Report: revisualising the Baram: Photographs from the A.C. Haddon collection (1898-1899) workshop, Marudi, 8 August 2009.

Report: revisualising the Baram: Photographs from the A.C. Haddon collection (1898-1899) workshop, Marudi, 8 August 2009. A hundred and two years ago, a small party of Cambridge scholarsled by the anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon arrived in Sarawak asguests of Charles Hose, Resident of the Baram District. During theirstay, they took hundreds of photographs of the people and places of theBaram and the surrounding regions, including Limbang, Brunei andKuching. The collection formed a vivid and fascinating visual record ofturn-of-the-century Sarawak, encompassing images of native communities,longhouses, ritual practices, riverscapes, Brooke rule, and the famousMarudi Peace Conference of 1899. Since then, these photographs haveremained in storage at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeologyand Anthropology (MAA), barely known and only sparingly used. With funding and support from MAA's Crowther-Beynon Fund andthe Firebird Foundation, USA, this slice of Sarawak's history hasnow been returned to the areas and communities in which it was made. On8 August 2009, a workshop was convened in Marudi to mark the transfer of316 digital and print copies of the Haddon photographic collection tothe Baram Regional Museum (a branch of the Sarawak Museum). The one-dayevent brought together over thirty members of the Orang Ulu community aswell as other interested observers from across Sarawak to scrutinize anddiscuss the images. It featured a small exhibition of about a hundredphotographs, most of which were divided into themed categories:"People," "Life in the longhouse,'" "Dailyactivities," "Ritual life," "Places, spaces andlandscapes," and "The Marudi Peace Conference." Workshopproceedings opened with a lecture on the historical context ofHaddon's visit and an overview of the collection by Cambridgeanthropologist Liana Chua, who had catalogued the images in 2007 andlater arranged their transfer to Sarawak. This was complemented by twopapers delivered by Ipoi Datan, Director of the Sarawak Museum--one (onbehalf of Charles Leh) on the history of Fort Hose, which now houses theBaram Regional Museum, and the other on cultural sites in the BaramDistrict. Jayl Langub of UNIMAS brought things to a conclusion with apresentation on the Mamat ritual paintings of noted Kenyah artist JalongLiban [see Langub and Rousseau, "'Ten Kenyah paintings givento the Sarawak Museum," BRB, 37(2006): 195-216]. All the sessionswere accompanied by lively question-and-answers and open discussions. A key achievement of the workshop was to garner valuableinformation--hitherto lacking in MAA's records--about the people,places and events shown in the photographs. Participants' localknowledge and memories were fully tapped as they helped to identityvarious locations, correct mistakes, and pad out accounts of specificepisodes and activities. Animated debates over the origins and meaningsof specific corporate labels, such as "Sebop" and"Madang," were sparked by some of the pictures as well as byreferences to Haddon's own records of the trip. Other imagesprovoked commentaries on social and political relations under the BrookeRaj (1841-1946): a photograph of longhouse denizens plying an unwillingMuslim visitor with alcohol, for example, prompted reflections on theconstant ethnic interaction that has historically taken place in thearea, while stiffly-posed anthropometric shots generated a dialogueabout the power imbalances inherent in Haddon's visit. Finally, itwas interesting that the sessions also precipitated broader questions ofhow to preserve and promote those aspects of "Orang Uluculture" which were so clearly manifested in the photographs, butso rapidly disappearing in contemporary Sarawak. Among the possibilitiesmooted were the restoration of old colonial buildings as culturalheritage centers and the establishment of "living museums" inBaram communities as a means of preserving traditional knowledge andskills. The potential for using old photographs as forms of documentaryevidence in contemporary land disputes was also raised. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Feedback from the participants was roundly positive, with severalof them being spurred into doing their own research on the topicsdiscussed. The physical and digital copies of Haddon's collectionare currently being held in the Sarawak Museum's offices inKuching; it is anticipated that they will eventually be enlarged andassembled as an exhibition in the Baram Regional Museum. The possibilityof making these images digitally accessible has also been raised,although no concrete steps have been taken yet towards this end.Finally, in what we hope will be the start--or re-establishment--of along-term relationship between Sarawak and Cambridge, the Sarawak Museumwill continue to compile and convey future feedback on the images backto MAA. Acknowledgements The workshop was jointly organized with Ipoi Datan and the staff ofthe Sarawak Museum, and Jayl Langub of the Institute of East AsianStudies, UNIMAS. The entire photographic repatriation project would nothave been possible without financial aid from the Crowther-Beynon Fund,University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and theFirebird Foundation, USA; I particularly appreciated the support ofAnite Herle and George Appell. Enquiries about the Haddon collection canbe addressed to me at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, CB2 ITA,United Kingdom or lclc2@cam.ac.uk. Liana Chua Gonville & Caius College University of Cambridge Cambridge, CB2 1TA UK