Alena Murang launches virtual platform Project Ranih to archive Kelabit folk songs

Alena is working to introduce Kelabit folk songs and culture through the virtual platform Project Ranih. Photo: S. Magendran

Have you heard the Leleun Kuh Ba’o Buda, a beautiful lullaby from a mother monkey to her baby? What about Piu’ Piu’ Alung Alung, a chant-song about a child who is good at fishing?

Kuching-born KL-based musician/artist Alena Murang, 31, and her cousin Joshua Maran grew up listening to these Kelabit children’s folk songs.

Now, the cousin-duo want to share it with the world via their newly launched Project Ranih, an online archive of Kelabit children’s songs and rhymes (complete with lyrics in Kelabit and English).

Project Ranih was launched recently in conjunction with International Children’s Day.

It is partially funded by a grant from Foundation of Endangered Languages, a Britain-based non-profit organisation, which aims to support the documentation, protection and promotion of endangered languages.

It is also supported by the Malaysian Design Archive, which helped design the website. Kuching-based Momentum Studios assisted with the recordings.

Alena says Project Ranih (which means "harvest" in Kelabit) aims to keep Kelabit oral tradition and cultural heritage alive.

“Our parents sang them to us as kids but we realised that our generation would not know how to sing it to the next generation. Mostly because we’re not fluent in the language and because there are so many other popular nursery rhymes on digital media, ” says Alena, who has Kelabit (father) and English-Italian (mother) parentage.

The Kelabit community is one of the smallest groups indigenous to Sarawak, with a population of approximately 6,000 people.

“The project also aims to narrow the generational gap, and to improve family and community relations. Many of the songs teach community values to children - like working together, looking out for each other in the jungle, obeying parents, sharing your harvest... values that are still important today," says Alena, who plays the sape (traditional lute from Sarawak).

To start proceedings, Project Ranih is presenting four Kelabit folk songs, sung by Alena’s paternal aunts: Datin Sri Garnette Jalla Ridu and Prof Dr Ramy Bulan (Joshua’s mother).

The children’s songs are educational and fun, with mentions of different types of woven baskets, children catching fish for their families, a hunter with a blowpipe, and even different types of cucumbers to harvest.

Alena says she and Joshua, a producer, planned the project in 2016 after the launch of her first album, Flight. But they only started moving forward last year, with the recent website launch promising more content ahead.

Alena shares that it is crucial to record the songs themselves.

“One is so that we can maintain a great sound quality. Secondly, it’s because the face to face interaction is important to us. Our art forms are handed down via oral traditions and the aspects of in-person learning cannot be replaced by digital means,” says Alena.

She hopes people will visit the website, listen to the songs and if possible, donate to keep the project going.

“This is so that we can collect more songs and update the archive. Hopefully, we can expand (Project Ranih) and support people from other communities to do the same, ” she says.

In a difficult pandemic year, Alena has kept busy with a series of online music projects, including the Gerak Angin festival in September.

Alena has also been nominated for two award categories in this year’s Buenos Aires Music Video Festival (in Argentina), which will be held virtually from Nov 27-29.

The nominations (Best International Video and Best Styling awards) are for her music video called Midang Midang.