Borneo Cultural Festival

The Sibu Borneo Cultural Festival lasted for about a couple of weeks ending yesterday 15 July 2012. The town square in front oof Wisma Sanyan was set as the venue. There were lots of stalls representing the main ethnic groups around the Sibu and surrounding divisions.

I and a bunch of staff from the OT went to see the event on Saturday, the day before the closing ceremony and the finale of the Kumang and Keling competition. Unfortunately my patience ran out before the results of the said competitions were announced as the speeches by several “Yang Berhormat’s” (members of parliaments) who seemed to enjoy the sound of their own voices too much took too long.

There were lots of food as well. However, they did seem rather expensive for the tiny portions that were served.

Initially I went to the festival site rather early during the day. Apparently nothing was to happen until sunset so I went back home and got myself some sleep.

There were 3 stages set up – Dayak, Melayu-Melanau, and Chinese (not specifically Foochow though) around the town square. Different performances were presented throughout the duration of the week but I was too busy to actually go see any one of them before Saturday night.

Some explanation might be warranted before I further use the word Keling especially in Malaysia. Rest assured that in Sarawak it has absolutely none of the racist connotation that it might have back in KL. However, since I can’t be asked to write it up myself (at the risk of getting it wrong), you can read all about it here.

I initially thought that these tattoos were for real (in which case it would’ve been totally awesome!). However upon closer inspection it was evident that perhaps more than a couple of marker pens were involved. Kak Burak said that a real Keling wouldn’t have that many tattoos on him anyway. The number of tattoos on a warrior is related to the number of heads he would’ve taken.

Apparently most of these guys were army guys from the nearby camp

  Some of the contestants were more than eager to have their photos taken – which was great for me!

There was also a fancy dress / fashion show competition going on. I don’t know who won it but this sunflower girl was my favourite

Anis, Nurul and Pauline - I don’t actually make it a habit of ferrying girls around and taking their photos here in Sarawak... honestly I don’t

This Borneo Cultural Festival thingy is held every year around July so there will be another one next year as well. For the people of Sibu (where hardly anything ever happens) this event is considered to be kind of a big deal.