In 2004, sitting in a shipping office in Kupang, West Timor and looking for one final adventure after two years of travelling, Dominic Brown spotted a four-day ferry journey bound for Jayapura in West Papua and bought a ticket. During the crossing he met local people who spoke at length about Indonesia's occupation of the region. When he arrived, he found a story almost entirely absent from international media. That encounter would shape much of what followed, from the music he released to the films he made and the stories he continued to tell.
Dancing Turtle launched in London a year later as an independent record label, driven by a growing conviction that the most interesting music, stories and cultures were often the ones receiving the least attention. Early releases gained BBC Radio 1 airplay for Italian band Amycanbe, alongside BBC sessions with Maltese band Tribali and the Lani Singers, whose field recordings from the highlands of West Papua remain among the label's most distinctive releases.
Film followed as another way to connect audiences with overlooked worlds. Dominic has directed four documentaries, beginning with Forgotten Bird of Paradise. Filmed undercover in West Papua, it premiered at Raindance before being broadcast on BBC Newsnight and SBS NITV. The Road to Home followed independence leader Benny Wenda across four continents. La Badil (No Other Choice) explored the Sahrawi people's struggle for self-determination in Western Sahara, and Başlangıç (The Beginning) was filmed across four days in Istanbul in June 2013, documenting the anti-government protests that shook the city that summer. He also produced Being King Arthur, a biopic about a former soldier who believes he is the reincarnation of the legendary British leader.
The same territory runs through his journalism. Dominic has written about West Papua for The Guardian and The Independent, reported from Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley on tribal communities facing forced displacement, and contributed to The Daily Telegraph and Al Jazeera.
Dancing Turtle Media grew from the same roots, working with artists, filmmakers and organisations whose work carries genuine cultural weight. Clients have included Asian Dub Foundation, Green Man Festival, On-U Sound and the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
Across music, film and digital, the work has continued to follow the same instinct that began with that ferry journey in 2004: to find the stories, sounds and perspectives that are too often overlooked and give them a wider audience.
