KUCHING – The recently held ‘Live Evening Virtual Performance by Sape’ Artist Alena Murang’ event showcased the indigenous music of Sarawak from the Kelabit and Kenyah tribes to international audience from multiple countries.
The event was organised by School of Design and Arts (SoDA) of Swinburne Sarawak via Zoom platform for students and staff from Kanda University of International Studies, Japan; Hoseo University, Korea; as well as participants from the 4th International Conference on Management & Entrepreneurship.
The evening kicked off with a promotional slides presentation by the School and preview of final-year design students’ work and award-winning capstone projects. This was followed by a welcoming introduction on the culture and indigenous music of Sarawak, as well as a video presentation showcasing Alena’s sape’ performances and awards.
Deeply influenced by the lives of her ancestors, Alena, who is of Dayak Kelabit and English-Italian descent, is the first female professional sape’ musician in Malaysia. She has performed at various music festivals around the world, and her music video ‘Warrior Spirit’ won the Best Costume Honourable Mention and Best Asia & Pacific Music Video at the International Music Video Awards UK in July this year.
That evening, Alena performed a few of her songs such as Pemung Jae’, Lan E Tuyang, Re Lekuah, Midang Midang, Meno’, Gitu’an, and Liling. There was also a ‘Get to Know’ session with Alena where the participants had the opportunity to interact with her. Concluding her performance, Alena remarked that as creators, they honour their heritage of the past and their contemporary selves through music, films and fashion, in addition to using digital platforms to showcase the art and culture to the world.
Swinburne students from the Bachelor of Design (Multimedia Design) and Bachelor of Design with major in Graphic Design programmes have won various competitions at local, national and international stage since 2014. They have produced illustrations, interactive contents and games using XR (extended reality) technologies, an umbrella term that comprises AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and MR (mixed reality).
Their achievements include awards from Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Sarawak (TEGAS) Digital Pre-Accelerator programme; Top 10 App Malaysia; Microsoft Imagine Cup at National, Regional and World Finals in Seattle, USA; South East Asia (SEA) Games Award; Casual Connect Singapore; and the recent Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Championship where the students will represent Malaysia in the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) World Championships later this year.
For more information about Swinburne Sarawak, visit its website www.swinburne.edu.my, Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter page (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).