The Long Way Home: Rainforest World Music Festival

The linch-pin of our entire trip back to the US was the Rainforest World Music Festival, a huge gathering of traditional musicians from all over the world for a 3-day event full of indiginous art, crafts, and of course music.  It's held under the shadow of Mount Santubong at the Sarawak Cultural Village, about 45 minutes outside of Kuching.  We were staying at a jungle resort a few minutes' walk down the road; close enough we could hear the sound check!

Obligatory

Our digs.  You can barely see our breakfast building peeking through the jungle...

Couldn't have asked for a better venue

Pretty relaxing, even on the busy days

They had multiple stages with performances, introductory sessions for dance, drumming, and traditional instruments, panels with the musicians, and all sorts of great local food and hands-on crafts.  The festival pays special attention to highlighting the culture of Sarawak, and over the last 20 years has been responsible for a huge surge in the local music scene of traditional instruments and styles.

Tribal dancers just chillin' in the background

Chinese fan dancing lesson

Middle Child shows off his skills with the Sape, the traditional stringed instrument of Sarawak

Batik painting

Our favorite bands were a Maori group called "Wai" that was a family band (down to the 10-year-old percussionist) that combined traditional songs and word games with a more modern hip-hop feel, Oki/Kila which was a collaboration between an Ainu tribesman from northern Japan (Oki) with a traditional Irish band (Kila) playing original music, and a group of string players calling themselves "The Violins of the World" which featured a french classical guitarist, a Swedish Nyckelharpa player, a Mongolian morin khuur (like a 2-string square cello) player, and Guo Gan, one of the world's premier erhu players all playing original compositions which frequently included Mongolian throat-singing.

Oki on his own, thrashing on his electric tonkori

Fangirl shot with Wai

Wai on the Theater Stage

There was also a Chilean ballet company that had dedicated themselves to keeping alive the dance traditions of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island), a band from the Canary Islands, and a group from the Sangtam Naga tribe in northeastern India that had one foot in the Hindu cultures of the Indian subcontinent but also a foot in the indigenous animist cultures of south-east Asia demonstrating their traditional dances and songs. 

Sangtam Naga tribe doin' a dance

Overall, there was an amazing amount going on at all times.  Everywhere we turned there were world-class musicians and performers from every corner of the globe sharing their culture with an energy that pictures and youtube videos can't really convey.  Some of the more energetic performers we caught:

Her Pineapple Majesty is being taught how to shake her hips by the band from Mauritius

Mandatory drum circle

Someone has music festivals figured out.

Hell yeah.

Almost done in Borneo!  After the RWMF was done we had another two days in Kuching, so decided to visit the Bako national park.  Stay tuned for the next post!