National Conference on Indigenous Peoples, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, 6-7 December 2005.

On 6-7 December 2005, the Kadazandusun Chair, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan, together with the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, organized a 2-day national conference entitled Communities, Cultures and Change in Malaysia--Indigeneity, Identity and Social Transformation. The Conference took place in the Library on the UMS campus.

The conference was multi-disciplinary and covered a wide variety of topics concerning indigenous peoples in Malaysia. Session themes included "Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage--Continuity and Change in the Ethnographic Present," "Languages, Identities and Oral Traditions--Negotiating Change," "Environmental Resources and Economic Development," and "Indigeneity, Identity and Social Transformation." The papers in each session were discussed by a panel of discussants with active interaction from the floor.

The Conference attracted around 200 participants, including indigenous village people from Sabah, Sarawak, and Orang Asli communities in Peninsular Malaysia, members of the Jaringan Orang Asal Malaysia and of cultural associations, as well as academicians and researchers. Dr. Colin Nicholas, anthropologist and Coordinator of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns, Kuala Lumpur, gave the Keynote Address. Speakers included Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Haji Mulia, Chairman of the Institute for Development Studies (Sabah), Director of Badan Kebudayaan dan Bahasa Iranun (BKI) as well as leader of Sabah's Iranun Community; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dimbab Ngidang, holder of the Chair of Dayak Studies at UNIMAS; and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Juli Edo, member of the Semai community and lecturer in the Anthropology Department, Universiti Malaya.

A combined launching of the conference and welcoming dinner was officiated by Prof. Datuk Dr. Kamaruzaman Ampon, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation), on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohd. Noh Dalimin. The event took place in the Kimanis Ballroom of the Hyatt Kinabalu on the night of 6 December, and featured the launching of a new book, Selected Papers on Music in Sabah by the holder of the Kadazandusun Chair, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan. Also featured were performances of traditional Kadazandusun, Timugon Murut, and Orang Asli music.

The conference concluded with a plenary session entitled "Voices of the People." This featured a panel composed of members of several indigenous communities together with Mr. Adrian Lasimbang, Secretary of the Jaringan Orang Asal Malaysia, and Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan as moderator. The panel discussed various issues affecting indigenous peoples in Malaysia, with comments by participants from the floor. As Assoc. Prof. Hasan Mat Nor, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, said, "This conference provided a forum for indigenous people, whether academics or village people, to express their points of view and give their opinions about the papers, topics and issues presented." Assoc. Prof. Hasan is an anthropologist who has spent almost thirty years doing research among the Orang Asli, while Dr. Jacqueline is an ethnomusicologist who first came to Sabah in 1977 and has conducted research among the Kadazandusun and other indigenous communities in Sabah.

Selected Papers on Music in Sabah is an edited compilation of papers by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan, Kadazandusun Chair, based on ethnomusicological and ethnographic research in Sabah over the past two decades. Its purpose is to introduce the reader to various aspects of traditional Sabahan music. The papers have been revised, updated, and restructured as book chapters. The chapters in Part I introduce the reader to the historical and cultural background to music in Sabah. Part II examines aspects of music among the Kadazandusun, the largest indigenous ethnic community in Sabah, while Part III investigates the instrumental music of various coastal communities, including several Bajau groups, the Iranun, and the Tindal Dusun (a branch of the Kadazandusun).

The Kadazandusun Chair was initiated by a grant from the Sabah State Government for the purpose of promoting research on the Kadazandusun and other indigenous communities and Dr. Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan is the first Chair holder.

Datuk R.G. "Guy" Barrett, OBE, who was interned in Batu Lintang camp during World War II, died on the morning of 20 September 2005, aged eighty-nine. This suggests 1916 (or the fourth quarter of 1915) as his date of birth. He arrived in Borneo at the age of twenty-one to work as a Tapping Assistant on Sapong Estate. After the war, in 1946, he became Permanent Manager of Tuaran Estate for the North Borneo Trading Company. Two years later he moved to Jesselton in the service of the same firm. In 1950, however, he started his own business, called "River Estates," and in due course made his base at Sandakan. A pioneer of oil pall agriculture, he created Tomanggong Estate in 1961 from ten thousand acres of virgin land acquired from the Guthrie Corporation. The title of Datuk was awarded by the Sabah Government in 1963; and he was appointed OBE in 1972 "for services to the plantation industry." He settled on the Isle of Man in 1979, keeping himself busy in retirement with various enterprises. He was survived by his widow, Shet Ha (Christine), whom he married in Hong Kong in 1959, and by their children and grandchildren. The funeral was held at Kirk Manghold Parish Church on 4 October 2005 (The Daily Telegraph, London, Saturday 24 September 2005, page 26, column 5, paragraph 9). Special tribute was also paid to him in the Good Shepherd Church at Sandakan on 2 October (DT Sa.15.10.2005, page 26, column 8). (AVM Horton)

Margaret Hartley Berwick died near Southampton on 30 March 2005, aged fifty-four. She was daughter of Helen and the late Joe Berwick (DT Tu.12.4.2005:22c #2). E. J. H. Berwick CBE (1911-1989) was the first Curator of the Sabah Museum (JMBRAS 40(1) 1967:111).

Arthur William Paton, OBE MC (1916-2005), has died at the age of eighty-eight. A Legislative and Executive Councillor in North Borneo during the closing years of the colonial era, he was appointed OBE [Officer of the Order of the British Empire] in recognition of his services there.

Born in Korea on 8 April 1916, where his father was British Consul, Paton was educated at the University of Oxford and served with the 11th Hussars during the Second World War. Having been awarded a Military Cross for his courage in North Africa in 1941, he was subsequently recruited by the Special Operations Executive for whom he was engaged in supplying the Greek resistance movement. (The SOE was the same organization to which Tom Harrisson belonged while operating in the interior of Borneo in 1945).

In the early 1950s Paton worked for the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation in Bangkok. He was then posted to Wallace Bay on Sebatik Island, North Borneo. According to an illustrated obituary in the Daily Telegraph (London, Tuesday 3 May 2005, page 23), he "relished the challenge of making the port profitable and improving the lives of some two thousand inhabitants. Soon twelve ships a month were being loaded and schools were being built. Under Paton's supervision the first cocoa trees were planted, and cocoa became one of the country's leading exports." Paton returned to England in 1965, settling in Sussex. A noted sportsman in his younger days (among other things, he became a regular rugby union player for Harlequins), Paton is survived by his widow, three sons, and a daughter (DT Tu.3.5.2005:23).

The exact date of death is not given; but if Paton were eighty-eight, it must have been before 8 April 2005.

One reader (Linda Kendall, letter to the editor, DT Th.5.5.2005:23), who was writing during a general election campaign, regarded Paton as "an inspiring man" and wondered whether she was alone in supposing that the calibre of the United Kingdom had declined since 1945: "Have we no one with his level of courage, depth and breadth of experience, and obvious integrity who can be found to lead our nation?" (DT Th.5.5.2005:23) (A.V.M. Horton).