SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SARAWAK CAMPUS
Digital Frontier - Social Innovation
CULTURAL HERITAGE AND DIGITAL MEDIA WORKSHOP WITH THE COMMUNITIES
Heritage today is far more than museum artifacts and historical buildings, and how they are preserved and communicated. It is about making sense of our memories and developing a sense of identity through shared and repeated interactions with the tangible remains and lived traces of a common past.
We socially construct heritage in the context of our own lives and imaginations to interact meaningfully with our past and shape our vision of the future (Thomas 2004; Lowenthal 2005). Indigenous knowledge is founded in “… the immediate world of personal and tribal experiences… and … spiritual world evidenced through dreams, visions, and signs” (Battiste, 1986, p. 2). Thus, by way of oral traditions and histories, this accumulated knowledge has been passed on to subsequent generations, using oral narratives like sacred creation stories, songs, historical events, cultural traditions, environmental knowledge, educational lessons, and personal life experiences.
Heritage and Digital Media explores how community reframe their understanding and experience of heritage by opening up more participatory ways of interacting with heritage objects and concerns through existing social media platform through the idea of participatory culture. Jenkins et al. (2006) defines participatory culture as one in which not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.
The media workshop is a part of the research team's initiative and method to cultivate the habits of knowledge sharing and transfer of traditional and local knowledge of the indigenous communities in Sarawak. Through this workshop, participants will be exposed to content building exercise, photography practice and the usage of existing social media platform as their archives.
The first community workshop was organised for two Kenyah communities in Kedaya Telang Usan; 1. Long Silat and 2. Long San; on last August, 2016. Videos on the communities livelihood activities are available for viewing below.
Our next workshop with the community will be organised on January 2017. For more inquiries please contact us.
KEDAYA TELANG USAN 2016
A video of our journey to Kedaya Telang Usan last August/September for our third fieldwork and community workshop.
LETO MANYAM KEDAYA TELANG USAN
Basket making is a traditional practice in most of the indigenous community in Borneo. On our expedition to find the lost fort and the abandoned town of Long Akah, Christine Horn found an old basket and we brought it back to Long San for further investigation. Soon, the ladies from the community, identified the material and it was easily found around their forest. We then followed them to see, harvest and process the plant and we documented the process of the basket making. For more information click play.
This video is recorded and edited on the iPhone 6, by Aurelia Liu.
Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved. Kedaya Telang Usan & Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus.
THE EMPURAU HUNTER OF LONG SILAT
The Kenyah are also well known as skilled boatman and the river is the community's lifeline. River fishing is an integral part of their livelihood. In this short d.i.y. documentary, a team of local fisherman from Long Silat, together with our researcher Wilson Suai, went out to the rapids to show us their traditional fishing methods. This video is recorded and edited on the iPhone 6s, by Wilson Suai anak Moses Jantan.
Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved. Kedaya Telang Usan & Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus.
TIGA ALIK KITCHEN
Tiga Alik - Literally means "Good Taste" in Kenyah. This is a quick-draw video production by the project's Chief Investigator and filmmaker, Greg Wee to document the fantastic chilli paste recipe that comes from the Village Chief's longhouse kitchen in Long Silat. The chili paste is one of the Kenyah traditional condiments. This video is produce, directed, filmed and edited by Gregory Wee on a Samsung Note.
Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved. Kedaya Telang Usan & Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus.
PETER JUMAN
Peter Juman lives in Long San (Ulu Baram, Sarawak) and as with most of his community members, he is self sufficient. He fishes, hunts and builds his own house. In this audio recording, he shares a bit about his hunting experience, how to not get lost in the jungle, and the mysterious ways of the old of surviving in the jungle. Produced, directed, filmed and edited by Gregory Wee.
Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved. Kedaya Telang Usan & Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus.