Learning about orang asli culture

Learning about orang asli culture
The Star Online
By CHOW HOW BAN

THOSE who want to find out more about the daily life of the indigenous people in the Raub district can visit the Orang Asli Women Love Day 2014 that is on until Tuesday at Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur. 

Organised by Persatuan Wanita Berilmu Malaysia (PWBM) and The Thingz, the event will feature the social and cultural aspects of orang asli who live in 26 settlements in Batu Talam, Dong, Gali, Sega, Hulu Dong, Semantan Hulu and Teras. 

Visitors can see photographs of the people from the settlements and enquire about the community at the booths to be set up in front of Borders at Level 1, East Wing, of the shopping mall. 

Orang asli handicraft made by the community will also be on sale. 

The highlight will be a traditional sewang dance performance by a group of 15 orang asli dancers from the Satak settlement on Feb 11 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. 

PWBM programme director Susan Loo said the definition of love should not be confined to lovers but expanded to the care and concern for families and underprivileged people like the orang asli. 

“There is not much exposure on the orang asli culture. The objective is to share with our community the expression of love from the orang asli and to raise public awareness on the community,” she said during a recent interview. 

She said it would be interesting for the group of orang asli dancers to come to Kuala Lumpur. 

“Their visit will help promote the orang asli culture which we need to respect and feel proud of,” she said. 

Loo said PWBM had undertaken the Healthy Orang Asli Community Through Smart Partnership programme in which the association had five strategies like building healthy policies, forming partnerships with the private sector and government agencies and developing the orang asli’s skills to tackle orang asli issues. 

Our funds come from stakeholders who support us in terms of resources. For example, the Finnish Embassy provides solar electrification for the orang asli settlement in Raub, so there is no cash in our hands and we just focus on providing informal education in the settlement,” she said. 

According to PWBM’s statistics, 3,264 orang asli are living mostly in the interior, mostly on the outskirts of the Raub town centre. 

PWBM was set up in 2004 by a group of professional women to help women who have missed out on education opportunities during their childhood while The Thingz is a newly-established company which provides advice on collective interior design.