The rain came down hard on the final day of the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) 2010 held at the Sarawak Cultural Village. It began with a light drizzle and as I contemplated whether to abandon my comfortable spot by the lake and look for shelter at one of the nearby stalls or longhouses, it started pouring. By the time I dashed into the Iban longhouse I was soaked from head to toe. Already suffering from a bad case of the flu, I was prepared for the aftermath the rain would have on my body. However, as I was on assignment to cover the festival, I had to wait out the rain - which incidentally didn't stop for a very long time! Not that I was new to the festival or the fact that the rain is a guaranteed prospect during the festival. The first time I was assigned to the festival was during its first show in 1997. Back then, it was a small music festival with about 300 or so people gathered by the lakeside stage. Unlike the commericalised event that it has become today, I would descibe the early days as more a more 'intimate' event. And yes, I recall being drenched in the rain back then too.
I suppose it wouldn't be a rainforest festival without the rain. So counting the number of times I had covered the festival, this year marked my 6th. I am very sure that loyal festival goers from those early days will know how much the festival has evolved from a small music festival to the more commercialised event that it is today.
This annual festival is unique in that it does not only brings together on the same stage renowned world musicians from all continents and indidenous musicians from the interiors of the Borneo. It also sees a convergence of people from abroad and locally who make their way to the village for 3 days of festivities. The festival's formula of afternoon informative workshops, ethno-musical lectures, jamming sessions and mini concerts have remained a hit with the audience. The evening performances on the main stage is an even bigger hit with the crowd - especially the young people - who ignore the heavy downpour to dance in the rain and simply enjoy the music.
This year the festival was held from 9th to 11th July. The 3 day event saw roughly around 19500 people attending. On the 1st and 2nd day, the recorded attendance was 14, 644, an increase of 10.4% from last year. On Saturday alone saw 8258 people at the festival, an increase of 16.8% from 2009. While the target for Sunday was 7000, only a rough figure of 4900 people was recorded. Blame it on the rain.
Apart from the music and workshops, the festival combines a variety of food and drink stalls which are set up around the lake area. Festival memorablias, Sarawak souvenirs and CDs by performing artists are also available.
Three years ago, an "extension" to the festival and a personal favourite of mine was introduced. The Rainforest World Crafts Bazaar (RWCB) was held again for the 3rd consecutive year and was successfully organised under the collaboration of Craftshub, Sarawak Craft Council and with assistance and support of various agencies such as the Sarawak Cultural Vilalge, Sarawak Tourism Board, the Women's Development Bureau, Kraftangan and the Tourism and Heritage Ministry (both state and federal level).
Held in conjunction with the Rainforest World Music Festival, the young but growing bazaar aims to maintain the unique Sarawakian craftsmanship and skills alive, and making it world famous thus providing a viable means of livehood to assisting craftsmen and women in business with sustainable sales. Although there are many ways to do this, the organisers felt that the perfect avenue to achieve their aim is to hold it at an event which sees the gathering of people from all over the world.
It gives the opportunity not just to showcase the works of the artists and artisans but acts as a channel for exchanging of ideas, and generally celebrate the common interest that everybody shares in appreciating fine handicrafts.
This year the bazaar featured artisans from Sabah, Singakawang, Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia, indigenous people of the mountainous regions of Peninsular Malaysia and from Gujarat, India.
One of the stalls at the bazaar was the Yayasan Tuanku Nur Zahirah (YTNZ), a foundation under the royal patronage of Her Majesty the Queen of Malaysia, Seri Paduka Baginda Raja Permaisure Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah. YTNZ believes in improving lives through the promotion of Malaysian heritage.
A key differentiator between YTNZ and other foundations is that it believes in empowering people through trade, not aid. It also belieevs in the importance of preserving and promoting Malaysian culture and heritage. For this reason, YTNZ has set up Royal Terengganu Songket, its first brand for a viable social business that develops, produces and markets fine quality hand-woven songket products.
With two songket production centres set up in Terengganu and Sarawak which employs and train full-time songket weavers, this immediately improves income and living standards of Malaysian craft workers by providing them a fixed monthly income including EPF and SOCSO benefits. This gives them the opportunity to increase their earning potential through overtime pay, performance based bonuses as well as skill and knowledge building capacity programmes.
YTNZ found that many of the weavers who decided to stay home were single mothers. Juggling their role as a mother and breadwinner is challenging, to say the least. These women produce quality products that consumers are willing to pay good money for but lack the capacity to improve the design and networks to market their products. The foundation simply provided them with another option, another place to sell their goods aside from their existing market. YTNZ began buying their goods to market them in Malaysia and other countries where unique handicrafts are in demand, and will begin to design and market a special line of products made only by single mothers called Ibunda.
YTNZ does not only provide income, but the chance for artisans to take an active role in the shaping of their future by making the leap from working in an informal cottage industry to participating in international commerce.
The next Rainforest World Music Festival will be held from 8th to 10th July 2011. And please remember to bring your raincoats.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Raya Reminiscing
Published in The New Sarawak Tribune on 10th September 2010
Today, the Muslim community celebrates Hari Raya Aidilfitri, signifying the end of the fasting month. A day greeted with great joy, it begins with early morning prayers at the mosque followed by a visit to the graves of the dearly departed. Families will tehn gather at home where they will forgive and forget past quarrels starting with the younger members who ask their elders for forgiveness, to "salam" , then kiss the hands of the elders as a sign of respect. Following some time together as a family, the great tradition of open house will start, with relatives and friends visiting and enjoying plenty of traditional Malay delicacies served. It is not unusual to see houses decorated with festive lights. Hari Raya cards and ketupat casings.
Like other Muslim families, Jamilah Shukri and her family looked forward to celebrating Hari Raya. I had dropped in at her boutique, Anggun Collection to see her latest collection and what was in fashion this Raya. While showing me around her boutique, Jamilah reminisced about Raya in her childhood days.
"Fashion in those days was simple. Our parents would go out and buy new clothes for the family. It was not uncommon to see families wearing matching outfits and colours. One family will be wearing red, another green. Nowadays the young ones have their own money to buy their own clothes for Raya, so they buy according to their own fashion preference. Having said that, there are still families who have a theme colour added into their Raya clothes," she said.
Back when she was young girls, people only learn the actual date of Raya the night before. Therefore, most of the preparations for Raya only begun on the eve of the celebration. Families and their children would wait excitedly for the announcement.
"I remember after the announcement was made, the village would come alive. The cooking and cleaning would begin. We didn't have fridges back then so we couldn't prepare food early as it would go bad. Everything was made from scratch as there was no such thing as made-to-order in those days. My fondest recollection was chasing chickens around the village to be slaughtered. Imagine the commotion in the village with us running after the chickens! Some would fly away to escape. It was as if they knew they would be slaughtered," she laughed at the memory.
She recalled not sleeping much on the eve of the celebration. Her mother would stay up to cook all night with sounds of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen. Throughout the house, the sound of hammering can be heard throughout the night as her father would go around the house fixing what needed to be mended. In the days prior to Raya, Jamilah and her siblings' feet were measured with a broom by their father before he went out to buy them new shoes.
Another memory was the tradition of placing at the head of the table a cake called "kek kepala meja".
"Every household would have one. It was tradition. Only on the seventh day it will be eaten. I don't think it is practised nowadays," Jamilah sighed.
Growing up in Kampung Panglima Seman Lama, Jamilah recalled how Raya preparations and celebrations were a communal event. On the morning of Raya, everyone from the village will bring food to the surau and eat together. "We knew who always made the best dishes and would look forward to eating their food. There was the spirit of gotong-royong (working together) in those days which is not so common now."
Like today, the tradition of open house was practised then too. Jamilah said as children they would compete to see how many houses they can visit in a day. According to her they would use matchsticks to count how many houses they visited.
"It was one matchstick per house. We could do up to 70 houses! I was 13 years old. I remember walking the whole day from one village to another and did not get tired. Every house was open for visitors. And we didn't cheat with the matchsticks either. Nobody cheated in those days," she pointed out smilingly.
Jamilah added that these days, many open houses would be by invitation only and some prefer to invite only family and close friends. Coming from a big family, visiting every family member is not an easy task for Jamilah. So, this year, she and her family will gather at her homestay in Santubong on September 19 to celebrate Raya. It is a day that they all look forward to, not just to share with family but also friends who are invited.
Today, the Muslim community celebrates Hari Raya Aidilfitri, signifying the end of the fasting month. A day greeted with great joy, it begins with early morning prayers at the mosque followed by a visit to the graves of the dearly departed. Families will tehn gather at home where they will forgive and forget past quarrels starting with the younger members who ask their elders for forgiveness, to "salam" , then kiss the hands of the elders as a sign of respect. Following some time together as a family, the great tradition of open house will start, with relatives and friends visiting and enjoying plenty of traditional Malay delicacies served. It is not unusual to see houses decorated with festive lights. Hari Raya cards and ketupat casings.
Like other Muslim families, Jamilah Shukri and her family looked forward to celebrating Hari Raya. I had dropped in at her boutique, Anggun Collection to see her latest collection and what was in fashion this Raya. While showing me around her boutique, Jamilah reminisced about Raya in her childhood days.
"Fashion in those days was simple. Our parents would go out and buy new clothes for the family. It was not uncommon to see families wearing matching outfits and colours. One family will be wearing red, another green. Nowadays the young ones have their own money to buy their own clothes for Raya, so they buy according to their own fashion preference. Having said that, there are still families who have a theme colour added into their Raya clothes," she said.
Back when she was young girls, people only learn the actual date of Raya the night before. Therefore, most of the preparations for Raya only begun on the eve of the celebration. Families and their children would wait excitedly for the announcement.
"I remember after the announcement was made, the village would come alive. The cooking and cleaning would begin. We didn't have fridges back then so we couldn't prepare food early as it would go bad. Everything was made from scratch as there was no such thing as made-to-order in those days. My fondest recollection was chasing chickens around the village to be slaughtered. Imagine the commotion in the village with us running after the chickens! Some would fly away to escape. It was as if they knew they would be slaughtered," she laughed at the memory.
She recalled not sleeping much on the eve of the celebration. Her mother would stay up to cook all night with sounds of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen. Throughout the house, the sound of hammering can be heard throughout the night as her father would go around the house fixing what needed to be mended. In the days prior to Raya, Jamilah and her siblings' feet were measured with a broom by their father before he went out to buy them new shoes.
Another memory was the tradition of placing at the head of the table a cake called "kek kepala meja".
"Every household would have one. It was tradition. Only on the seventh day it will be eaten. I don't think it is practised nowadays," Jamilah sighed.
Growing up in Kampung Panglima Seman Lama, Jamilah recalled how Raya preparations and celebrations were a communal event. On the morning of Raya, everyone from the village will bring food to the surau and eat together. "We knew who always made the best dishes and would look forward to eating their food. There was the spirit of gotong-royong (working together) in those days which is not so common now."
Like today, the tradition of open house was practised then too. Jamilah said as children they would compete to see how many houses they can visit in a day. According to her they would use matchsticks to count how many houses they visited.
"It was one matchstick per house. We could do up to 70 houses! I was 13 years old. I remember walking the whole day from one village to another and did not get tired. Every house was open for visitors. And we didn't cheat with the matchsticks either. Nobody cheated in those days," she pointed out smilingly.
Jamilah added that these days, many open houses would be by invitation only and some prefer to invite only family and close friends. Coming from a big family, visiting every family member is not an easy task for Jamilah. So, this year, she and her family will gather at her homestay in Santubong on September 19 to celebrate Raya. It is a day that they all look forward to, not just to share with family but also friends who are invited.
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| Jamilah and her family in the early 1970s. Jamilah is standing 2nd from right, back row |
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