The Wind in the Bamboo: Asia's Ancient Indigenous Peoples

Author-activist Edith Mirante reveals the challenges faced by Asia's indigenous peoples in a vivid presentation drawn from her recently published book, The Wind in the Bamboo. Once defined as a separate race, the "Negrito" (so named because of their dark skin,  curly hair and generally "African" features) survive in the Philippines, Malaysia and India. Once sold into slavery, exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and nearly exterminated by disease and a cataclysmic volcano - now new scientific evidence found in the DNA of these indigenous peoples may offer clues to our understanding of early human migrations. The Wind in the Bamboo examines issues of race, identity, the body, scientific classification and genocide, immersing us in a struggle for human rights and ethnic survival.