Safeguarding Sarawak's Intangible Cultural Heritage
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SAFEGUARDING SARAWAK’S INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE: A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT APPROACH BY RASHIDAH BOLHASSAN A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington NEW ZEALAND 2018 0 i Abstract The importance of indigenous knowledge is receiving increasing recognition. Some cultural institutions (CI) are responsible for safeguarding indigenous knowledge and they acquire, document, and record works and images of indigenous knowledge which are contained or embedded in the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of their indigenous communities such as songs, rituals, arts, and medical wisdom. These items of ICH become ‘knowledge objects’ or ‘representations of knowledge’ when documented, which are unlikely to represent the indigenous people's knowledge holistically. Indigenous knowledge embedded in the ICH requires interpretations of the processes, rituals, experiences and practices from the indigenous communities. This interpretivist study, using a knowledge management (KM) lens, examined the knowledge sharing processes of the indigenous people of Sarawak, Malaysia, to understand the nature of indigenous knowledge and knowledge sharing from the perspectives of the indigenous people of Sarawak, in order to assist Sarawak’s cultural institutions in safeguarding their ICH. This research used narrative inquiry as a research methodology, acquiring stories from two clusters of participants, purposively selected from three ethnic groups and from cultural institutions in Sarawak’s Civil Service. This study used a knowledge management perspective in analysing the findings. The findings on the nature of indigenous people’s knowledge highlight a three-tiered knowledge system. The findings on the CIs’ safeguarding efforts elucidate the gap in the management of the CIs’ organizational knowledge on safeguarding. This study makes several important contributions. First, it contributes to the literature about the cultural protocol requirements of the indigenous people of Sarawak before they can share their knowledge. Secondly, this study elucidates the indigenous people’s knowledge as a three-tiered system which influences the people’s knowledge sharing ways. This system can be used to guide the CIs’ practices of safeguarding ICH. The third contribution of this study is that it expands our understanding of the complexity of indigenous knowledge, and creates a i conceptual model to aid and guide this understanding. Fourth, this study also contributes towards a greater understanding of the importance of the CIs including the indigenous peoples in the safeguarding practices in order to avoid the decontextualization of the ICH. Thus, this study confirms the importance of the participation of the indigenous people in the CIs’ practice of safeguarding ICH. Another contribution of this study, based on its findings, is the adaptation of three elements of a KM spectrum (Binney, 2001) for the CIs’ KM approach in managing their organizational knowledge on safeguarding ICH. ii iii Acknowledgements Securing the final full stop for this thesis has been quite a journey. The input into creating this thesis has not been mine alone. Just like the scaffolds that support the construction of a building so it stands strong to weather all types of calamities, here are my thanks and appreciation for all the support I received during my PhD journey. First and foremost, my utmost thanks to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Scholarship Foundation for supporting my study. My appreciation also goes to the Chairman of the Sarawak State Library, Tan Sri Hamid Bugo, for granting me time off work for my study leave. I also would like to acknowledge the VUW Post Graduate Student Association for their Excellence Award that enabled me to participate in a conference. I take this opportunity to give my appreciation to the late Professor Gary Gorman and to Dr. Brian Harmer who supervised me in the initial phase of my PhD journey. After they left VUW, Dr. Dan Dorner and Dr. Jocelyn Cranefield continued their great work, and I can’t thank them both enough for their support and guidance, and the tenacity to support me through tough times. Thank you, Dan and Jocelyn, for your patience and wisdom in weathering my PhD journey. To my fellow SIM PhD comrades, especially Marta, Namali, Saidatul, Nicole, Diane, Fahimi, Balsam and Geetha, you all proceeded well ahead, but you never left me behind with your support and encouragement. My appreciation also goes to the indigenous knowledge holders and the staff of the heritage institutions who participated and willingly shared their stories, knowledge and wisdom. And, to the wise and wonderful SIM staff who made my PhD journey easier, Jean, Usha, Wendy, Chris – you are the rock that supports SIM's PhD students! I also acknowledge the kindness of Judith and Amin Satem, Gillian Palmer and Anne Lai, Tim and Suria Burns, who are our guardian angels in Wellington. To all my colleagues at the State Library, thank you for all kinds of help you rendered to my family and I, especially when we were away in New Zealand. To my parents, Hj Bolhassan and Hjh Fauziah, my seven sisters, (especially Deng Fatimah who helped refine my graphics), and my in-laws, thank you for the unconditional scaffold support you all gave me. Finally, to my husband, Adi and my children, Adlie, Afiqh and Azzah, thank you for your love, understanding, and patience and for bearing with me. This thesis is dedicated to all of you, with love. iv v Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................. vi Figures and Tables ................................................................................................................................x Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research setting: Problem overview .................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 The roles of cultural institutions as agents to safeguard ICH ................................... 2 1.1.2 The nature of indigenous knowledge ................................................................................ 3 1.2 What is the problem? ................................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research site ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage ...................................................................................... 6 1.5 Knowledge management in cultural institutions .......................................................................... 9 1.6 Research objectives and research questions.................................................................................. 11 1.7 Significance of this research ................................................................................................................. 12 1.8 Researcher’s background ....................................................................................................................... 12 1.9 Definitions of key terms used in this study ..................................................................................... 13 1.10 Structure of the thesis............................................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 2 Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 17 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 17 2.2 Dimensions of Knowledge ..................................................................................................................... 19 2.3 Indigenous Knowledge ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.3.1 Characteristics of indigenous knowledge ....................................................................... 23 2.3.2 Intangible cultural heritage .................................................................................................. 26 2.3.3 Sacred and secret knowledge .............................................................................................. 28 2.3.4 Internal sharing of indigenous knowledge amongst indigenous people ........... 30 2.4 The curatorship of intangible cultural heritage in cultural institutions ......................... 33 2.5 Intangible cultural heritage in cultural institutions: Tensions in management .......... 36 2.6 Knowledge management in cultural institutions ........................................................................ 38 2.6.1 Knowledge sharing ................................................................................................................... 41 2.6.2 Knowledge