Indigenous Popular Music and Identity: The Case of Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: The study investigated the views of Sarawak indigenous participants and other Sarawakians on whether Sarawak indigenous popular music can construct an indigenous and regional identity. The specific objectives of the study were to compare: (a) their level of familiarity with and knowledge about Sarawak indigenous popular music, (b) their attitudes towards Sarawak indigenous popular music, and (c) their practices in listening to Sarawak indigenous popular music.

Introduction/Background: Most studies of Sarawak indigenous songs have focused on “Biar Bekikis Bulu Betis” and did not investigate the perceptions of indigenous and non-indigenous participants separately to understand whether indigenous pop songs can evoke a shared sense of belonging to Sarawak. As there is a lack of Sarawak-specific related research in Malaysia, the present study is timely and crucial in understanding whether the pop songs of an indigenous group can represent state identity due to living in a shared geographical space, Sarawak, with the indigenous groups.

Methodology: The descriptive study involved 109 participants comprising 41.28% (or 45) Sarawak Indigenous and 58.72% (or 64) other Sarawakians. The term “Sarawakian” refers to Malaysian citizens born in Sarawak. The online questionnaire link was given to participants who fulfilled the selection criteria: (a) Malaysians who are Sarawakians but may be living elsewhere at some point in their lives; and (b) Participants who are aged 18 and above, so parental consent is not required for participating in the study, but there is no age limit. In this study, “Sarawak indigenous” refers to Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau, and Orang Ulu, while “Other Sarawakians” refers to Malay, Chinese, Indian, and others living in Sarawak. There were more female participants, and there was a spread of age groups. Most participants had lived in Sarawak for almost their whole lives, but some came back to live in Sarawak after having lived somewhere else.

An 18-item questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes, and practices relating to Sarawak indigenous popular music was made, comprised of demographic information (five items), knowledge on Sarawak indigenous music (eight items), attitudes towards Sarawak indigenous music (three items), and practices relating to Sarawak indigenous music (two items). The Quizmaker link (https://take.quiz-maker.com/QE9RYUHGO) was shared with contacts who were asked to share the link with others. The data comprising the initial 112 responses were filtered, and three incomplete responses were deleted, leaving 109 for the analysis of means and percentages.

Findings: Firstly, a larger percentage (48.44%) of Sarawak indigenous participants were more familiar with and could correctly identify Sarawakian indigenous popular music more readily than other Sarawakian participants (42.82%), as was expected. Secondly, for knowledge of indigenous songs, surprisingly, the non-Sarawak indigenous participants had slightly better knowledge about the history of Sarawak indigenous popular music than the Sarawak indigenous participants. Thirdly, the Sarawak indigenous participants and other Sarawakians were similar in their belief that it is the beat/rhythm that carries the Sarawakian identity (55.05%). The indigenous language played a role in eliciting the feeling of being Sarawakian, but only to 24.77% of the participants. Very few participants (13.76%) thought that the lyrics about the everyday life of Sarawakians made them feel the most Sarawakian. The content did not seem to be important in a song, as listeners may not pay full attention to the content of the song. Fourthly, listening to indigenous music was more of a habit for Sarawak indigenous participants, with 42.23% of Sarawak indigenous participants listening to it compared to 36.61% for other Sarawakian participants.

Contribution/Impact on Society: The study contributes new knowledge by confirming that Sarawak indigenous music embodies the Sarawakian identity for people who live in Sarawak, regardless of whether they are indigenous or not.

Recommendations: The results have social implications, as they identify a key to an inclusive community centered around Sarawak indigenous popular songs, because the songs can make those who are not of Sarawak indigenous origin feel connected to the land of Sarawak. In addition, a questionnaire that is in the form of a fun quiz can be used for cultural tourism.

Research Limitation: First, the sample size was not balanced for indigenous (n=45) and non-indigenous (n=64) participants. Second, the music samples were only from the Iban, Bidayuh, Kenyah, and Melanau ethnic groups. Third, the data in this study are not adequate to hypothesize or theorize why non-lexical rhythm gives more emotional connection than lyrics in this specific context.

Future Research: Having a larger number of indigenous participants from different groups in future studies would provide a better comparison of knowledge, attitudes, and practices across indigenous groups of different population sizes. Future studies could employ an experimental design that systematically varies musical elements (e.g., rhythm-only, melody-only, lyrics-only, and combined versions) and measure emotional responses through self-reported ratings. It would also be interesting to study which combinations of musical features (rhythmic structure, language, instrumentation, performer identity) are most salient in marking a song as both indigenous and Sarawakian. Interviews could be employed so that participants could explain how they interpret rhythm and lyrics, providing deeper insight into the mechanisms behind emotional engagement. In addition, researchers could investigate whether popular songs in the national language can evoke a nationalistic spirit among citizens, taking into consideration their language backgrounds. Future studies should investigate the appeal of indigenous music so that singers, song composers, and record labels could use the findings to widen their listener bases, giving indigenous singers a better career in the music industry.