Praise for bead-ownership certification

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/11/19/sarawak/7458166&sec=sarawak

Friday November 19, 2010

Praise for bead-ownership certification

By DIANA ROSE
drose@thestar.com.my


THE pioneering effort of the Kelabit community of Bario Highlands to authenticate their bead collection as treasured heirloom with the issuance of ownership certificates deserves praise and should be emulated by other communities.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said that beads were considered as among mankind’s most durable ornaments.

“One can say that beads belonging to a particular community mirror the culture of that community. They tell us a great deal about the social, political, economic and religious lives of the community concerned.

“It is indeed an appropriate move to preserve the heirlooms as part of the community’s material cultural heritage,” he said at the launch of the Kelabit Beads Certification ceremony organised by the Beads’ Committee of the Wanita Rurum Kelabit Sarawak in Miri on Wednesday night.

About 30 mothers from the highlands received beads ownership certificates from Dr Chan at the event themed Celebrating Our Mothers Beads of which Datuk Lorna Enan Muloon was the patron.

At the event, Dr Chan was officially accepted as a member of the Kelabit community after he was garlanded with a priceless Kelabit bane (bead necklace) and given the name Mayung Balang, meaning Tiger Slayer in the Kelabit dialect.

At the event, he reiterated his suggestion to Sarawak Museum to look into the setting up of a mini beads showcase area in Miri.

Meanwhile, Lorna, in her message in the souvenir programme for the event, said that beads were highly-valued heirlooms and heritage of Sarawak’s indigenous people who were regarded as the bead experts of Borneo.

On the ownership certification, she hoped it would assist in efforts to promote the beads of Sarawak in Malaysia and the rest of the world.

More than 500 guests attended the event.

Adding merriment was a fashion show displaying ways to accessorise beads and a performance by upcoming Kelabit singers Sharon Lugun and Sarah Gala.

The event’s organising chairperson Lucy Bulan, who is also the Wanita Rurum Kelabit Sarawak deputy chairperson, briefed the diners on the types of beads of the Kelabit community.