This is not a review. This article is my first impression of the book after reading it one round.
It all began with me asking a group of East Malaysian youth about the song that they use with the Tarian Rambai (presumably from Sabah). The song that accompanied their dance is titled Flying High by Eka Poetra. This incident led me to find out more about East Malaysian culture, especially through different forms of art. I happened to be looking through Bundusan books (a fantastic place to find Borneo books) and bought this book immediately.
I am not a dancer, but I have been exposed to a Thai researcher’s presentation on traditional dance while I was volunteering at an art conference years ago. Through the presentation, I learnt the meaning behind some of the movements and I realised our simplistic minds on reducing it as ‘culture’ without understanding the context and narratives behind it. I have seen certain groups ask the indigenous to perform just because it’s ‘exotic’ or overcompensating for our ‘berbilang bangsa/kaum’ narrative. Sometimes, these cultural dances become a gimmick to attract tourists or just a way to make ourselves feel good about our multiculturalism. We are aware of our multicultural heritage, but if we do not have intercultural communications,1Spring Institute explained the differences between multicultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural. https://springinstitute.org/whats-difference-multicultural-intercultural-cross-cultural-communication we will live with our own biases and assumptions. If you have read the definition in the footnote, most Malaysians are stuck in the multicultural stage. We acknowledge the differences, but we do not have deeper relationships or learn from one another and yet maintain our identity.
With its handwriting font as the title and decorated inner pages, I thought it would have been an easy read. I soon realised within the first it was a research paper hidden under its indigenous-influenced design. Research papers are dry to read as they follow a specific structure and every single detail needs to be explained clearly. As for this book, the dry parts came from the earlier chapters, in which the author described the variations of Kanjet. There are many purposes of Kanjet such as some are ceremonial, some are for entertainment, and some have variations based on location. I have not counted it yet, but it is more than five. Other than that, there were many Kenyah poems which are translated into Malay. Unfortunately, Kenyah is not the language of my heart. As the earlier chapters were technical, I will reread them when I have the time.
As I approached the last few chapters of the book, the author was explaining about costumes, music and how this dance form has evolved according to time. For example, the kirip is a round fan that is made of hornbill feathers. As hornbills are endangered creatures, the creation of kirip is created using synthetic feathers which are painted black in some areas to mimic the hornbill feather.
If anything I learnt from culture is that it is constantly evolving due to survival and the environment we are in. Sometimes, we maintain our traditions, but sometimes we adapt our traditions due to our environment. Hence, we should not be quick to judge but listen to the whole story, especially through music, art and dance. If we judge other people for being too conservative or too liberal, we miss out on why people make those decisions, and why those decisions work for them. We do not have to agree all the time, but at least we gain perspective to broaden our minds.
