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.