Sa’ung seling sun-hats in the Sarawak Museum: Vehicles for Sa'ban, Lepo Keh and Badeng histories

THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL
VOL LXXVIII NO.99 DECEMBER 2017

Title :
Sa’ung seling sun-hats in the Sarawak Museum: Vehicles for Sa'ban, Lepo Keh and Badeng histories

Author :
Valerie Mashman

Abstract:

The Sarawak Museum Registration Book describes sun-hat no. 90/62 as "one old Sa'ban rare sun-hat'. It was acquired by the Sarawak Museum in 1990. The sun-hat is unusual and rare, because it is not from the Sa'ban settlement of Long Banga, near the border with Kalimantan, but comes from the upper Bahau river in Kalimantan. Sun-hats like this one are made in that area by Kenyah Lepo Keh and Kenyah Lepo Maut and are known as sa'ung seling. A similar sun-hat from the early 20th century, no. 1233 in the Sarawak Museum collection, is said in the Registration Book to have been 'looted' from the Madang (Badeng) and then donated to the museum. One of the keys to unravelling the biographical history of these two hats lies in analysing the notes on provenance in the Sarawak Museum Ethnology Registration Book, in order to track down the circumstances of each acquisition; but another is to investigate what those who made and used such hats have to say about them. This case-study illustrates the fact that different examples of the same object may have very different biographies; an exploration of their trajectories that goes beyond the limited field of their assumed provenance reveals ways in which they have significance beyond their immediate usage.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61507/smj22-2017-BB4R-02

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How to cite:
Valerie Mashman (2017). Sa’ung seling sun-hats in the Sarawak Museum: Vehicles for Sa'ban, Lepo Keh and Badeng histories. Sarawak Museum Journal, LXXVIII (99): 23-46 https://doi.org/10.61507/smj22-2017-BB4R-02

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