Universiti Malaya Community Engagement Centre (UMCares)
Compilation of Mah Meri Mask Stories Recordings from Sg. Bumbun, Carey Island
The Compilation of Mah Meri Mask Stories Recordings from Sg. Bumbun, Carey Island Community Project successfully recorded 61 mask stories in the Mah Meri language. Two informants, Mr. Samri A/L Abdul Rahman and Mr. Kemi Bin Khamis, assisted with the recording of the oral tradition. A forum with nine Mah Meri carvers was held on 24 November but only a second version of Moyang Sembuar by Mr Khamis bin Belon was added to the existing collection. The other 8 carvers did not have any stories to add either although they still carve masks on consignment. This is perfectly why the project was crucial – many elder storytellers have stopped storytelling and the younger carvers did not keep the stories. The Community Day on 16 April 2018 that officially launched by Dato’ Azlam Shah Alias, Advisor of UMCares, marked the end of this project.
Thirty Mah Meri schoolchildren from SK Sg. Bumbun and SK. Sg Judah participated in storytelling with the two informants. This was the main group activity to expose them to two stories from the storybook collection written by the Principal Investigator, Associate Professor Dr Faridah Noor Mohd Noor as told by the informants, Mr. Samri and Mr. Kemi. More importantly it was to introduce the art of storytelling to the future generation so that they can co0ntinue telling the stories from their cultural heritage and share them with their family and schoolmates. The special day ended with prize giving to winners of colouring and jigsaw puzzle competitions and presentation of two lab tops donated by Datuk Azlam to the Tok Batin Sidin anak Bujang and the Chairman of JKKOA, Mr. Azman bin Sap. A set of storybooks were donated to each library of the schools and Tok Batins of both villages. A total of 83 participants joined the Community Day with the support of the Museum of Asian Arts, UM and JKKOA. It may have ended in just one day but its impact on the community is in the long-run.
Project information
Project Execution: 9 months
Location: Sungai Bumbun, Pulau Carey, Selangor
Contributions from industries: RM 3,008
Numbers of Community benifited: 125 people
Output of the project
(All the above to be submitted to UMCIC for copyright)
Future Enhancement
Storytelling of oral tradition can be proposed to be implemented as co-curricular activity at the two primary schools that participated at the storytelling sessions on Community Day. Both POL and Malay can be used so that Mah Meri children and their friends can participate in storytelling as a communicative activity.
Last Update: 13/06/2022
