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英國女孩“嫁”給亞馬遜土著

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A British film maker who 'married' a tribal warrior says she agreed to it to highlight the oil giants destroying his Amazon home.
英國一位電影製片人日前把自己“下嫁”到了土著部落,她表示自己同意與一位土著武士“成婚”是爲了警醒世人,石油巨頭企業正在摧毀土著人賴以生存的亞馬遜家園。

Sarah Begum underwent the symbolic ritual aged just 21 after she left London to spend two weeks with the Huaroani tribe, which has 3,000 members in the mineral-rich Ecuadorian rainforest.
當時年僅21歲的莎拉·貝谷姆(Sarah Begum)參與了這場象徵性的結婚儀式。此前,她離開倫敦遠赴厄瓜多爾熱帶雨林,與居住在這塊礦藏寶地上的3000名瓦歐達尼族(Huaroani)居民一起生活了兩個星期。

Despite historically tense relations with outsiders dating to the 1950s, when five U.S. missionaries who tried to infiltrate the tribe were killed, she claimed she was welcomed with open arms.
上世紀50年代,五名試圖進入該部落的美國傳教士被處死,從此該部落與外界的關係頗爲緊張。儘管如此,貝谷姆表示居民們是張開雙臂來歡迎她的。

英國女孩“嫁”給亞馬遜土著

She learned how to weave with grasses and hunt with a blowpipe, and by the end of the period she had 'married' a warrior in his 50s named Ginkto - who spoke only the villagers' own Huaroani dialect and a few words of Spanish.
她學會了用草編織,用吹火管打獵,臨近結束時,她還與一位名爲金克託(Ginkto)的武士“喜結連理”。50多歲的金克託只會說當地村民使用的瓦歐達尼族方言和幾個西班牙語單詞

It was a symbolic gesture to spread the tribe's plea for help against oil firms, not a legally binding marriage - but the language barrier meant things were not obvious at the start.
這只是一個象徵性的婚禮,目的是尋求外界幫助該部落反抗石油企業,並不具有法律約束力——但雙方之間存在的語言障礙讓貝谷姆一開始並不清楚這場婚禮的性質。

'I was chosen by the elders and I had no idea what was going to happen to me,' she said.
“當時那些長者選中了我,我不知道接下來會發生什麼。”她說道。

'I was called into a hut and everyone inside was naked. I was told they were making me their traditional clothes, which is a piece of string made of plant fibres worn around the waist – not even a thong.
“我被叫進一間小棚屋,裏面的每個人都渾身赤裸。他們告訴我他們正在爲我製作一件傳統服裝:一條由植物纖維製成的繩子,系在腰上——連丁字褲都稱不上。

'I thought, "I can't get naked, this is being filmed", and for a split second I thought about running away, but I wanted to fully embrace and understand their traditions.
“當時我想,鏡頭正在拍攝,我不能赤裸身體,有一瞬間我在考慮逃跑,但我想完全接受並瞭解他們的傳統。”

'One of the women pulled off my underwear, and I gave in from there. The elder leader was chanting and the women were making chicha, their home-brewed beverage.
“有一個女人脫下我的內衣,我是從那一刻開始讓步的。年邁的領袖在誦經,女人們在釀製吉開酒(chicha)——一種自制的飲料。"

'They were happy that I was totally naked and started to make a crown for me out of macaw feathers.
“當我願意赤裸全身時,他們顯得非常高興,並開始爲我製作一個由鸚鵡羽毛製成的花冠。

'I was told, "they are going to make you Queen". I was surrounded by the women and warriors chanting and dancing in the hut - I thought I was being initiated.
“有人告訴我,他們要封我爲女王。在棚屋裏,一羣又唱又跳的女人和勇士們簇擁着我,我想我要被接納成爲部落一員了。”

'They gave me the chicha drink and the name Imaca, which means The Last Name, before marrying me to my husband-to-be, the tribe's most popular warrior, Ginkto.'
“在我嫁給我未來的丈夫——部落最有名的戰士——金克託之前,他們遞給我一杯吉開酒並給我起名爲伊瑪卡(Imaca),意思是‘最後之名’(The Last Name)。”

'I had no idea what was going on. At first I thought it was just an initiation ceremony but then there was this guy next to me who had his arms around me. It was so surreal.'
“我不知道接下來會發生什麼,一開始我以爲這只是一種加入儀式,但接下來,這個男子站我旁邊並伸出雙臂摟住我,這種感覺太離奇了。”

She said she was shocked at first, but it was explained that she was not expected to have a sexual relationship with Ginkto. Instead the marriage was an honorary one to build trust with the tribe.
她表示一開始被嚇到了,但後來她才知道她並不需要與金克託發生實質關係,這個婚禮只是一種榮譽儀式,代表着她與部落建立了信任。

'They knew why I was there and wanted to show me how they lived', she said.
“他們知道我來這裏的目的,所以只是想給我展示他們是怎樣生活的,”她說。

'Ginkto is a lovely guy and a strong hunter, which makes him very popular with the women. He was also very funny and curious about my life in London.
“金克託是個好人,也是一位勇猛的獵手,這讓他在女性中十分受歡迎,而且他非常有趣,對我在倫敦的生活也很好奇。”

'We communicated through one of the other warriors who spoke Spanish to my cameraman. He asked all about my parents, my family and friends.'
“另外一名武士和我的攝像師講西班牙語,來充當我們的翻譯,金克託詢問了我所有親朋好友的情況。”

Ms Begum was one of many 'eco-tourists' and documentary makers hosted by the tribe over the years, but insisted the wedding ceremony was a rare occurrence.
貝谷姆是該部落近年來接待的衆多“環保旅行者”和紀錄片拍攝者中的一位,但她堅稱這種婚禮儀式是很罕見的。

However, she was not the only Briton who Ginkto 'married'.
然而,她並不是唯一一個和金克託“結婚”的英國人。

Two years earlier the same tribal warrior 'wed' Karen Morris-Lanz, a single mother from Milton Keynes who went to live briefly in the village. In that case, however, it was for a BBC documentary specifically about marriage.
早在兩年前,金克託與一位來自英國米爾頓·凱恩斯(Milton Keynes)的單親母親卡倫·莫里斯-蘭斯(Karen Morris-Lanz)“結婚”,她在這個村落裏逗留的時間不長,當時是爲了給英國廣播公司(BBC)拍攝關於婚姻的紀錄片。

'We're now friends', said Ms Bergum. 'It's led to quite a lot of jokes'.
貝谷姆說,“相處過程中發生了不少趣事。而現在我們是朋友了。”

Now 26, Ms Begum made her experiences into a half-hour documentary, Amazon Souls, which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
今年26歲的貝谷姆將自己的經歷做成了一部時長半小時的紀錄片《亞馬遜之魂》(Amazon Souls),該片在2013年戛納電影節上映。

Since then it has been accepted at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and Adventure Travel Film Festival, and this year Ms Begum was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
此後,該紀錄片也在謝菲爾德紀錄片電影節(Sheffield Doc/Fest)和冒險電影節(Adventure Travel Film Festival)中獲得認可。2014年,貝谷姆成爲英國皇家地理學會(the Royal Geographical Society)的成員。

She was finishing a film degree at Kingston University in Surrey when she set off on her self-funded trip in 2010 to Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, fulfilling a dream which began when she was nine.
2010年,她在位於美國薩里(Surrey)的金斯頓大學(Kingston University)獲得電影學學位,並自費前往厄瓜多爾國的亞蘇尼國家公園(Yasuni National Park),這次旅行圓了她自九歲開始的夢想。

'By the time I was in film school I felt I wasn't really being prepared for the real world,' she said. 'I wanted to do something with my life and for my future so I decided to literally follow my dream.
“當我還在電影學校時,覺得自己還沒有準備好去面對大千世界,”她說道,“我想給自己的生命增添點什麼,爲未來積累點什麼,所以我決定追隨自己的夢想。

'I quit my job, used all my savings, hired a cinematographer from New York and a sound guy from Portsmouth. I did some research about this tribe in the Amazon and just went there.'
“我辭掉工作,花掉所有積蓄,僱了一位來自紐約的電影攝影技師,和一位來自英國朴茨茅斯(Portsmouth)的音響師。我查找了一些該部落的資料,然後就出發了。”

She won the 5,800-mile air fare as one of ten finalists in the national Enterprising Student Awards - the only woman that year. Other funds came from private investors before the trip.
那一年,貝谷姆獲得了英國十佳進步學生獎(Enterprising Student Awards),是當年唯一一名獲獎女生,她獲得了5800英里的飛行里程。其它資金均來源於成行前所獲的私人資助。

Once in Ecuador she met her colleagues, British sound engineer Stephen Bull and American cinematographer Frank Angelcyk, and taught English to children in the Amazon region before venturing deeper into the jungle.
厄瓜多爾之行使她遇到了自己的同事:英國音響工程師斯蒂芬·布爾(Stephen Bull)和美國電影攝影技師弗蘭克·安吉爾西克(Frank Angelcyk),並使她有機會在進一步深入亞馬遜叢林前,給亞馬遜地區的孩子教授英文。

Despite not being able to swim, she travelled by boat for two days from the town of Coca through piranha and alligator infested waters, stopping overnight at a beach to fish for dinner.
雖然不會游泳,但她乘着船越過水虎魚和短吻鱷出沒的水域,從小鎮古柯(Coca)出發,經過兩天後在夜間抵達沙灘,當晚的晚餐是親手捕獲的魚。

During the journey she and her companions met representatives from the tribe, who had been contacted by outsiders before and have their own reserve near the national park agreed with Ecuador's authorities.
在旅程中,她與同伴們見到了部落的代表人物,外部世界的人曾聯繫過他們,並在獲得厄瓜多爾當局的同意後,爲他們在靠近國家公園的地方設立了居留地。

Once in the village of Bameno it was not plain sailing - Mr Bull had to be airlifted to hospital when a cut to his arm became infected, and she was bitten by parasites and developed a stomach infection - but she said the villagers were keen to tell her about their plight at the hand of oil companies.
在巴麥諾(Bameno)村落的生活並不一帆風順。布爾因爲肩膀割傷受到感染,不得不空運到醫院;而貝谷姆被寄生蟲叮咬後惡化成胃部的感染——但她表示村民的處境更爲艱難,他們向她哭訴石油公司給他們帶來的困境。

The Huaroani people live on top of some of South America's richest oil reserves, and campaigners say the invasion of outsiders has increased tension in their ancestral land.
瓦歐達尼族的居民所生活的土地,是南美洲石油資源最豐富的地區之一,部落的戰士們表示,外來者的入侵讓這片他們世代生活的土地受到越來越大的威脅。

Hostility began in 1956, when five evangelical missionaries from the U.S. were killed after trying to convert Huaroani villagers to Christianity in a widely-publicised case.
敵對狀態始於1956年,當時來自美國的五名福音派傳教士來到這裏,試圖讓瓦歐達尼族居民歸順基督教,後被殺。這一事件被廣泛報道。

It is said to have been the first documented time the tribe was contacted by the outside world.
這是記錄該部落和外界聯繫的最早文獻。

Nowadays contact with outsiders is more common - some tribe members have taken to wearing western clothing - but is still not always for the right reasons.
如今,這裏與外界的聯繫越來越頻繁,部分居民開始穿上西方的衣服。但這些聯繫並不總是基於正當理由。

As well as oil there are mineral reserves beneath the rainforest and it is a target for illegal loggers. Several roads have been built into Huaroani territory.
除了石油,在雨林下還有礦產儲備,這成了非法採伐的目標。數條公路已被建成,直通瓦歐達尼族的棲息地。

Tribe members told a BBC documentary in 2011 that they could no longer grow food on river banks because they feared contamination would wash downstream.
部落的成員曾在2011年的BBC紀錄片中表示,因爲害怕自己所處的下游受到污染,他們已不敢在河岸上種植糧食作物。

And last year the charity Survival International, which campaigns for indigenous people's rights, said two Huaroani members were killed by fellow tribespeople as competition for land increased.
2013年,維護土著居民權利的公益組織——國際維護土著權利組織(Survival International)表示,兩名瓦歐達尼族居民與鄰近的另一土著民族因日漸尖銳的土地爭端而被殺死。

Tribal leader Cawetipe Yeti said at the time: 'This is not a tourist zone. This is an area in a state of red alert.
部落領袖耶提(Cawetipe Yeti)當時表示:“這不是旅遊區,這是警戒區。”

'We’re asking the authorities to act immediately on our request to provide logistical support to protect our uncontacted Taromenane brothers.'
“我們希望當局對我們的要求立即予以迴應:提供後勤的支持以保護無法和我們取得聯繫的達羅梅納內(Taromenane)兄弟族羣(另一個生活於亞蘇尼國家公園的土著民族)。”

Ms Begum said she still keeps occasional contact with the tribe members over e-mail and even on Facebook, when they make the rare trip to the nearest town.
貝谷姆稱,當部落的居民們難得前往離村最近的鎮子時,她偶爾能與他們通過電子郵件甚至Facebook取得聯繫。

'I would love to go back to see them all again,' she said.
“我很期待能再回去看望他們。”貝谷姆說。

Vocabulary
tribe:部落
infiltrate:侵入
blowpipe:吹火管,吹箭筒
thong:比基尼泳衣的下半截或短褲 (在臀部後面只有一條很細的布條)
macaw:琉璃金剛鸚鵡
initiate:接納或介紹某人加入某團體
surreal:超現實的
piranha:水虎魚(南美淡水小魚,能掠食活動物)
parasite:寄生蟲
evangelical:福音的