Locals shying away from international conference in Miri

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/9/23/sarawak/7083536&sec=sarawak

Thursday September 23, 2010

Locals shying away from international conference in Miri

By DIANA ROSE
drose@thestar.com.my


Foreigners are showing more interest in the upcoming two-day Borneo International Beads Conference 2010 in Miri than locals.

Its organising director Heidi Munan said so far more than 60 people had registered for the conference on Oct 9 and 10 but most of them were foreign participants including from Australia, United States, England, India, Indonesia, Sabah and Brunei.

Heidi said this was the first time the conference is being organised in Malaysia.

“So far it has attracted many international participants but not the locals. Perhaps they (the locals) will show up at the last minute,” she told StarMetro yesterday.

Heidi, who was in Miri to finalise preparation for the event, said the organiser was expecting about 100 participants.

She appealed to ethnic-based associations representing the respective local communities, particularly the Orang Ulu, Melanau, Bidayuh and Iban to send representatives to the conference.

“Indeed it will be quite a show,’’ promised Heidi whose passion for beads started when she first set foot in Sarawak in 1965 and is credited with authoring a book entitled ‘Beads of Borneo’ which was published in 2005.

Heidi said the objectives of the conference were to preserve the Sarawak bead tradition, facilitate creative interaction between local artisans, designers and their international counterparts, and improve the earning power of home-based cottage workers, particularly involving bead-making in the state.

The conference is also to provide an avenue for beads enthusiasts to exchange information and acquire knowledge on these tiny jewels.

Ten beads specialists have been invited to share their knowledge and expertise at the conference.

Among them is American Jamey Allen, a researcher, lecturer and specialist on antique beads, especially multi-layered Rosetta beads who will present a paper entitled ‘The Heirloom Beads of Island South-East Asia’.

Others are Australian National University’s Dr Cheah Hwei Fen, an expert on Nyonya beadworks, who will present a paper entitled ‘Beadworks (Penang, Singapore, Malacca); highly-respected antique and modern bead jewellery designer from Indonesia Yekti Kusmortono; Sarawak Museum director Ipoi Datan; Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus Eileen Paya Foong; Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s Poline Bala, Orang Asli specialist Reita Rahim and Standards Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia’s Nor Azmah Abdul Kadir.

Dr Cheah will share visuals on Nyonya beadwork and draw comparisons with dress, costumes, jewellery and interior decorations to explore Peranakan Chinese ideas about fashion, identity, change and women’s lives in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Kusmortono will touch on beads as an Indonesian heritage and present a paper on ‘From Shards to Art Antique Beads, Recycled Glass’.

Participation fee is RM480 per person and RM380 per person for block-booking.