Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Save the Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for His People, the Rainforest, and the Earth
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1961
WEBSITE: http://www.corinesombrun.com/en/biography/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2004080007
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2004080007
HEADING: Sombrun, Corine
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100 1_ |a Sombrun, Corine
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PERSONAL
Born 1961.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, environmental journalist, pianist, and composer. Worked as a journalist for BBC World Service.
AWARDS:Franco-Quebecois Youth Office scholarship; winner of multiple national and international music contests.
WRITINGS
Author’s works have been translated into six languages.
SIDELIGHTS
Corine Sombrun is a writer, environmental journalist, pianist, and composer. She has been a journalist for BBC World Service. Originally from France, she grew up in Africa, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, noted a writer on the Corine Sombrun website. She later studied musicology, composition, and piano in France, then spent time in Montreal, Canada where she studied with performers and composers in the area of multimedia. She moved to London in 1999 and worked as a pianist and composer.
While in Mongolia working on a project for BBC World Service, Sombrun met a shaman named Balgir who told her that she, herself, was a shaman, noted the writer on her website. The evidence came from Sombrun’s reaction to the sounds of a specific type of drum, which caused her to react strongly, “to the point of losing control of her own movements,” the website writer stated. She subsequently spent time living on the Siberian border and studying shamanism with a Tsaatan shaman named Enkhtuya. “After eight years of apprenticeship she becomes the first westerner to reach the status of Udgan, the Mongol term designating women who have received the ‘gift’ then traineeship of Mongolian shamanistic traditions,” the contributor to her website reported.
Sombrun is the author of several books in her native French language concerning her experiences in Mongolia and her training in the ways of shamanism. These include Journal d’une apprentie chamane, Une parisienne en Mongolie, Les tribulations d’une chamane a Paris, and Les esprits de la steppe: Avec les derniers chamanes de Mongolie. Notably, according to the Corine Sombrun website writer, Sombrun has the ability to self-induce a shamanic trance, a unique ability that has been studied by scientists at INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research), in France.
Geronimo's Footsteps
Other books by Sombrun have been translated into English. Geronimo’s Footsteps: A Journey Beyond Legend recounts Sombrun’s experiences meeting with Harlyn Geronimo, an Apache medicine man on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico and the great grandson of the famous warrior that bears his name. Geronimo the Apache warrior and leader has two major connections with Sombrun and her experiences in Mongolia. First, Apache legend says that the Apache first came from Mongolia. Second, Sombrun repeatedly heard the name of Geronimo while in shamanistic trances during her apprenticeship with Enkhtuya. It became important for her to understand the message that was being transmitted to her during her trances. To that end, she sought out Harlyn, who accompanied her on a spiritual and historical pilgrimage that highlighted Geronimo’s life and expanded into a journey to his birthplace at the source of the Gila River.
Sombrun and Harlyn tell the story of their journey in alternating chapters. The book includes detailed biographical and historical information on Geronimo, along with information on Apache tradition and folklore. Harlyn explains how he keeps working to revise his ancestor’s reputation and recover his physical remains from the United States government. Sombrun examines the potential genetic and cultural links between the Apache and the peoples of Mongolia. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded, “Patient readers with an interest in shamanic or Native American traditions will find much of interest here.”
Save The Planet
In Save The Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for His People, The Rainforest, and The Earth, Sombrun collaborates with coauthor and Amazonian tribal leader Almir Narayamoga Surui to tell Surui’s story of working to preserve the Amazon rainforest and ecosystems. Surui provides a detailed first-hand account of his life in Rondonia, in northwestern Brazil, and the environmental damage that has occurred there because of deforestation related to agriculture and timber harvesting. He outlines many unethical and illegal activities that have happened, such as the selling of counterfeit deeds to settlers in the area.
Surui also includes biographical information on himself and his background. Notably, he points out that there has been a $100,000 bounty “put on his head by timber poachers upset with his conservation efforts,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. Surui’s story is “undeniably fascinating,” the Publishers Weekly writer commented.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, November 17, 2014, review of In Geronimo’s Footsteps: A Journey Beyond Legend; April 23, 2018, review of Save the Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for His People, the Rainforest, and the Earth, p. 75.
ONLINE
Corine Sombrun website, http://www.corinesombrun.com (September 4, 2018).
biography
Photo de Corine Sombrun
Corine Sombrun spent her childhood in Africa, in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Returning to France, she undertook musicology, piano, and composition studies. Having won national and international contests, she received a scholarship from the Franco-Quebequois Youth Office and left for Montreal to study with multimedia performers and composers.
In 1999, she settled in London, where she worked as a pianist and composer: Sacred Voice Festival of London (she created a piece for prepared piano and Iranian percussion with Bijan Chemirani), Drome London Bridge theater («The Warp», 24h performance piece directed by Ken Campbell), BBC World Service, Turner Price, October Gallery, 291 Gallery, Price Water House Cooper Atrium Gallery… then worked on reports for BBC World Service for a program on religions.
In 2001, during a report in Mongolia (Mongolian Mysteries, broadcast on BBC World Service in 2002), a shaman named Balgir informed her that she is…a shaman. Why? In that part of the world, shamans reach trance through the sound of a specific drum. A sound to which, during that first experience, she violently reacted, to the point of losing control of her own movements. According to Balgir, she does indeed have shamanistic capacities and “her path” he says, will be to follow their teachings in order to develop them.
This is how she would spend several months a year on the Siberian border with Enkhtuya, a shaman from the Tsaatan culture, responsible for transmitting this knowledge to her. After eight years of apprenticeship she becomes the first westerner to reach the status of Udgan, the Mongol term designating women who have received the “gift” then traineeship of mongolian shamanistic traditions.
In 2002 she published the first account of her adventures, Journal d’une apprentie chamane (Albin Michel 2002, Pocket 2004). After which will come, Une parisienne en Mongolie (Albin Michel 2004, Pocket 2006), Dix centimètres loi Carrez (Belfond 2004), Les tribulations d’une chamane à Paris (Albin Michel 2007, Pocket 2009), Sur les pas de Geronimo (Albin Michel 2008, Pocket 2014), In Geronimo’s footsteps (Skyhorse Publishing 2014), Les esprits de la steppe (Albin Michel 2012), Sauver la planète, le message d’un chef indien d’Amazonie (Albin Michel 2015). They are translated in spanish, german, italian, russian, dutch, english…
In 2005, she went to New Mexico to meet Harlyn Geronimo, medicine-man and great grandson of the famous Apache warrior. According to an Apache legend, this people originated from Mongolia. Together they exchanged their respective knowledge on the Apache and Mongol tradition, some of which were indeed very similar. They later decided to go back in time on a pilgrimage-trip to the source of the Gila River, the birthplace of Geronimo. From their growing ties through these months of travel, the idea for the book Sur les pas de Geronimo (Albin Michel, 2008) emerged, the story of this encounter and the unique account of the life of Geronimo, told by one of his direct descendants.
In 2008 she continued her research on the migration of Mongolian people and went to Alaska, where she came in contact with the Athabaskan Indians, ancestors of the Apache and supposed descendants of the Mongols. She discovered a people dedicated to a remarkable work for the preservation of the environment. Furthermore, some of their ancestral traditions could indeed corroborate the theory of a kinship with the Mongolian people. While cautiousness remains nonetheless a rule in a field where scientific proof is hard to come by, this research yielded to a number of additional stays.
Aside from her research trips, Corine Sombrun composes for different production companies, collaborates with artists, performs workshops (Les beaux Arts de Paris) and pursues her work on Modified States of Consciousness.
Her experience in the practice of shamanic trance and her capacity to self-induce it is a subject of interest to scientists. Defined as a psychonaut (a term derived from the word astronaut to designate the explorers of cerebral functions), she has been collaborating with Dr Etevenon, Honorary INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research ) Research Director, since 2006. He introduced her to different researchers whose goal is to discover the physiological mechanisms connected to this state of Trance (voluntarily modified state of consciousness) and its influence on the way cerebral hemispheres function. The first results (obtained in 2007 by EEG analysis under the supervision of Pr. Flor-Henry / Alberta Hospital – Canada) showed that this shamanic trance, whose acting mechanism on the brain remain unknown, indeed modifies the circuits of cerebral functioning.
By pushing back the limits of current knowledge, these results open new perspectives and are at the root of the establishment of a first protocol on shamanic trance research studied by neurosciences; an exploration attempt into occurrences linked with human brain capacities and the neuronal foundation of consciousness.
Print Marked Items
Save the Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for
His People, the Rainforest, and the Earth
Publishers Weekly.
265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p75.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Save the Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for His People, the Rainforest, and the Earth
Almir Narayamoga Surui and Corine Sombrun. Schaffner, $16.95 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-943156-41-2
Amazonian tribal leader Suruf pairs up with environmental journalist Sombrun to tell his story in this important but sometimes less-than-gripping
volume. Suruf offers a first-person account of life in the state of Rondonia in northwestern Brazil, hit hard by deforestation in recent decades--it
has lost approximately 40% of its native forest to agriculture and timber production. He details conflicts with land grabbers such as the Itaporanga
company, which "illegally appropriated a section of territory bordering the Ji-Parana River" and sold counterfeit deeds to scores of settler
families, who moved in and started cutting down trees. His personal endeavors include studying applied biology at the University of Goaiania and
getting elected clan chief shortly after receiving his degree. Surui's initial goals for his group were to encourage them to "reconnect with our
traditions," to develop an effective bilingual educational program for the children, and to improve the overall health of the population. He writes
almost nonchalantly of the $100,000 bounty that has been put on his head by timber poachers upset with his conservation efforts, and of the
bodyguards tasked to protect him. Though his story is undeniably fascinating, Surui's matter-of-fact narrative style can be rather dull, limiting the
memoir's general appeal. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Save the Planet: An Amazonian Tribal Leader Fights for His People, the Rainforest, and the Earth." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr. 2018, p. 75.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532928/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1c3b2136. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532928