At the centre of the fringe

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THE Rainforest Fringe Festival had its debut this year, advertised as a “10-day spectacle in the heart of Kuching” from July 7-16, ending concurrently with the Rainforest World Music Festival (this year celebrating its 20th anniversary) from today until Sunday (July 14-16). I was invited to accompany the Kuching Express, comprising practitioners and lovers of the arts based in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore by the festival’s producer Joe Sidek, who is also the driving force behind the annual month-long Georgetown Festival, itself in its eighth year.

Having attended the two festivals, it’s clear that they draw on the best aspects that the cities have to offer: the venues of the exhibitions, discussions, concerts, shows, meals, and markets are carefully thought out to celebrate the urban geography and architecture that the cities’ histories provide.

In the case of the Rainforest Fringe, the majority of daily activities take place at the Old Courthouse, originally built in 1868 by the second Rajah of Sarawak as an administrative centre for the government of Sarawak and used for that purpose until 1973. Locals tell me that for some years the building was not well used and was associated with delinquency until its recent rehabilitation.

During the festival, the network of rooms was abuzz with people visiting the exhibits of a ridiculous concentration of photographers such as KF Wong and Jimmy Nelson, and artists including Raphael Scott Ahbeng, Alena Murang, and Kendy Mitot, encompassing paintings, pua kumbu textiles by Rumah Gareh, and installations showcasing the Sarawakian experience from multiple perspectives. Somehow, the works of the last two connected more viscerally here than when I saw them at the Manah exhibition at Galeri Petronas in Kuala Lumpur in February – and the artists themselves spoke more passionately about their conversations with elders or fellow tribesmen that inspired their art.

But my new favourite was the photography of Chien C Lee, comprising scenes of Bornean flora and fauna photographed from afar and up close: two reptiles battling each other, a perfectly camouflaged lizard, a Sunda clouded leopard snapped by a secret camera, mighty rivers coursing through unspoilt (for now) rainforest – accompanied by a personal narration of how long it took to capture a single picture of a particular primate.

The evening events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday again provided greater immersion into local culture. First, a ‘Harvesting the Wild’ dinner that made me fall in love with cangkuk manis (apparently known in English as sweet leaf), which I subsequently ordered at every restaurant after that. Second, a ‘Theatre of Clothes’ fashion show that drew heavily on the motifs of the innumerable tribes of Sarawak, including a topi tunjang woven to represent key aspects of Iban mythology. Third, a concert entitled Sada Kamek (our music) that began with Tony Eusoff singing an arrangement of ‘Better Man’ that included Sarawak’s most iconic stringed instrument (triggering the inevitable question: “sape Robbie Williams?”) before a performance by its master player Mathew Ngau alongside its most ardent proponent Alena Murang, followed by Pete Kallang, Noh Salleh and Dayang Nurfaizah. Open to the public, the multiracial audience, some wearing caps marked “Sarawak for Sarawakians” wildly greeted the musical spectacle combining Bidayuh, Kenyah, Kelabit and Malay origins.

But political undertones were evident throughout the weekend: not just in the hats and stickers featuring the Brooke-era flag on cars and motorbikes, but in the language of speeches that referred proudly to specific tribes, Sarawak and Borneo with nary a reference to Malaysia. Ironically, for those of us from Semenanjung (often uttered slightly derogatorily), it is precisely the strong Sarawakian identity with its celebration of all ethnic identities that we find so attractive, and want to export to West Malaysia (or re-export, as so many in the older generation recall the same spirit prevailing in the peninsula in the sixties and seventies).

Outside the official activities of the festival were many other memorable and educational asides, caused by the fact of being in Kuching: attending a secret concert by Zee Avi (and finally learning the true inspirations for ‘Kantoi’ and ‘Siboh Kitak Nangis’), being cajoled to playing the old Brooke anthem (‘Gone Forth Beyond the Sea’) by the great-great-grandson of its composer Ranee Margaret of Sarawak, and a tour of the islands and beaches whose beauty belie their once strategic, and continuing political, importance.

At a hidden stretch of pristine sand (devoid of footprints upon arrival) I heard rustling caused possibly by a Sunda clouded leopard and ran for my life. It emphasised the point that for all our extolments of Sarawak being the epitome of Malaysia, in so many ways, the ignorance of Semenanjung is matched only by the vastness of Borneo: certainly not at the nation’s fringe.

Tunku Zain Al-Abidin is founding president of Ideas.