Animals & Us
Do What You Do Best: Sarah Pye and the Sun Bears of Borneo
Sarah Pye
Sarah found her life's work when someone told her to do what she already did best.
Kintsugi Studio
Animals & Us
Sarah Pye
Sarah found her life's work when someone told her to do what she already did best.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Sarah grew up on a boat. Not a holiday, but a life. Her parents were teachers who decided the world itself was the classroom, so when Sarah turned thirteen, they left England on a 32-foot sailing vessel and taught her through direct encounter with natural systems, tides, weather, and the creatures she met at sea. Those night watches alone, hearing whales surface beside her in the dark, shaped something fundamental in her. Years later, when she stood on an observation platform at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center in 2012 and watched sun bears climb and play in the rain, she felt that same connection return. She asked Dr. Wong Suthee how she could help. His answer was five words: "Do what you do best."
What Sarah does best is communicate. She had already built a boat business in the Whitsunday Islands, written a guidebook for families seeking adventure in Queensland, and worked as a journalist and editor. So she did what Wong suggested. She introduced him to the university where she taught. She led a team of students to create an adoption program that became critical to the center's survival, especially when COVID closed it to the public. When Wong agreed to let her tell his story, she enrolled in a Doctor of Creative Arts degree to learn how to write it properly. The biography, Saving Sun Bears, was published in 2020. Since then, she has written six children's books about Wong's real-life adventures in the jungle, each one filled with animal facts and hands-on experiments designed to spark wonder in eight to twelve-year-olds.
Sarah now runs monthly gatherings for wildlife professionals around the world, because the work is hard and people lose hope. She speaks to schools about conservation. She walks long distances through wild places. And she keeps returning to Borneo. What began with a single question and a simple answer has become her life's work, proof that when someone sees what you are genuinely good at and tells you to use it, everything can change.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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