I live in Kuching , Sarawak. I'm an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Borneo Studies. I'm currently researching the forts of the Upper Baram River as part of a UNIMAS-led project, Forts and the People: Social History and Collective Memory of Local Communities in Sarawak (GL/F06/FORT/2016) I'm also writing up material collected for my PhD which was awarded in 2018, oral histories of a longhouse. In the meantime, I enjoy opportunities for disseminating my research with local communities and universities at conferences and workshops.I hope to put the video of the narration Long Peluan oral histories together as part of a bigger screenplay. I am also researching Sarawak objects in museums outside Sarawak collected in the era of peace-making. This research was begun in 2017 during my time as a Research Fellow at the Sarawak Museum. Phone: +60138112833
There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated thr... more There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated through stone graves, menhirs and stone mounds. Recollections of histories of these sites by the local Christian Kelabit population are hazy, and until the recent resurgence of interest in the stone culture in the area, people were reluctant to visit these places as they were associated with death and the spirit world. A contemporary Kelabit narrative outlines previous occupation of the area with the Ngurek as ‘our people’, and paradoxically states that the Kelabit alone built the stone monuments. This in line with other claims in the highlands of an exclusive association with the stone culture, and can be understood as one of latent indigeneity as it highlights attachment to territory and excludes other groups. Parallel Ngurek narratives in circulation link their settlement in the Kelapang to a time when the Ngurek had supernatural power that enabled them to cut stone. These stories also explain the loss of this supernatural power, the decline of the culture of stone grave and mounds, and the reduction of their population after the Ngurek community left the area. Exploring the gap between parallel accounts of histories in the area creates a future opening for a more dynamic heterogeneous history of the Kelabit highlands and the stone culture. This indicates a need for reconsideration of notions of indigeneity and identity.
A plaque commemorating the Allied Z Special operatives in Borneo and their local counterparts dur... more A plaque commemorating the Allied Z Special operatives in Borneo and their local counterparts during the Japanese Occupation of Sarawak 1941-1945, is now on display at the Borneo Cultures Museum. A replica of this plaque was placed in Bario in 2013. Two other wooden plaques were made as memorials of operations of the Z Special Unit working behind Japanese lines training local guerrillas during the Japanese Occupation. This paper traces the background and history of each of these four plaques, which were erected at a time when there was no circulation of written print in the interior of Sarawak.
Abstract: How did the Penan of Sarawak, east Malaysia stop their nomadic life and become settled ... more Abstract: How did the Penan of Sarawak, east Malaysia stop their nomadic life and become settled farmers and retain their identity as Penan? this article presents the memories of settled Kelabit and the neighbouring Penan of a time when they were reluctant to meet one another, when the Penan were nomadic. their lifestyles were very different: the Penan were wary of outsiders, and the Kelabit children were scared of the Penan. the processes which brought about change between these two groups were motivated by the Kelabit urge to evangelise to the Penan. they began meeting and sharing food. Gradually, the Kelabit farmers encouraged the Penan ‘to become like us’, to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang and become Christians like them. eventually the Penan became successful padi-farmers and made their livelihood from both the forest where they hunted and foraged and from the padi fields where they grew rice. However, this did not lead to the assimilation of the Penan by the Kelabit but to a greater deliberate expression of Penan identity. this appears to be in keeping with phenomena elsewhere in the world, which suggest that when an ethnic group is under threat from external forces and assimilation, people assert their ethnic identity.
Borneo at Heart. A Tribute to Bernard Sellato, Argonaut of the Tropical Rainforest., 2022
As pointed out by Graeber, humans organize their lives around the pursuit of something called val... more As pointed out by Graeber, humans organize their lives around the pursuit of something called value. A chance performance of a Kelabit song opens a window onto Kelabit concepts of value. For the Kelabit this is being doo’, that is, being in a state of good- ness, worth and honour. This paper explores two ways of defining value through the Kelabit concept of doo’. One application of the term relates to the “good” people, lun doo’, who inherit their status at birth. The other application refers to the shifting value of doo’ -ness, which signifies status that is achieved through hu- man effort, through accumulating enough rice and rice beer to host a death-feast. The process of achievement through effort is expressed in Kelabit in terms of movement, iyuk. in the same way as “what value does” provides a bridge between the meanings of value and values, the Kelabit category of movement, iyuk, pro- vides the framework of looking at doo’-ness as value in terms of relationship and process. Ultimately, the circulation of the Song of Dayang provides an instrument of movement (iyuk) for reshap- ing the creation of value. This takes place through the persona of Dayang in the song, who identifies the conventional mechanisms used to evaluate the achievement of doo’-ness through the eyes of the community and demonstrates how these can be subverted to create new meanings.
Mashman, Valerie, and Nayoi, Patricia. 2015. “The Bidayuh of Sarawak, Gender Spirituality and Swiddens” in Growing Voices from the Forest – Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming. Malcolm Cairns, Editor. RFF Press , Washington DC: pp.958-971.
The Bidayuh at Kampong Gayu: Background The Bidayuh, a comparatively egalitarian society, were am... more The Bidayuh at Kampong Gayu: Background The Bidayuh, a comparatively egalitarian society, were among the earliest inhabitants of Sarawak, Borneo and their oral histories go back to over one thousand five hundred years (Nais 1989, Aman 1989). Their population in Sarawak stands at around 200,000 1 and they live in Malaysia's Kuching division and are divided into several linguistic subgroups , which share similar cultural affinities; there are linguistically similar counterparts in West Kalimantan. The study on which this chapter is based, was conducted in Kampong Gayu, a community consisting of some nearly two hundred households, in the Padawan area, between 1997 and the present. In the last fifty years, the village has encountered major changes as more than two generations have now attended primary and secondary school and there are also a number of university graduates from the village. In addition, the majority of the villagers have become Roman Catholic. The village has become connected by road to the state capital Kuching, some 60 km away, since the 1960s. This has meant both female and male householders commute to the city for wage labor and a transition has occurred from a subsistence economy to a cash economy.
The Kelabit are about to forget their past. This is because since embracing evangelical Christian... more The Kelabit are about to forget their past. This is because since embracing evangelical Christianity in the 1940s, they no longer recite epics, legends or narratives relating to warfare, headhunting and their previous belief-system. This thesis provides an unprecedented insight into Kelabit values and their worldview through the recital of three historical narratives from a longhouse on the edge of the Kelabit highlands, located in northern Sarawak, one of the East Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. The first narrative is about warfare and the migrations of lun tauh, “our people.” The second is about the life of government and the third story is about the life of Christian prayer. The aim of this study is to provide a context and understanding of the purpose of the headman-narrator in telling the narratives using an anthropological approach to deal with his subjectivity. The research problem is to establish the meanings of these three oral historical narratives, of three diff...
There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated th... more There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated through stone graves, menhirs and stone mounds. Recollections of histories of these sites by the local Christian Kelabit population are hazy, and until the recent resurgence of interest in the stone culture in the area, people were reluctant to visit these places as they were associated with death and the spirit world. A contemporary Kelabit narrative outlines previous occupation of the area with the Ngurek as ‘our people’, and paradoxically states that the Kelabit alone built the stone monuments. This in line with other claims in the highlands of an exclusive association with the stone culture, and can be understood as one of latent indigeneity as it highlights attachment to territory and excludes other groups. Parallel Ngurek narratives in circulation link their settlement in the Kelapang to a time when the Ngurek had supernatural power that enabled them to cut stone. These stories also explain the loss of this supernatural power, the decline of the culture of stone grave and mounds and the reduction of their population, after the Ngurek community left the area. Exploring the gap between parallel accounts of histories in the area creates a future opening for a more dynamic heterogeneous history of the Kelabit highlands and the stone culture. This indicates a need for reconsideration of notions of indigeneity and identity.
Resident Charles Hose was credited with “the true civilization of the Baram people.” However, a c... more Resident Charles Hose was credited with “the true civilization of the Baram people.” However, a careful examination of the role of Penghulu Tama Bulan Wang demonstrates that pacification of the Baram was achieved less by the mediation of Charles Hose and more by the role of local chiefs such as Penghulu Tama Bulan Wang. His source of power was the existing customary institution of chieftainship and the adat or system of customary law, which provided safeguards for preventing conflict, for making peace and creating alliances. The role of this local cultural component in establishment of the state of Sarawak has been underplayed in colonial accounts of peace-making and the contemporary written history of the state.
Exotic objects are often displayed in western museums for their powerful aesthetic rather than hi... more Exotic objects are often displayed in western museums for their powerful aesthetic rather than historical value because little is known regarding the provenance and history of the object. A chance encounter with a colleague’s photograph of a shield in the Vatican Anima Mundi Museum reveals a series of transactions. A trusted Madang (Badeng) chief Saba Irang gave a shield in 1899 to Resident Charles Hose to be presented to Rajah Charles Brooke as a sign of peaceful acceptance of Brooke Rule, in Sarawak, Borneo. This came after a series of uprisings, punitive expeditions, displacement and reconciliation. The context and act of giving this shield is examined in the context of peace- making and trade. This gift did not stay in Sarawak as a reminder of the relationship this chief had forged with the Rajah but disappeared only to be found exhibited in the Vatican Museum some 120 years later. A case is made for this object to be exhibited in Sarawak for its story to be told with the source community who have spent the intervening time straddling the borderlands in Borneo between Kalimantan Indonesia and Sarawak Malaysia, vying for recognition and their rights as citizens of the state of Sarawak. Their story on the borders of the state is encapsulated in the provenance of the shield and its presence in an exhibition in Sarawak can provide a voice for the telling of an alternative history of peace-making from the margins.
There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated thr... more There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated through stone graves, menhirs and stone mounds. Recollections of histories of these sites by the local Christian Kelabit population are hazy, and until the recent resurgence of interest in the stone culture in the area, people were reluctant to visit these places as they were associated with death and the spirit world. A contemporary Kelabit narrative outlines previous occupation of the area with the Ngurek as ‘our people’, and paradoxically states that the Kelabit alone built the stone monuments. This in line with other claims in the highlands of an exclusive association with the stone culture, and can be understood as one of latent indigeneity as it highlights attachment to territory and excludes other groups. Parallel Ngurek narratives in circulation link their settlement in the Kelapang to a time when the Ngurek had supernatural power that enabled them to cut stone. These stories also explain the loss of this supernatural power, the decline of the culture of stone grave and mounds, and the reduction of their population after the Ngurek community left the area. Exploring the gap between parallel accounts of histories in the area creates a future opening for a more dynamic heterogeneous history of the Kelabit highlands and the stone culture. This indicates a need for reconsideration of notions of indigeneity and identity.
A plaque commemorating the Allied Z Special operatives in Borneo and their local counterparts dur... more A plaque commemorating the Allied Z Special operatives in Borneo and their local counterparts during the Japanese Occupation of Sarawak 1941-1945, is now on display at the Borneo Cultures Museum. A replica of this plaque was placed in Bario in 2013. Two other wooden plaques were made as memorials of operations of the Z Special Unit working behind Japanese lines training local guerrillas during the Japanese Occupation. This paper traces the background and history of each of these four plaques, which were erected at a time when there was no circulation of written print in the interior of Sarawak.
Abstract: How did the Penan of Sarawak, east Malaysia stop their nomadic life and become settled ... more Abstract: How did the Penan of Sarawak, east Malaysia stop their nomadic life and become settled farmers and retain their identity as Penan? this article presents the memories of settled Kelabit and the neighbouring Penan of a time when they were reluctant to meet one another, when the Penan were nomadic. their lifestyles were very different: the Penan were wary of outsiders, and the Kelabit children were scared of the Penan. the processes which brought about change between these two groups were motivated by the Kelabit urge to evangelise to the Penan. they began meeting and sharing food. Gradually, the Kelabit farmers encouraged the Penan ‘to become like us’, to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang and become Christians like them. eventually the Penan became successful padi-farmers and made their livelihood from both the forest where they hunted and foraged and from the padi fields where they grew rice. However, this did not lead to the assimilation of the Penan by the Kelabit but to a greater deliberate expression of Penan identity. this appears to be in keeping with phenomena elsewhere in the world, which suggest that when an ethnic group is under threat from external forces and assimilation, people assert their ethnic identity.
Borneo at Heart. A Tribute to Bernard Sellato, Argonaut of the Tropical Rainforest., 2022
As pointed out by Graeber, humans organize their lives around the pursuit of something called val... more As pointed out by Graeber, humans organize their lives around the pursuit of something called value. A chance performance of a Kelabit song opens a window onto Kelabit concepts of value. For the Kelabit this is being doo’, that is, being in a state of good- ness, worth and honour. This paper explores two ways of defining value through the Kelabit concept of doo’. One application of the term relates to the “good” people, lun doo’, who inherit their status at birth. The other application refers to the shifting value of doo’ -ness, which signifies status that is achieved through hu- man effort, through accumulating enough rice and rice beer to host a death-feast. The process of achievement through effort is expressed in Kelabit in terms of movement, iyuk. in the same way as “what value does” provides a bridge between the meanings of value and values, the Kelabit category of movement, iyuk, pro- vides the framework of looking at doo’-ness as value in terms of relationship and process. Ultimately, the circulation of the Song of Dayang provides an instrument of movement (iyuk) for reshap- ing the creation of value. This takes place through the persona of Dayang in the song, who identifies the conventional mechanisms used to evaluate the achievement of doo’-ness through the eyes of the community and demonstrates how these can be subverted to create new meanings.
Mashman, Valerie, and Nayoi, Patricia. 2015. “The Bidayuh of Sarawak, Gender Spirituality and Swiddens” in Growing Voices from the Forest – Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming. Malcolm Cairns, Editor. RFF Press , Washington DC: pp.958-971.
The Bidayuh at Kampong Gayu: Background The Bidayuh, a comparatively egalitarian society, were am... more The Bidayuh at Kampong Gayu: Background The Bidayuh, a comparatively egalitarian society, were among the earliest inhabitants of Sarawak, Borneo and their oral histories go back to over one thousand five hundred years (Nais 1989, Aman 1989). Their population in Sarawak stands at around 200,000 1 and they live in Malaysia's Kuching division and are divided into several linguistic subgroups , which share similar cultural affinities; there are linguistically similar counterparts in West Kalimantan. The study on which this chapter is based, was conducted in Kampong Gayu, a community consisting of some nearly two hundred households, in the Padawan area, between 1997 and the present. In the last fifty years, the village has encountered major changes as more than two generations have now attended primary and secondary school and there are also a number of university graduates from the village. In addition, the majority of the villagers have become Roman Catholic. The village has become connected by road to the state capital Kuching, some 60 km away, since the 1960s. This has meant both female and male householders commute to the city for wage labor and a transition has occurred from a subsistence economy to a cash economy.
The Kelabit are about to forget their past. This is because since embracing evangelical Christian... more The Kelabit are about to forget their past. This is because since embracing evangelical Christianity in the 1940s, they no longer recite epics, legends or narratives relating to warfare, headhunting and their previous belief-system. This thesis provides an unprecedented insight into Kelabit values and their worldview through the recital of three historical narratives from a longhouse on the edge of the Kelabit highlands, located in northern Sarawak, one of the East Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. The first narrative is about warfare and the migrations of lun tauh, “our people.” The second is about the life of government and the third story is about the life of Christian prayer. The aim of this study is to provide a context and understanding of the purpose of the headman-narrator in telling the narratives using an anthropological approach to deal with his subjectivity. The research problem is to establish the meanings of these three oral historical narratives, of three diff...
There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated th... more There are traces of early settlement in the lower Kelapang River in Sarawak, Borneo indicated through stone graves, menhirs and stone mounds. Recollections of histories of these sites by the local Christian Kelabit population are hazy, and until the recent resurgence of interest in the stone culture in the area, people were reluctant to visit these places as they were associated with death and the spirit world. A contemporary Kelabit narrative outlines previous occupation of the area with the Ngurek as ‘our people’, and paradoxically states that the Kelabit alone built the stone monuments. This in line with other claims in the highlands of an exclusive association with the stone culture, and can be understood as one of latent indigeneity as it highlights attachment to territory and excludes other groups. Parallel Ngurek narratives in circulation link their settlement in the Kelapang to a time when the Ngurek had supernatural power that enabled them to cut stone. These stories also explain the loss of this supernatural power, the decline of the culture of stone grave and mounds and the reduction of their population, after the Ngurek community left the area. Exploring the gap between parallel accounts of histories in the area creates a future opening for a more dynamic heterogeneous history of the Kelabit highlands and the stone culture. This indicates a need for reconsideration of notions of indigeneity and identity.
Resident Charles Hose was credited with “the true civilization of the Baram people.” However, a c... more Resident Charles Hose was credited with “the true civilization of the Baram people.” However, a careful examination of the role of Penghulu Tama Bulan Wang demonstrates that pacification of the Baram was achieved less by the mediation of Charles Hose and more by the role of local chiefs such as Penghulu Tama Bulan Wang. His source of power was the existing customary institution of chieftainship and the adat or system of customary law, which provided safeguards for preventing conflict, for making peace and creating alliances. The role of this local cultural component in establishment of the state of Sarawak has been underplayed in colonial accounts of peace-making and the contemporary written history of the state.
Exotic objects are often displayed in western museums for their powerful aesthetic rather than hi... more Exotic objects are often displayed in western museums for their powerful aesthetic rather than historical value because little is known regarding the provenance and history of the object. A chance encounter with a colleague’s photograph of a shield in the Vatican Anima Mundi Museum reveals a series of transactions. A trusted Madang (Badeng) chief Saba Irang gave a shield in 1899 to Resident Charles Hose to be presented to Rajah Charles Brooke as a sign of peaceful acceptance of Brooke Rule, in Sarawak, Borneo. This came after a series of uprisings, punitive expeditions, displacement and reconciliation. The context and act of giving this shield is examined in the context of peace- making and trade. This gift did not stay in Sarawak as a reminder of the relationship this chief had forged with the Rajah but disappeared only to be found exhibited in the Vatican Museum some 120 years later. A case is made for this object to be exhibited in Sarawak for its story to be told with the source community who have spent the intervening time straddling the borderlands in Borneo between Kalimantan Indonesia and Sarawak Malaysia, vying for recognition and their rights as citizens of the state of Sarawak. Their story on the borders of the state is encapsulated in the provenance of the shield and its presence in an exhibition in Sarawak can provide a voice for the telling of an alternative history of peace-making from the margins.
Uploads
Papers by Valerie Mashman
like us’, to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang and become Christians like them. eventually the Penan became successful padi-farmers and made their livelihood from both the forest where they hunted and foraged and from the padi fields where they grew rice. However, this did not lead to the assimilation of the Penan by the Kelabit but to a greater deliberate expression of Penan identity. this appears to be in keeping with phenomena elsewhere in the world, which suggest that when an ethnic group is under threat from external forces and assimilation, people assert their ethnic identity.
like us’, to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang and become Christians like them. eventually the Penan became successful padi-farmers and made their livelihood from both the forest where they hunted and foraged and from the padi fields where they grew rice. However, this did not lead to the assimilation of the Penan by the Kelabit but to a greater deliberate expression of Penan identity. this appears to be in keeping with phenomena elsewhere in the world, which suggest that when an ethnic group is under threat from external forces and assimilation, people assert their ethnic identity.