Need to mark cultural sites fast

The Borneo Post

4/4/08

Need to mark cultural sites fast

By Puvaneswary Devindran and Leyana Talif

KUCHING: There is a dire need to speed up efforts to mark the cultural sites in the Kelabit Highlands or they may get trampled upon unknowingly when development takes place in the area.

Researcher Sarah L Hitchner said several things need to happen to avert this, like getting the Global Positioning System (GPS) points of the cultural sites so that Forest Department Sarawak could insert them into maps.

According to her these maps will make sure that logging activities, for example, will not intrude into the demarcated areas.

"So there will be record of where the sites are on the map besides demarcations on the ground," she told reporters after giving a heritage talk entitled "The Living Kelabit Landscape- Documenting and Preserving The Cultural Sites of the Kelabit Highlands" at the state Museum here yesterday.

She could not say how many cultural sites in the highlands had been bulldozed as she had not visited these areas.

"I hear a lot of this (destruction) has happened to sites which I have not visited, so it's mostly hearsay…I can't confirm anything," said the researcher who has spent about two years learning about and living in the Kelabit Highlands.

Nonetheless, she pointed out that the Kelabit people knew the importance of marking the cultural sites there and had submitted proposals to get funding to do this.
She said the people there wanted the demarcations done but they needed money to buy the material and transport them there.

According to her, the Kelabits had even requested for assistance from the US Embassy and it went through a channel with other applicants for the other cultural preservation projects.

However, their request did not get through the first time probably because the proposal was not specific enough, she said, adding the proposal had been sent for the second time.

Hitchner said the people were also looking at different options on how to get the funding and these included the possibility of raising money within the Kelabit community itself.

On the marking efforts, Hitchner said International Timber Trade Organisation (ITTO) had done some considerable amount of work to mark the cultural sites there.

She said ITTO projects had been able to put up some yellow plaques and red paint and tape in some places which she deemed as 'a good start to many more'.

She said that cultural sites, many of which could be easily missed given the overgrown shrubs, should be fenced up and the areas within them cleared.

"Well, I think the process of documentation has started but there's still a lot more that needs to be done," she added.

Meanwhile, Hitchner passionately talked about the unique culture and history of the Kelabit people.

Her talk also covered the importance of the cultural sites in Pa' Lungan.

She touched on the theoretical framework of her research which touched on the historical ecology of anthropogenic landscape, political ecology of conservation and the participatory/emancipatory resarch methods.

The doctoral candidate from University of Georgia, USA also stressed that archaeological excavation, collection of cultural artefacts by locals, logging and also clearing of forest for agricultural purposes could pose grave threats to the sanctity of the cultural sites.

Some 50 people attended the heritage talk which was organised by State Museum Department together with Angkatan Zaman Mansang.