The Indonesian hunter gatherers known as the Punan Batu have their own, secretive language that they sing instead of speaking. Find out how this trait, combined with their unique genetic background, gained them official recognition and legal rights as Indigenous peoples. Borneo has always had an air of mystery for me, a synonym for an impossibly remote and inaccessible place, a bit like Timbuktu. Today, we call that kind of attitude “exoticism” and it has very little to do with actual geography.