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Semut

The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo

Christine Helliwell Christine Helliwell Dorje Swallow

$39.95

Audio

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English
Bolinda/Penguin Audio Australia
02 July 2021
March 1945. A handful of very young Allied operatives are parachuted into the remote jungled heart of the Japanese-occupied island of Borneo, east of Singapore, there to recruit the island's indigenous Dayak peoples to fight the Japanese. Yet most speak next to no Borneo languages and know little about Dayaks, other than that they were once headhunters who might kill them on arrival. For their part, some Dayaks have never before seen a white face.

This is the story of Operation Semut, an Australian secret military operation launched by the organisation popularly known as Z Special Unit in the final months of WWII. Anthropologist Christine Helliwell has called on her years of first-hand knowledge of Borneo, interviewed more than one hundred Dayak people and all the remaining Semut operatives, and consulted thousands of military and other documents to piece together this astonishing story. Focusing on the operation's activities along two of Borneo's great rivers - the Baram and Rejang - this audiobook provides a detailed military history of Semut II's and Semut III's brutal guerrilla campaign against the Japanese, and reveals the decisive but long-overlooked Dayak role in the operation.

By:  
Read by:   ,
Imprint:   Bolinda/Penguin Audio Australia
Country of Publication:   Australia
Edition:   Simultaneous Release
Dimensions:   Height: 122mm,  Width: 132mm,  Spine: 14mm
Weight:   68g
ISBN:   9781867544982
ISBN 10:   1867544989
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Audio
Publisher's Status:   Active

Christine Helliwell is a New Zealand-born anthropologist, author and academic, currently Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. She has been carrying out research on Borneo's indigenous Dayak peoples - including living with them in their communities for months at a time - for almost forty years, and has written widely on Dayak social and cultural life. Christine lives in Canberra. Her book Semut - on the most important of the Borneo 'Z' operations - took her almost four years to write. Christine Helliwell is a New Zealand-born anthropologist, author and academic, currently Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. She has been carrying out research on Borneo's indigenous Dayak peoples - including living with them in their communities for months at a time - for almost forty years, and has written widely on Dayak social and cultural life. Christine lives in Canberra. Her book Semut - on the most important of the Borneo 'Z' operations - took her almost four years to write. Dorje Swallow is an Australia stage, screen and voice actor. He can be seen in the films The Tail Job and Spin Out. On the small screen he has featured in Wonderland, Home and Away, City Homicide and Sea Patrol. He has performed for many different theatre companies across Australia and has also written and directed two short films. Recently Dorje has established himself as one of the premier voiceover actors in Australia, voicing for brands, TV channels and documentaries.

Reviews for Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo

'The incredible, little-known story of Australia's top secret 'Z' operations deep inside Japanese lines in Sarawak in 1945 ... A superb read, brilliantly researched, written in prose as sharp as a machete.' -- Paul Ham


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