Rainforest World Music Festival - Santubong Sarawak Malaysia Borneo

Rainforest World Music festival 2015

Each Year now since 2010 I have been volunteering at one of the most amazing Music events on the world calender. Let me tell you a little of how I became involved with this Festival. How does one get involved in a music event half way around the world you may ask? Well this is how!

In 1999 I received an email from a Malaysian guy called Chris Wee who lived in Perth. He had seen Inka marka performing at the Queen victoria market in Melbourne and told me about an event he and some friends were trying to get up and running in Sarawak Malaysia.. Until this point, all I knew about Sarawak, only thatis that it was on the island of Borneo, and had an "interesting" history. Then  several months later I received an email from another Chris.. this time it was Chris Robles, who worked for STB, the Sarawak Tourism Board, who were trying to get a new festival up and running, featuring Indigenous musicians and music from around the world. At this stage of their career, Inka Marka were playing mainly traditional and indigenous music form Bolivia Peru and Ecuador, which fitted very well into the scheme of things. Chris mentioned to us that he had a Peruvian background, and that it was possibly his grandfather , or great Uncle who was the author of this particular piece of music. El Condor Pasa  . We were automatically amazed and thrilled to have met a descendant of this "anthem" of andean music. Contrary to popular belief, Simon & Garfunkle did not write this particular piece of music. They heard this music being played by a Peruvian group called Los Inkas in 1970,  and assumed that it was "folk music", thus using it without giving any credit or royalties to the original author. However, later in 1970, Alomía Robles' son Armando Robles Godoy, a Peruvian filmmaker, filed a copyright lawsuit against Simon on the grounds that the song had been composed by his father, who had copyrighted the song in the United States in 1933.Amends were made, royalties paid, but all rather too late, and again without the full respect that the original author should have been due. Another case of First world musicians taking advantage of Third world musicians and stealing their intellectual copyright.... but I digress! 

Sound check Floating Lake stage 2002
Left right: Jose, Michel, Andrew, John, Enrique.

So Inka marka first performed at the festival in 2000, The third year of its inception, and again in 2002. Extremely well received at both events, the combination of traditional bamboo instruments and the driving beats of the rhythmic bombo drum, struck a chord with the locals, and our fan base grew rapidly and exponentially..For the next few years, every event the Sarawak Students of Melbourne, the STB or any another Malayisan event held in our home city of Melbourne wasn't complete without a song or two & and appearance by Inka Marka. The Inka Marka guys had become the Aussie mascot 

( if you can call them that) for the Rainforest people residing in Melbourne 

Iban Long house Sikuri/ panflute workshop 2002

Things were quiet for several years, we kept in touch with the friends we had made that worked at the "Village" , the artistic and musical director of the Santubong Cultural village, Narawai Rashidi, Kebin Nila, Jun Lin, Yu Puay, Pauline Lim, the amazing indigenous people that worked at the village, ........and then we received a phone call from STB inviting the guys to come along and perform at the Ten Year Anniversary. We all jumped at the chance to connect up with everyone , and perform at what had become one of the top twenty-five World Music events on the planet! The Ten Year anniversary was to be the pick of the Bunch, the acts that were the most popular with the locals and organizers alike. Inka marka were very lucky to be included in this draw.

2007: Opening song was performed in traditional Andean Ponchos, OMG they must have roasted in that humidity.

Ponchos were removed after the first song, more Tropical attire from the Eastern jungles of Bolivia was revealed.

I took this picture from the crowd. It was touted that there were over 10,000 people attending this night. The crowd certainly were very well behaved, pushing and jostling to a minimum, the people of Kuching were a polite lot, and were happy to let this crazy foreigner zip around trying to take photos amongst the throng.

2007 left to right, wandering around the village..Enrique, Jerry Kamit, (Sape player extraordinaire) , Michel, Jose, & Jaime.

Jose face to face with fellow Pan flute aficionados from the Solomon Islands. the pan-flutes were almost identical, but that is where the similarities ended. 

Inka Marka's Jaime & Enrique joining in with the Solomon Islanders...

One of Malaysia Living legends of the Sape.

So The experience of being on tour with Inka Marka at one of the best run musical events I have attended with them any where in Asia or the Pacific...and the wonderful people I had met over the years, tempted me to "volunteer" at the festival some years later. I was chatting on line to one of the many "friends" that I had made at the festival.. Anita Siner. She had been Inka Marka's L.O. 

( liaison officer) in 2007 and we had become friends through modern technology.Through Anita, I met her sister Angela, and their close friends Sunita, Aline, and Steph, (as well as many others..) and we became known as the "sisters", mainly because Anita & Angela were sisters, and the others their close girl friends. I felt privileged to be included into the "group".That was the start.. I was hooked.. so from 210 through to this year 2015, I haven't missed a festival...either volunteering as an L.O. or being invited to be a workshop leader at the Iban Longhouse, leading three events each day over the three day event. It sounds easy to introduce a group of musos, give them the mic and let them go for it.! Not So.. You wold be surprised how many musos suffer from stage fright, or are shy, or prefer to let others do the talking ..some have had to be cajoled, others just love the mic, and its hard to wrench it back off them to close the 45 minutes workshop in time to prepare for the following one.! Some just sit there and look like stunned mullets! ( stunned fish hit by sound waves due to having dynamite thrown at them) Its all in good fun, and thank god I don't suffer from lack of words, or any form of shyness...as I just move into overdrive when nothing is forthcoming.. I like to do some research before each workshop..so at least I know what I have in front of me.. just in case I need to "intervene" !

The most EFFICIENT & Thorough STAGE manager I have ever met. Theo "the rock" van Eenbergen !
This man is one of the BEST stage managers I have  ever met.. if you are 30 seconds overtime..you are faded out..
if you dare to keep going.. well good luck.. you may never play again..!

Niall.Macaulay, the Sound guys' Sound guy! One of the best ! 

Angela, a fellow volunteer lisaon officer  keeping track of the "Rainforest drums" for the perfromers from the cultural village.

Formally known as the Schleppers, now the RAVENS..without these guys under the strict control of Putra ..the head Honcho, there would be no festival. these are the guys that cary the instruments, the sound equipment, the large trolleys of drums and speaker boxes..These guys volunteer, the work around the clock, they sleep at the site on venue, protecting the equipment and instruments 24/7..without these guys there would be no festival.  Putra has been in charge now of this part of the festival for over ten years, and without him, and his organizational skills, there would be complete chaos.! He knows exactly which group has what instruments needed on stage at what time..Not bad for a volunteer ! 

Several years ago, I had the pleasure to be the L.O. officer for this amazing group of young people. They had been performing together under a different name, but an unscrupulous manager had run off with the Money, the name of the band, and their CD's!

Not to be put off, these amazing young people, renamed themselves, and entered the local version of 'battle of the bands" to win a place and a short performance at the Rainforest World Music Festival.  

Wow what a talented bunch of young people.! The called themselves  Nading Raphsody and all of the band members are local Dyak, or indigenous rainforest headhunter people. Their music is both etherial and captivating at the same time. Their use of 4 part harmonies and perfect pitch is a combination unmatched in many musical traditions. The use of traditional instruments only complement the already driving force established by their rhythmic vocal chanting. Their female singer Opah, has a voice to be truly reckoned with.

Do not be surprised if in 5 or so years this band is performing on the word stage, Highlighting the plight of their idigneous origins and the shrinking rainforest where their culture barely survives today. Several of the band members come from small sub cultural groups of endangered language groups.. some like the Kayan, with less than 400 fluent language speakers left. 

Not only are these guys extremely talented, they are also very humble, and are willing to listen to advice from anyone offering to help. Although they did not appear at this years festival, they were hovering around, making themselves known, networking with foreign journalists and press, and getting to know the performers at this years festival.

This is a pic of moi, with my 2014 group Kalakan from the Basque area between Spain & France.

Not only were these guys talented, they were very polite and easy to work with. True professionals.

( its a shame I cant say that about all the bands I  have worked with over the years! ) 

These guys had been touring with Madonna for over a year, so there was no need for me to give them wake up calls, reminders, notes, etc.. They were very easy going and happy guys, enjoying their visit to the tropics and the rainforest for the first time. 

String instrument workshop Iban Longhouse circa 2013

As you an see from the pic, we had the whole globe covered. the instrument may not of changed much from region to region, but the manner in which it was played, differed greatly. From gentle strumming to stiff plucking... the Guitar, or the variant of it, is used in many diverse cultures. From Africa, to Mongolia, from the USA to many European countries, the only thing that differs really is the number of strings on the instrument and how many frets does it have.! This group of musicians  included Africans, Scots, a Russian, 2 Chinese, a Mongolian, and a Peruvian. In the end, the only thing they could agree to play together was some American blues.. a music that was not native to any of them! 

Just loved these feet decorations from one of the guitarists in the workshop above ! 

Local Headhunter warrior...ready for action!

Steph & Wing Mee fellow L.O's 2014

Traditional Dance Workshop Iban Longhouse circa 2013

Traditional rainforest women wearing collars woven from small glass beads in traditional designs, designs that are often used in tattooing & body adornments.This is a traditional dance where the women sit with long bamboo poles that they clash together and thump on the floor in time to the music. the unlucky male dancers have to step in between the poles and jump up and down to miss having their ankles severely bruised or broken by the poles. Not a dance for the feint of heart. 

Local Iban Warrior/ Musician/ dancer behind the stage, ready for the finale...

Local Malay cultural group from the  STB Cultural Village 

Balinese Keckak Dance.2015

Supper at 1am at the Hotel, where we get to unwind, compare notes and laugh a little .. from left to right, Hendricks, Compare extraordinaire, "Sister" Sunita, "Sister" Angela,STB staffer Quarmilla, "Sister "Anita. and "sister " Steph...So lucky to have met you all...

And lastly.. where else do you go to a festival and see signs warning you about falling coconuts!

 Without these people the festival wouldnt happen, left to right: 

Putra, Theo, Jun Lin, the Artisitc director, and another LO.! 

Me and one of the  "sisters" Sunita at one of the press conferences

 Hotel grounds, beach side: reserved for Musicians & managers...

 Hotel Pool... never got to have enough time to use it..

And last but not least, Mallika, Publisher from Singapore,Gracie V Geikie who authored the Rainforest World Music Festival book -The Sarawak Success Story and Jennifer Lau local journalist and radio announcer.

Hopping over to Hobart

The day started early, the alarm clock went off at 4.05am, I heard rustling from the next bedroom as Karen's alarm clock went off.. "Are you awake" she called. "5 minutes & we're out of here." I had slept the night  at her place, to make sure that we left on time. A 7am Jetstar flight left no room for error. Luckily the Freeway entrance was only a few blocks from Karen's home, and we were on our way. What a dark cold morning we had chosen to set off on our weekend adventure to Hobart. 

Barely hitting 4 degrees, the cars outside thermometer seemed to head south when he hit the freeway and were away form the city buildings. Melbourne's forcast for the weekend had been cold, rain, snow and ice in all the outer suburbs..heading further south to Tasmania that morning seemed almost a crazy idea, but we had bought the tickets and booked the accommodation. We were going , regardless !

The flight over was uneventful and short, both of us nodding off less than 5 minutes into the flight.

A few extra ZZZ's wouldn't go astray as our plans for the weekend did not include having much sleep.

Our plane landed on time, barely an hour in the air from point to point, and by the time we had walked through the airport we heard the landing call for the flight from Sydney, and the arrival of Karen's Oldest sister Sue, who was joining us on this weekend away. If the truth be known, it was I who was the interloper, having muscled in on a sisters trip away for the weekend. I was almost a sister.. so I figured I should be invited too! 

I wish I could say our taxi ride into the city from the airport was uneventful, but I had the feeling our Somali taxi driver had been a Formulae One Ace in another lifetime. As soon as he had our bags loaded into the cab, he took off with a screech of tires and a lead foot, heading for the short freeway ride into Hobart proper. As I looked over the shoulder of the driver from the back seat, my anxiety level rose as did his speedometer. When I saw the dial nudging 120 kms per hour in a 90 zone, I politely tapped him on the shoulder and suggested that it would be better to get to our destination alive, a little later than sooner than not at all. Hey gave us a big white toothed grin, and dropped the velocity slightly.. for a few minutes only, before pressing his foot to the metal again. Thank god the city of Hobart came into view, and as we crossed the wide expanse of a once notorious bridge, that had collapsed on Sunday 5 January 1975 when the  bulk carrier Lake Illawarra, had slammed into one of the bridge pylons, leaving cars dangling over the side of the bridge, and unaccounted for deaths .

I breathed a sigh of relief, when he finally pulled up outside our Hotel, the Welcome Stranger Hotel. For $35 per night per person, our  accommodation included an en-suite, extra blankets, (which would come in handy after our late night meanderings around town) , a small fridge, TV, Tea & coffee facilities etc, including a small fruit bowl and a plentiful supply of packet biscuits! What more could a girl wish for !

Although supposedly a Pokies Pub, the Welcome Stranger also doubled as a budget hotel/ backpackers.

The other guests appeared to be a motley crew of Seniors, Frustrated and rumpled parents of young children, and some rather dodgy looking middle aged men, that were either finishing off their night at this early opening establishment, or were starting very early for what could be a Big Day out !

The three off us dumped our bags in the baggage lockup ( which was a switchboard cupboard ) and headed off across the park to Salamanca Market . As we arrived the market was still setting up. It was barely 8:30 am, and our day already seemed to be long one. Coffee was our mission, and as Melbourne- ites , Coffee is an important morning ritual. We all have our secret Baristas, and coffee joint hangouts, and pickups locations for a take away.Would Hobart reveal a coffee making culture as good as what we were used to? Fortunately we were not disappointed but  finding the right snack for breakfast though proved a little harder.

Fortunately I was soon distracted by two crazy guys making honey roasted nuts.!

They handed a small plate of "FREE" samples, which we were happy to oblige by polishing them off very quickly. The market occupied our attention for several hours, with Sister Sue making a purchase of some beautiful green stone beads, which I promised to turn into a work of Jewelry for her some time in the future. There were many stalls of unusual merchandise to investigate, plus live music on several fronts,,... yes I had found some Buskers, but not the promised tunes of one of my favorite Hobart World music bands, Arauco Libre who are famous for having performed at Salamanca market since 1985. That day,  was their day off   ... I could not believe my disappointment, and Karen had to stop me from making a fool of myself and phoning them to ask them WHY?

This pic was taken from their Facebook page.. Not by me...

Both Karen & her sister were fascinated with the Bamboo socks, and ended up buying several pairs. I kept to the more Esoteric purchases , having come across an Author who was selling his self published books. I coudn't resist, anyone that knows me, knows that books are my weakness, ( 3 walls of my living room being covered in floor to ceiling book shelves ! )

I met and chatted to the Author, Jamie Maslin of the book of my Purchase. A well known travel and adventure writer, I chatted to him for awhile before making my purchase, and getting him to sign the book. I might have to write a review in another blog !

And finally the last pic of the morning, Salamanca market from The Hill !

Karen's Sister's friends. Heather & Arna came to meet us in the Salamanca Plaza just behind the market, ,down one of the many small winding lanes that lead away from the market behind the old Dock front shops.

We were greeted to the sound of Singing, as we had chosen the weekend of the Hobart Festival of voices. As we sat end chatted on the outside seating, we listened to several songs form a choir of women, who had also travelled from afar to be in Hobart that weekend.

The "friends" dragged sister Sue off with them, and Karen & I were left to our own devices !

A small walk around the historical area of the inner city seemed like a good idea, and we headed for the part of hobart known as Battery Point, not far from the place we had been all morning. This unusual apartment building located within an Old Grain Silo was fascinating.

Located to the South-East of the city towards the waterfront, visiting Battery Point is akin to stepping back in time , a truly historic area with many buildings which remain intact since their founding back in 1830. Dotted throughout with colonial-style and stone buildings and various charming little coffee shops and restaurants, it's easy to immerse yourself in the not so good, olden days of Hobart , and is best explored simply by taking a stroll through its streets, which we did, and took many pictures ! 

Cemetery views 

A beautiful view of the historical bridge.

There were many fascinating old streets and lanes, who you could easily think were scenes of old England, the motherland of the convict settlement taking place here in tasmania in the early 1800's.

We saw this CSIRO Antarctic explorer ship tied up at dock being restocked and fueled.

After our stroll we headed back to the hotel for a short siesta... well siesta on my part, Karen went off for a run, tracing her way back around the spit, the dock area, and finally the large Botanical style gardens across the road from the hotel. She was gone for over an hour, and when she returned she found me snoring in my bed, with all my clothes still on, just as she had left me.

It was a cold and bitter night in Hobart, but we were determined that it would not be wasted huddling up in the hotel room trying to keep warm. We had other plans.

Sue's friends had suggested one of the floating Fish and Ship stalls along the Docks that had an excellent reputation . We walked down there to the Dock front, across the park, with its mists rising from the ground, and along the wide empty street that earlier in the day had been one of the busiest and bustling markets I had seen in awhile. It was totally deserted, and quiet, the night time activities in the many bars and restaurants that now could be seen clearly once the market had gone were starting to stir into activity. We had our hearts set on fish and chips, and were not disappointed. We headed to the recommended location. YUm YUm is all I can manage to say. The fish was beautifully cooked,more like 4 star dining than a takeaway on the docks, the chips crisp and crunchy, and the Calamari rings, not out of some  pre frozen package but rather fresh and recently caught!  From their we headed to the Lark whiskey bar, and the warmth of a roaring open fire and some great live music. Life is good! 

The musician was an older gent, well experienced and a master of his instrument. I cant recall his name , but he had been around since the 60's playing up a storm of blues and jazz standards, with a voice sounding like gravel over whiskey. We chatted to him for a bit and he invited us along the next night to see him in another Pub, and we obliged.!

Next morning we awoke bight and early as we had to meet Sue & the friends on the Docks to take our "Ferry" to  MONA , Museum of Old and New ART  a short 30 minute boat trip across the harbour and the morning mists to the gallery.

The large catamaran was duly detailed with some "Bizarre" & Interesting " articles, including a row of fiberglass sheep which could be used as seats, a large sculpture of a full sized cow,

Once arriving at MONA, we had a short sharp step climb, ( leaving some of the faint hearted crying out for an elevator). We arrived at the front door, a large door surrounded by a mirrored building, reflecting back the sunlight, trees and views.

The surrounding gardens contained a multitude of different sculptural pieces, some seemed more like play ground toys than works of art, others had the feel of ancient & exotic buildings.

The details of this peice were just amazing

The snake wall

Karen posing ! 

Karen & Sue waiting for me to hurry up and take the picture so we could head out of the cold !

What else to do on a short sojourn to Hobart you may ask? .. Quick road trip to , Richmond one of the most historical and scenic town in Tassie, better still only a short half hour drive from Hobart.

After the trip, all there was left to do was head back to the hotel, collect our bags that we had again stashed into the storage room, and head to the airport.

What a great weekend it had been, cold but mostly fine.. Our Plane flight back to OZ, was uneventful, flying high above the impending storm that was Melbourne.! We landed in the rain, heavy and oppressing, We were back home. HELLO MElbourne !