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1745437136768-ZNJV0NNRSQ97YFEDON4D/2R3A1483.jpg A River's End 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229170215-EW732P9VFNVFOH0BDRQY/2R3A5500.jpg Pasola Wars On the Indonesian island of Sumba, where the landscape is a patchwork of rolling savannas and dramatic cliffs, an ancient ritual plays out with breathtaking intensity. Every year, as the arrival of sea worms—known as nyale—signals the changing of seasons, warriors on horseback thunder across an open field, hurling wooden spears in a ceremonial battle known as the Pasola. More than a test of skill and bravery, the Pasola is deeply embedded in Sumbanese tradition, an offering to the Marapu, the island’s ancestral spirits, meant to ensure prosperity and agricultural fertility. Blood must be spilled—human or animal—for the land to be nourished. The warriors, dressed in colorful ikat textiles, move with calculated precision, their lances flying through the air as the crowd watches, enthralled by the spectacle of choreographed chaos. The ritual begins when village elders, guided by shamans, determine the right moment based on the appearance of the nyale, creatures whose abundance or scarcity is believed to predict the community’s fortunes. The battles themselves are intense but structured, governed by rules passed down through generations. Though once fought with sharp-tipped spears, today’s Pasola features blunted weapons, a concession to modern safety concerns imposed by Indonesian authorities. Yet injuries—and occasionally fatalities—are still considered part of the ritual’s sacred weight. For the people of Sumba, the Pasola is more than a relic of the past. It remains a cultural touchstone, a public expression of identity, resilience, and reverence for the forces that shape their world. In an era where globalization and modernization threaten to erode Indigenous customs, the Pasola endures, standing as a testament to a belief system that sees the land, the sea, and the spirit world as deeply intertwined. As the dust settles and the warriors return to their villages, the meaning of the Pasola lingers. It is a reminder that, for the people of Sumba, tradition is not static. It is alive—galloping forward with the force of history, carrying the past into the future, one spear at a time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229170215-EW732P9VFNVFOH0BDRQY/2R3A5500.jpg Pasola Wars On the Indonesian island of Sumba, where the landscape is a patchwork of rolling savannas and dramatic cliffs, an ancient ritual plays out with breathtaking intensity. Every year, as the arrival of sea worms—known as nyale—signals the changing of seasons, warriors on horseback thunder across an open field, hurling wooden spears in a ceremonial battle known as the Pasola. More than a test of skill and bravery, the Pasola is deeply embedded in Sumbanese tradition, an offering to the Marapu, the island’s ancestral spirits, meant to ensure prosperity and agricultural fertility. Blood must be spilled—human or animal—for the land to be nourished. The warriors, dressed in colorful ikat textiles, move with calculated precision, their lances flying through the air as the crowd watches, enthralled by the spectacle of choreographed chaos. The ritual begins when village elders, guided by shamans, determine the right moment based on the appearance of the nyale, creatures whose abundance or scarcity is believed to predict the community’s fortunes. The battles themselves are intense but structured, governed by rules passed down through generations. Though once fought with sharp-tipped spears, today’s Pasola features blunted weapons, a concession to modern safety concerns imposed by Indonesian authorities. Yet injuries—and occasionally fatalities—are still considered part of the ritual’s sacred weight. For the people of Sumba, the Pasola is more than a relic of the past. It remains a cultural touchstone, a public expression of identity, resilience, and reverence for the forces that shape their world. In an era where globalization and modernization threaten to erode Indigenous customs, the Pasola endures, standing as a testament to a belief system that sees the land, the sea, and the spirit world as deeply intertwined. As the dust settles and the warriors return to their villages, the meaning of the Pasola lingers. It is a reminder that, for the people of Sumba, tradition is not static. It is alive—galloping forward with the force of history, carrying the past into the future, one spear at a time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229075682-FX65XF22T7J5MG1EH9OY/2R3A5137.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229075804-B3U47VGCSKC1OWE41MOH/2R3A5140.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229079973-J2BBPADP1V1XZY9SO9Q0/2R3A5144.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229080646-L8GJT2T3YG88X8IY7XL6/2R3A5145.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229082818-2AHHK9YNRFFF3N8D5XTE/2R3A5169.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229088369-6NPL9BCP38L7ER16P4TS/2R3A5171.jpg Pasola Wars 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229163292-V6K22U4GID34N53HMDER/2R3A5461.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229165477-T1QU3L3BG7YQ2NK55NRH/2R3A5467.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229166431-R1IGG17TP8MWJK30K3Q4/2R3A5486.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229169043-WJASL41TCV7YL86ZKSEF/2R3A5487.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229173149-FMO6QZ7KVAU9J51IIQBL/2R3A5522.jpg Pasola Wars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1739229174212-GZGBRYQJZGAJN3J9MOQA/2R3A5523.jpg Pasola Wars https://www.borisruth.com/info daily 0.75 2025-05-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/0bc7d6d1-6608-483a-b216-4f14ffefa868/9.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/32c93dcc-aa13-42b3-aa76-755be536ec15/0.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/4e376980-8dea-489b-b6c4-7e35065dc6fd/2.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/8067ed00-1230-49a6-9a6a-792faeafbcb0/10.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/f093b206-b6c0-4d20-9182-e584b1b4e4e9/3.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855033867-A737Y4LDYXYJAXZASWDN/7.jpg Info - 'There aren't enough schools' (Copy) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644959795282-MBHHU5YGI390Q8JCDB8A/IMG_8823.jpg Info - French Guiana in South America has emerged as a key destination and transit point for migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, attracting thousands in 2020 from as far away as Syria. Over the past six years, the influx has grown steadily, placing what little infrastructure there is in the French overseas territory under severe stress and leaving many of those hoping to start new lives struggling to get by and with little assistance. In The New Humanitarian. Boris R. Thebia, a Montreal-based photojournalist, recently returned to his hometown of Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, to discover how it had become a way station for Europe-bound asylum seekers. Hundreds of Cubans fleeing poverty and political persecution began arriving in the city in early October, unaware they would become the tipping point, forced to set up camp in a territory with no formal migrant reception centres and precious little asylum accommodation. Alice Sablé, an aid worker with Médecins du Monde, told The New Humanitarian that NGOs are finding it hard to help, not only because of the severe housing shortage, but also due to a lack of personnel and poor support from local authorities and the French central government. When some of the Cubans at the camp outside Cayenne tested positive for COVID-19 in early January, there was no response from the local authorities. Instead, the asylum seekers had to fend for themselves, according to Médecins du Monde, which oversaw the testing. Aid organisations – including Médecins du Monde and the French Red Cross – and rights groups such as La Cimade and Ligue des Droits de l'Homme have been vocal about the lack of reception centres, funding, and other necessities, but say little, if anything, is being done. “We’ve been asking for a migrant reception centre for a year now,” Sophia Derbak, an emergency programme coordinator for Médecins du Monde in Cayenne, told TNH. “Not only did nothing happen, but the situation is even worse now.” French Guiana is a part of the EU, and it is the only territory in the mainland Americas to be fully integrated into a European country. But the reality confronting asylum seekers is bleak. It can take four months for a preliminary interview, and at least five further months to appeal if turned down. By law, the process is supposed to take nine months maximum, but it can drag on twice as long. After two negative answers – the Cubans TNH spoke to had already had one and should expect a second, according to past data – you can't get another hearing and you're supposed to leave the territory. For the few who do succeed, earning enough money for a flight to France is another challenge. “The system we have is outdated, hostile to immigration,” Derbak said. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855689338-H0GR1G1SH1DY604DQREZ/IMG_7429.jpg Info - By ocean or by ocean raft As the pandemic delivered a painful blow to Cuba’s tourism-based economy and overseas remittances, the country’s hard currency reserves dried up, leading to acute food shortages. While the spread of the virus itself was relatively limited, the economic fallout hit a Cuba that was already struggling financially: former US president Donald Trump’s administration introduced tough new travel restrictions and sought to cut off crucial oil supplies. For hundreds of Cubans, deteriorating living conditions and tightening repression meant it was time to leave. Travel to Suriname had opened up in 2015, so they made their way via the former Dutch colony to French Guiana. After flying on temporary visas to Suriname’s capital, Paramaribo, they used smugglers to cross the Maroni River, which separates the two countries – often paying bribes to border officials – or took the longer ocean route by raft to Cayenne. Between October and December alone, approximately 200 Cubans arrived in Cayenne. Upon arrival, they slept in the streets, eventually finding a quiet public space by the sea where they built shelters with scrap wood and tarpaulins. There, near the city’s monument of the broken chains, representing the abolition of slavery, their camp emerged. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855048774-NW8GCCXVIEYXLIPV9X3N/9.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855185265-O8EK4RW0HOQY3JC5RE2O/IMG_7133.jpg Info - 'We were told we would receive shelter' Over the past decade, the population of French Guiana has grown by 30 percent. Roughly 29 percent of its population is now foreign-born. Some 20,000 asylum seekers – or nearly seven percent of the French départment’s overall population of 300,000 inhabitants – have arrived since 2015. By comparison, mainland France, with a total population of 67 million, recorded around 612,000 new asylum seekers over the same period, fewer than one percent of its population. What shelter and assistance was available in French Guiana was taken up by previous waves of migrants and asylum seekers arriving earlier in 2020, including more than 500 Syrians and hundreds more from Libya, Yemen, and Palestine. The Cuban asylum seekers have therefore had to rely on donations of food and clothing from the local community – but such aid is sparse and several of the Cubans in the camp told TNH they often slept on empty stomachs. “It’s hard, because last October, when we arrived, we were told we would receive shelter,” said Marcos Sardain Avila, a mechanical engineer from Sancti Spiritus in central Cuba. Avila said he left Cuba with his wife after being subjected to constant harassment from the authorities. In late January, more than three months after arriving in Cayenne, they were still living in a tent without any running water or sanitary facilities – save for the public water tap at the entrance to the nearby beach. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854961502-G8UA49EF9O5NIS6NUO4Y/0.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855704989-0HBDBCDDAMGER88JVXHG/IMG_7889.jpg Info - 'I am lost' Yamilet Barrutia, another resident of the camp, recalled her life back in Cuba. “I spent 21 years of my life building a career reselling construction materials, but because of [Cuban] trading laws, I was imprisoned and spent four years in prison,” she said. Unable to buy any supplies for her business on release, and ineligible for a monthly basket of state aid, Barrutia also said she was persecuted by the police. Without money and lacking options, she sold her house to escape the island and head for French Guiana. Like many of the Cubans who sought refuge or the chance of a new life in this European foothold in South America, Barrutia quickly realised the dissonance between the territory’s perceived status and its available resources. "I feel devastated; there are so many hard workers here. And we're being treated like delinquents,” she told TNH after her initial asylum claim was turned down. “I don’t have money to go to Brazil. I am lost.” Although French Guiana has the highest GDP per capita in the continent, public services are in short supply compared to mainland France. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854988681-0SI9GXA71PLC0V0LI9KU/4.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855009783-43LTOV9RY2BO9EOAZH2E/5.jpg Info - 'You won't look at whether a job is legal or not' Every month, asylum seekers with active claims receive 250 euros per adult and 100 euros per child in support from the authorities, but the cost of living is more aligned with levels in mainland France, so these payments aren’t enough to get by. Rent is high, and most food and basic necessities are imported from Europe, at a price. High rates of immigration and poverty in the general population have propelled a parallel economy that employs cheap and accessible labour. Approximately 53 percent of residents live below the official poverty threshold, estimated at 550 euros per month, making the départment the second poorest in France. Poor working conditions in unregulated, illegal businesses are often the only option for new arrivals, with disease and injury common for those who end up in the logging, gold mining, or construction industries. And deportation is an ever-present threat, with 3,000 migrants and failed asylum seekers expelled in 2019. Alexander Ramos, a single father of two, decided to leave Bayamo in southern Cuba after losing his home in a landslide – the final straw after years spent struggling to make ends meet. Ramos told TNH that when he went looking for employment on the outskirts of Cayenne, the clandestine employer told him: “You have children to feed, a wife, bills to pay, and so do I. You won’t look at whether the job is legal or not.” According to the interior ministry, between 30,000 and 35,000 migrants are deemed to be working illegally in French Guiana. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854969348-Z0U4QI8STDJZOVHE46YN/2.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855033867-A737Y4LDYXYJAXZASWDN/7.jpg Info - 'There aren't enough schools' The Cuban asylum seekers told TNH their children have had no access to an education. Ramos said he was promised in October that his children would start school soon, but he has received no further updates since from the authorities. While Ramos goes to work, his son and his daughter, Camila – pictured above in the family’s tent with a carer – spend their days hanging around the camp with the children of other asylum seekers. On arrival in Cayenne, his former partner, the children’s mother, left them to go and work in the territory’s illegal gold mines. In November, Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, a senator for the French territory, rejected a court order for the state to school 18 migrant children from Haiti, Palestine, Peru and Syria, saying the system already lacked spaces for locals. Sophie Donzenac, a spokesperson for the local authority, or préfecture, told TNH the government was doing what it could but said that even if the migrant children could be tested and allocated places there was nowhere for them to go. “There aren't enough schools, and there aren't enough funds to build schools or hire personnel,” she said. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855074908-N4EVRKRFC83D2XODCSZ2/alternative+0.jpg Info https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855041637-3X44PZTZ66QE65KAK9UD/8.jpg Info - 'This doesn't look like a first world country to me' Despite French Guiana’s remoteness, asylum seekers from other continents whose more direct routes to Europe have been impeded by logistical or political roadblocks consider it a viable alternative to dangerous Mediterranean sea crossings or blocked EU land borders. In 2020, asylum seekers from Palestine, Syria, and Yemen were among others to arrive. “Going to Brazil and then to French Guiana was just easier for all of us,” Samay Hatem, one of the Syrian refugees, told TNH. Syrians benefit from easy-to-get Brazilian humanitarian visas, and Hatem explained that her decision to take the roundabout route to Europe came from her understanding that all asylum applicants would be allowed into the territory once they reached Brazil. However, Hatem hadn’t counted on the pandemic, which left her blocked in Brazil for eight months before she was finally able to cross. Meanwhile, Nour Alchaer (pictured above) and her family fled Syria to Venezuela, hoping to eventually reach Europe via French Guiana. “France is the land of equal rights for everybody. We came here because back in Syria we lost the right to a good life. Here, we have this right,” her father, Modad, told TNH as he set up their tent, Nour looking on. “Now what?” he asked, a little forlornly. “This doesn’t look like a First World country to me.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854998149-6YU0ZVQEIIFRQA5OGQUC/3.jpg Info - 'It is unacceptable that our cities are invaded' Even as the Cuban asylum seekers settled into their tents in the seaside park, the local authorities reacted by issuing an order making it illegal to sleep on public property and trying to force them out. Cayenne’s mayor, Sandra Trochimara, vowed to close down the camp as soon as she could. “We will dismantle the camp; then we will find solutions,” she said. “We don’t have the means to provide support because this crisis hasn’t been anticipated.” The local courts, however, blocked the attempts to evacuate the migrants, on the grounds that no relocation plan existed. Still, the tone from the political authorities was clear: “It is unacceptable that our cities are invaded and overwhelmed by so much misery – misery they are not even capable of processing,” Phinéra-Horth told the French Senate. By the start of February an eviction notice had been served for the Cayenne camp, but it could still be contested before the Cuban asylum seekers risk being forcibly removed later in the month. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855059820-M75X6AUDS38F2PJWP2OH/10.jpg Info - 'She is pregnant, and we have nowhere to go' With few asylum applicants gaining refugee status in French Guiana, those whose requests are denied are left with limited options: leave, or stay on illegally because they no longer have the means to leave. For Katy Sanchez, and her partner Jorge Hernández, awaiting a decision on their application has been draining, both mentally and financially. The Cuban couple, who expected their baby to be born within days, had already received a rejection, and nervously awaited a final ruling following their appeal. “If we have to leave, we don't know what to do,” Hernández told TNH in January. “She is pregnant, and we have nowhere to go.” Adriana Rosabal, a mother of three living in the camp was equally concerned. “It took several years of my life to leave [Cuba],” she said. “And they expect us to go away after we sacrificed everything to be here?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644856254063-9QG1AJS707P8LW1GH0C2/alternative+3.jpg Info https://www.borisruth.com/editorial-1 daily 0.75 2026-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1765573828087-OT978H74TBXDASXL9IDP/2R3A7748.jpg Editorial - The Geology of Obsession: Finding Wine in Stone In 2024, I traveled across Quebec with writer Joe Kanzangu to redefine our relationship with wine. Our experience wasn’t really about flowing from warmer latitudes towards established terroirs. I’m not even sure what we were looking for, to be honest I originally intended on simply tagging along by virtue of sheer curiosity for new experiences. This wine experience became an act of discovery written in stone and shifting seasons. What we found near the Oka Calvary above Lac des Deux-Montagnes felt like a geological prophecy coming to life and a viticultural shift mantled in Quebec’s rich identity. Hugo Grenon never intended on becoming a winemaker. As a geologist who spent years mapping Quebec's mineral-rich substrata and exploring diamond deposits in the Arctic, he understood the language of rock better than most understand their mother tongue. But in 2019, during his sommelier studies at Montreal's ITHQ, Grenon realized that the textbooks describing ideal vineyard conditions: South-facing slopes, well-drained soil, alkaline bedrock — describing a geological anomaly he already knew: the Oka alkaline complex, a 117-million-year-old carbonatite intrusion that rises like a forgotten volcano northwest of Montreal. Most winemakers inherit their terroir. Grenon hunted his. During our stay, we became more and more intimate with all the intricacies of the land. They was defined by moments experienced around the fireplace with Hugo, uncovering the subtleties of the land, feasts shared together, trying on new honeys, varieties of grapes, walking on the coarse yet fertile soil, which all around added to our collective understanding of what made those wines so vivid. The 38 hectares he acquired weren't purchased on romantic whim but selected with the precision of a mineral prospector. The land sits atop one of North America's rarest geological formations, an alkaline volcanic substrate with pH levels exceptionally favorable to vine vitality. In a province where viticulture has long been an exercise in adaptation and compromise, faring with frigid winters and short growing seasons, Grenon found soil that wanted to make wine. Where others saw the northern frontier of possibility, he saw an edge about to be redrawn. Quebec's wine renaissance has been unfolding against a backdrop that would have seemed implausible just decades ago. Climate models project that by mid-century, most of southern Quebec will possess the growing conditions that now define premier wine regions, with enough frost-free days, sufficient heat accumulation, and the extended ripening periods that transform hybrids into heritage varieties. The province has also doubled its commercial vineyards in less than a decade, now producing over three million bottles annually from more than 160 wineries. Where Vidal and Seyval once dominated out of necessity, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are now staking claim to the same soil. But Grenon's Domaine Polisson represents something more subversive than climatic opportunity. His wines—Bâtard Rouge, Bâtard Blanc, and the méthode ancestrale ciders he produces while his vines mature—are deliberately mongrel, merging hybrid varieties with European vinifera in proportions that would make Old World purists recoil. It's a bet that Quebec's future lies not in mimicry but in creating a vocabulary entirely its own. In a market where French wines still command a third of Quebec's consumption and imported bottles dominate 75% of retail sales, local producers must do more than compete on terroir, they must redefine what terroir means in a climate that's rewriting its own rules season by season. The Canadian wine market, valued at $12.75 billion and projected to reach $15.6 billion by 2032, is in the midst of a profound transformation. Quebec, with per capita wine spending at $377 (the highest in Canada), represents both the country's most discerning market and its greatest untapped potential. As traditional wine regions in Mediterranean Europe face existential threats from drought and heat stress, with some models suggesting 90% of Spain and Italy's coastal vineyards could become unviable by century's end, northern territories are becoming the new frontier. Quebec's cool-climate advantage isn't in its parrying of climate change, but about being positioned exactly where the world's wine belt is migrating. In Grenon's biologically farmed parcels, La Brèche, with its perfectly drained three-hectare slope, and La Cache, situated in what was once a volcanic crater, you can taste this geological passing-on. The wines possess a minerality that sommeliers describe as saline, a concentration born from stressed vines seeking nutrients in ancient rock. What I photographed at Domaine Polisson was the visible edge of a continental shift, both geological and viticultural, where the impossible is becoming inevitable, where hybrids and vinifera coexist in defiance of tradition, and where the next century of wine might just be written in a language Quebec is inventing as it grows. The question is not whether Quebec can make wine. It's whether the rest of the world is ready to taste what the north has to say. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1766016608767-GMHUQHCNHVQ3H44BN03T/img-1.jpg Editorial - The Story of Made Tea and Ni Made Roni Ni Made Roni grew up in a Balinese family with a rich agricultural history, where she learned farming from a very young age. Born and raised in Ubud, she developed a passion for protecting nature very early on. Contrary to Balinese traditions, Made Roni made the bold decision to leave the family home before marriage. She even bought her own house, which was very unusual in her culture. When she announced this to her family, her father asked her if she was crazy, but she persevered. She lived in Dublin for a decade where she worked in hospitality. It was at a Sunday market in Dublin that she discovered the vast world of teas from around the world. In July 2015, she traveled to Mumbai, India, to learn how to make chai tea, and it was at that moment that she decided to dedicate her life to tea. The Creation and Evolution of Made Tea Made Tea was founded in 2015 by Ni Made Roni, affectionately called Ibu Made. The name "Made" has a dual meaning: in Balinese culture, it represents the second child, and in English, it evokes creation and craftsmanship. In the beginning, it wasn't easy. Made Roni sold her teas at the Gianyar night market before opening her own shop. The company quickly evolved from a home industry in Gianyar to a factory in Peliatan. Women's Empowerment and Sustainability Made Tea employs local housewives for production and packaging, with flexible full-time or part-time schedules that respect their role in the community and their family. The company has an entirely female team. In collaboration with the PUM organization, Roni developed training methods to involve women from her community in a more professional and sustainable way. Thanks to a grant from the Hans Blankert Fund, she was able to purchase new machines to increase productivity and extend the shelf life of her products. Sustainability is at the heart of Made Tea's operations, guided by the ancient Balinese wisdom of Tri Hita Karana, which emphasizes harmony between humans, nature, and the spiritual world. Agricultural Practices Made Tea uses only natural fertilizers and organic pesticides. They even have three cows that live peacefully next to the garden, and their manure is used as fertilizer. The food waste produced also serves as a source of nutrition for the plants. Made Tea now supports eight local banjars (village communities) in Bali to grow the raw materials, paying them fairly to support the local economy. International Success Made Tea now sells internationally, notably to a chain of stores in England and the United States, and its teas have won awards in France. The company offers more than 25 unique tea varieties. Made Tea is a member of PASTI COLLECTIVE, a cooperative that promotes Indonesian heritage food artisans. The Made Tea Experience Today Made Tea offers tea-making workshops in an open thatched-roof structure with a breathtaking view of Ubud's lush jungle. Visitors can tour Roni's secret garden, learn about the healing powers of herbs, create their own blend, and enjoy traditional Balinese snacks and sweets. The company also has a café-restaurant with a perfect view of Gunung Agung, serving local specialties. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1699280777283-N4XXTY8443L3HHEZWKN9/2R3A4922.jpg Editorial https://www.borisruth.com/home daily 1.0 2025-12-10 https://www.borisruth.com/pasola-1 daily 0.75 2025-02-12 https://www.borisruth.com/about daily 0.75 2026-01-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/161d5e8b-d779-4b34-a62b-d50eae19e027/IMG_9220-2-2.jpg About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.borisruth.com/portfolio daily 0.75 2025-12-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/9c200518-59f8-48ce-854c-2d2ec1ba0a8a/7+2.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/194200ae-028a-402a-8f2b-7de4ea9b6b06/6.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/7d5a43dd-9bb5-4df7-8390-75ad5239badf/10.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/02e314cf-053e-449a-a0ea-dafc27a6be95/9.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855033867-A737Y4LDYXYJAXZASWDN/7.jpg Portfolio - 'There aren't enough schools' (Copy) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644959795282-MBHHU5YGI390Q8JCDB8A/IMG_8823.jpg Portfolio - French Guiana in South America has emerged as a key destination and transit point for migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, attracting thousands in 2020 from as far away as Syria. Over the past six years, the influx has grown steadily, placing what little infrastructure there is in the French overseas territory under severe stress and leaving many of those hoping to start new lives struggling to get by and with little assistance. In The New Humanitarian. Boris R. Thebia, a Montreal-based photojournalist, recently returned to his hometown of Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, to discover how it had become a way station for Europe-bound asylum seekers. Hundreds of Cubans fleeing poverty and political persecution began arriving in the city in early October, unaware they would become the tipping point, forced to set up camp in a territory with no formal migrant reception centres and precious little asylum accommodation. Alice Sablé, an aid worker with Médecins du Monde, told The New Humanitarian that NGOs are finding it hard to help, not only because of the severe housing shortage, but also due to a lack of personnel and poor support from local authorities and the French central government. When some of the Cubans at the camp outside Cayenne tested positive for COVID-19 in early January, there was no response from the local authorities. Instead, the asylum seekers had to fend for themselves, according to Médecins du Monde, which oversaw the testing. Aid organisations – including Médecins du Monde and the French Red Cross – and rights groups such as La Cimade and Ligue des Droits de l'Homme have been vocal about the lack of reception centres, funding, and other necessities, but say little, if anything, is being done. “We’ve been asking for a migrant reception centre for a year now,” Sophia Derbak, an emergency programme coordinator for Médecins du Monde in Cayenne, told TNH. “Not only did nothing happen, but the situation is even worse now.” French Guiana is a part of the EU, and it is the only territory in the mainland Americas to be fully integrated into a European country. But the reality confronting asylum seekers is bleak. It can take four months for a preliminary interview, and at least five further months to appeal if turned down. By law, the process is supposed to take nine months maximum, but it can drag on twice as long. After two negative answers – the Cubans TNH spoke to had already had one and should expect a second, according to past data – you can't get another hearing and you're supposed to leave the territory. For the few who do succeed, earning enough money for a flight to France is another challenge. “The system we have is outdated, hostile to immigration,” Derbak said. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855689338-H0GR1G1SH1DY604DQREZ/IMG_7429.jpg Portfolio - By ocean or by ocean raft As the pandemic delivered a painful blow to Cuba’s tourism-based economy and overseas remittances, the country’s hard currency reserves dried up, leading to acute food shortages. While the spread of the virus itself was relatively limited, the economic fallout hit a Cuba that was already struggling financially: former US president Donald Trump’s administration introduced tough new travel restrictions and sought to cut off crucial oil supplies. For hundreds of Cubans, deteriorating living conditions and tightening repression meant it was time to leave. Travel to Suriname had opened up in 2015, so they made their way via the former Dutch colony to French Guiana. After flying on temporary visas to Suriname’s capital, Paramaribo, they used smugglers to cross the Maroni River, which separates the two countries – often paying bribes to border officials – or took the longer ocean route by raft to Cayenne. Between October and December alone, approximately 200 Cubans arrived in Cayenne. Upon arrival, they slept in the streets, eventually finding a quiet public space by the sea where they built shelters with scrap wood and tarpaulins. There, near the city’s monument of the broken chains, representing the abolition of slavery, their camp emerged. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855048774-NW8GCCXVIEYXLIPV9X3N/9.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855185265-O8EK4RW0HOQY3JC5RE2O/IMG_7133.jpg Portfolio - 'We were told we would receive shelter' Over the past decade, the population of French Guiana has grown by 30 percent. Roughly 29 percent of its population is now foreign-born. Some 20,000 asylum seekers – or nearly seven percent of the French départment’s overall population of 300,000 inhabitants – have arrived since 2015. By comparison, mainland France, with a total population of 67 million, recorded around 612,000 new asylum seekers over the same period, fewer than one percent of its population. What shelter and assistance was available in French Guiana was taken up by previous waves of migrants and asylum seekers arriving earlier in 2020, including more than 500 Syrians and hundreds more from Libya, Yemen, and Palestine. The Cuban asylum seekers have therefore had to rely on donations of food and clothing from the local community – but such aid is sparse and several of the Cubans in the camp told TNH they often slept on empty stomachs. “It’s hard, because last October, when we arrived, we were told we would receive shelter,” said Marcos Sardain Avila, a mechanical engineer from Sancti Spiritus in central Cuba. Avila said he left Cuba with his wife after being subjected to constant harassment from the authorities. In late January, more than three months after arriving in Cayenne, they were still living in a tent without any running water or sanitary facilities – save for the public water tap at the entrance to the nearby beach. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854961502-G8UA49EF9O5NIS6NUO4Y/0.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855704989-0HBDBCDDAMGER88JVXHG/IMG_7889.jpg Portfolio - 'I am lost' Yamilet Barrutia, another resident of the camp, recalled her life back in Cuba. “I spent 21 years of my life building a career reselling construction materials, but because of [Cuban] trading laws, I was imprisoned and spent four years in prison,” she said. Unable to buy any supplies for her business on release, and ineligible for a monthly basket of state aid, Barrutia also said she was persecuted by the police. Without money and lacking options, she sold her house to escape the island and head for French Guiana. Like many of the Cubans who sought refuge or the chance of a new life in this European foothold in South America, Barrutia quickly realised the dissonance between the territory’s perceived status and its available resources. "I feel devastated; there are so many hard workers here. And we're being treated like delinquents,” she told TNH after her initial asylum claim was turned down. “I don’t have money to go to Brazil. I am lost.” Although French Guiana has the highest GDP per capita in the continent, public services are in short supply compared to mainland France. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854988681-0SI9GXA71PLC0V0LI9KU/4.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855009783-43LTOV9RY2BO9EOAZH2E/5.jpg Portfolio - 'You won't look at whether a job is legal or not' Every month, asylum seekers with active claims receive 250 euros per adult and 100 euros per child in support from the authorities, but the cost of living is more aligned with levels in mainland France, so these payments aren’t enough to get by. Rent is high, and most food and basic necessities are imported from Europe, at a price. High rates of immigration and poverty in the general population have propelled a parallel economy that employs cheap and accessible labour. Approximately 53 percent of residents live below the official poverty threshold, estimated at 550 euros per month, making the départment the second poorest in France. Poor working conditions in unregulated, illegal businesses are often the only option for new arrivals, with disease and injury common for those who end up in the logging, gold mining, or construction industries. And deportation is an ever-present threat, with 3,000 migrants and failed asylum seekers expelled in 2019. Alexander Ramos, a single father of two, decided to leave Bayamo in southern Cuba after losing his home in a landslide – the final straw after years spent struggling to make ends meet. Ramos told TNH that when he went looking for employment on the outskirts of Cayenne, the clandestine employer told him: “You have children to feed, a wife, bills to pay, and so do I. You won’t look at whether the job is legal or not.” According to the interior ministry, between 30,000 and 35,000 migrants are deemed to be working illegally in French Guiana. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854969348-Z0U4QI8STDJZOVHE46YN/2.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855033867-A737Y4LDYXYJAXZASWDN/7.jpg Portfolio - 'There aren't enough schools' The Cuban asylum seekers told TNH their children have had no access to an education. Ramos said he was promised in October that his children would start school soon, but he has received no further updates since from the authorities. While Ramos goes to work, his son and his daughter, Camila – pictured above in the family’s tent with a carer – spend their days hanging around the camp with the children of other asylum seekers. On arrival in Cayenne, his former partner, the children’s mother, left them to go and work in the territory’s illegal gold mines. In November, Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, a senator for the French territory, rejected a court order for the state to school 18 migrant children from Haiti, Palestine, Peru and Syria, saying the system already lacked spaces for locals. Sophie Donzenac, a spokesperson for the local authority, or préfecture, told TNH the government was doing what it could but said that even if the migrant children could be tested and allocated places there was nowhere for them to go. “There aren't enough schools, and there aren't enough funds to build schools or hire personnel,” she said. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855074908-N4EVRKRFC83D2XODCSZ2/alternative+0.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855041637-3X44PZTZ66QE65KAK9UD/8.jpg Portfolio - 'This doesn't look like a first world country to me' Despite French Guiana’s remoteness, asylum seekers from other continents whose more direct routes to Europe have been impeded by logistical or political roadblocks consider it a viable alternative to dangerous Mediterranean sea crossings or blocked EU land borders. In 2020, asylum seekers from Palestine, Syria, and Yemen were among others to arrive. “Going to Brazil and then to French Guiana was just easier for all of us,” Samay Hatem, one of the Syrian refugees, told TNH. Syrians benefit from easy-to-get Brazilian humanitarian visas, and Hatem explained that her decision to take the roundabout route to Europe came from her understanding that all asylum applicants would be allowed into the territory once they reached Brazil. However, Hatem hadn’t counted on the pandemic, which left her blocked in Brazil for eight months before she was finally able to cross. Meanwhile, Nour Alchaer (pictured above) and her family fled Syria to Venezuela, hoping to eventually reach Europe via French Guiana. “France is the land of equal rights for everybody. We came here because back in Syria we lost the right to a good life. Here, we have this right,” her father, Modad, told TNH as he set up their tent, Nour looking on. “Now what?” he asked, a little forlornly. “This doesn’t look like a First World country to me.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644854998149-6YU0ZVQEIIFRQA5OGQUC/3.jpg Portfolio - 'It is unacceptable that our cities are invaded' Even as the Cuban asylum seekers settled into their tents in the seaside park, the local authorities reacted by issuing an order making it illegal to sleep on public property and trying to force them out. Cayenne’s mayor, Sandra Trochimara, vowed to close down the camp as soon as she could. “We will dismantle the camp; then we will find solutions,” she said. “We don’t have the means to provide support because this crisis hasn’t been anticipated.” The local courts, however, blocked the attempts to evacuate the migrants, on the grounds that no relocation plan existed. Still, the tone from the political authorities was clear: “It is unacceptable that our cities are invaded and overwhelmed by so much misery – misery they are not even capable of processing,” Phinéra-Horth told the French Senate. By the start of February an eviction notice had been served for the Cayenne camp, but it could still be contested before the Cuban asylum seekers risk being forcibly removed later in the month. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644855059820-M75X6AUDS38F2PJWP2OH/10.jpg Portfolio - 'She is pregnant, and we have nowhere to go' With few asylum applicants gaining refugee status in French Guiana, those whose requests are denied are left with limited options: leave, or stay on illegally because they no longer have the means to leave. For Katy Sanchez, and her partner Jorge Hernández, awaiting a decision on their application has been draining, both mentally and financially. The Cuban couple, who expected their baby to be born within days, had already received a rejection, and nervously awaited a final ruling following their appeal. “If we have to leave, we don't know what to do,” Hernández told TNH in January. “She is pregnant, and we have nowhere to go.” Adriana Rosabal, a mother of three living in the camp was equally concerned. “It took several years of my life to leave [Cuba],” she said. “And they expect us to go away after we sacrificed everything to be here?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1644856254063-9QG1AJS707P8LW1GH0C2/alternative+3.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/7ce50a6d-0c22-41a6-a8c9-8a7ced8a3fd7/IMG_9656.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1b306e41-4e51-4ad7-8cf9-afb0bd767dd9/File+6.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/acc712f8-a082-413e-b2f4-699141c2ad90/File+4.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/e65ece2d-b007-4c99-b387-71b00b8595e0/File+36.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/4d7bdcf3-59b3-43fd-afa1-882157c12c3d/File+61.jpg Portfolio - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620a794d82c518256ea2692a/1656526395280-DQYW4I86UJUZGQFX24BZ/IMG_9475.jpg Portfolio 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