DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR. 2012. V51. 40 The Impact of Che Wong Tribe Resettlement through Image Representation: The Documentation of Che Wong Tribe at Kuala Gandah, Lanchang Pahang Malaysia + Fadli Abdul Razak1 , Adzrool Idzwan Bin Ismail2, Kamarudzaman Bin Md Isa3, and Mustaffa Halabi Hj. Azahari4 1Art & Design, University Teknology MARA(UiTM), Malaysia Abstract. The Che Wong is one of the eighteenth original Orang Asli (aboriginal) people groups living in Peninsular Malaysia. They belong to the Senoi subgroup. The Che Wong is found in groups living near the villages of other races and also those still living in the tropical rainforest jungles. This research will focus specifically on Che Wong tribe living at Kuala Gandah near Lanchang, in the state of Pahang. Today the Che Wong lives predominantly in Government resettlement villages built in the year 2000. The core research question is whether this ethnic group of people still maintains their original cultural heritage even after the resettlement drive implement by the government. An investigation about the status of their cultural practices, art and heritages will be studied through participant-observation, documenting and preserving of evidence .The subjects will be interviewed and their daily routines will be recorded on camera. An Ethnography approach namely active participant observation will be using over a period of one-year study. The research findings will be beneficial to the local government and the young generations of Che Wong. Keywords: Che Wong, Resettlement, Image representation. 1. Introduction The Che Wong are one of the nineteen original Orang Asli people groups living in Peninsular Malaysia. They belong to the Senoi subgroup. The Che Wong are found in groups living near the villages of other races and those still living in the jungles. They are hunter-gatheres, and shift-cultivators. The outside world knows them as Che Wong, and they acknowledge this name in their dealing with outsiders, but among themselves they have no group name excepts “forest people” or just “us”. They speak an Aslian language of the Mon-Khmer language family.(Orang Asli Women of Malysia: Signe Howell 2006:p 65) Today the Che Wong numbers about 456 peoples. This research will focus specifically on the Che Wong tribe living at Kuala Gandah near Lanchang in the state of Pahang. Today the Che Wong’s live predominantly in Government resettlement villages built in the year 2000. (JHEOA 2012) 2. Research Problem From the interview with En.Musa, a Che Wong adult: "nowadays we recognized that the Che Wong youths feels that they are being more marginalized as a result of the effect of the resettlement of the Che Wong community by the government. The young people especially, are ashamed to wear their native loin-cloths, and even some of them did no longer know how to sing the songs sung at the traditional "Sewang" dance. The old methods of storytelling passed down from their ancestors are no longer practiced because the youth are no longer interested to listen. The bamboo handicrafts making and blowpipe hunting is no longer practiced because they are now earning their income from rubber tapping and harvesting wild rattans from the jungle for sales to the chinese middleman. (3rd. November 2011, Che Wong Tribe Kuala Gandah, Lanchang Pahang). According to the Che Wong Tok Batin or headman, En. Bakri Raja Teh, "we no longer need to bother to learn and make the handicrafts manually much like what we use to do in our huts before. We now use all the + Corresponding author. Tel.: +60355444001; fax: + 60355444011. E-mail address: [email protected]. 187 facilities that was provided to us for the common good.” (Utusan 15 Januari 2011, Menjana pendapatan Orang asli. The younger generations has already lost interest and have no desire to maintain the tradition of their native visual arts because they are now already exposed to outside modern influences and are having trouble maintaining their cultural identity. There is strong indicator that they will in the long term be facing with their ethnic social and cultural loss. This resettlement program has brought about the destruction of the cultural, historical and indigenous crafts identity of the Che Wong. 3. Methodology For this research, a qualitative research method will be adopted. An ethnographic approach will be implemented, where the researcher will be visiting and living with the Che Wong community over a period of one year of active participant-observation and data-collection approach The detailed research design will be developed asking specific research question to meet the research objectives, selection of population sampling as well as the research instruments that will be used and the procedures of data analysis later. Fig. 1: Research Structure. Fig. 2: Population of Che Wong Tribe : Source JABATAN KEBAJIKAN HAL EHWAL ORANG ASLI (JHEOA). The data collection steps include setting the boundaries for the study, collecting information through unstructured and semi-structured observations and interviews, documentation procedures and aquisition of visual materials, as well as establishing the protocol for recording information. (Research Design: Third edition John W.Creswell 2009.) 188 Fig. 3: Instrument. Fig 4: Che Wong settlement. Fig 5: Generations of Che Wong Tribe. 189 4. Conclusion Hopefully from this research, the younger generations will eventually have a documented source of reference and will not feel marginalized again. This research hoped that problems brought about by the resettlement programme will be reduced, and protect the indigenous people’s culture against the onslaughts and pressure of modernization. With the availability of reference materials such as video and print media it is possible to provide continuity of their ancestor’s stories (storytellers) of their people, and eventually maintaining the originality of their visual arts. 5. 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