A SUN hat seized from Sarawak’s indigenous Kenyah Badeng tribe, believed to be around 128 years old, would soon be return to the state, the Sarawak Museum Department said.

The department’s collection management head Dora Jok told the Malaysian Insight the artefact, reportedly seized by the White Rajah government due to the tribe’s failure to pay taxes, would be displayed at the Borneo Cultures Museum in Kuching.

Jok said the hat, closely resembling the Malay-Melanau terendak, was believed to have been seized as it likely belonged to a noble family.

“It was one of a set of six objects seized from the Badeng people (originally known as the Madang) in Usun Apau, located deep in Baram, in 1895 or 1896,” she said.

The sun hat was taken to England in 1905 by the second rajah, Charles Brooke, to be exhibited at the Chesterton House Museum in Gloucester, which he had established.

It got “lost” when the museum shut after his death in 1918.

“Much of the collection from that museum was donated to other UK institutions,” Jok said.

The sun hat was later discovered in the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.

Jok said the hat was positively identified as a “missing collection” of the Sarawak Museum because “we could prove it’s ours”.

“When the six objects were presented to the Sarawak Museum in 1903 by Charles Agar Bampfylde, an officer who served in the Brooke government from 1875 until his retirement in 1903, they were meticulously recorded and catalogued.

“In 1905, the sun hat, with catalogue number 1234, was sent by the Sarawak Museum to the second Rajah of Sarawak Charles Anthony Johnson Brooke when he established Chesterton House Museum in the UK.”

Over time, the loaned exhibit was forgotten, she said.

That was until the Sarawak Museum, under the Sarawak Museum Campus Project between 2017 and 2018, researched its entire inventory to identify pieces for the new Borneo Cultures Museum, which opened in March 2022.

“It was through this research and examination of the Sarawak Museum’s acquisitions that the sun hat was found to be in the possession of the Pitt-Rivers Museum,” Jok said.

She said the original catalogue number of the hat was still visible on the item exhibited at the Pitt-Rivers Museum.

“The discovery sparked efforts to repatriate the historic sun hat in 2018. A delegation comprising Sarawak Museum Department officers and the Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Ministry paid a courtesy visit to the Pitt-Rivers Museum in May to inspect and start discussions on the return of the sun hat,” she said.

She said the artefact, though a domestic object commonly used by the Kenyah Badeng, held significant historical value as it offered a deeper glimpse into turbulent times and the tribe’s existence in the Usun Apau plateau.

“Through this sun hat, the history of the Badeng and their engagement with the Brooke government can be recounted, providing an opportunity to retell history from an indigenous perspective.”

Jok hoped the return of the sun hat, which would complete the display of six artefacts at the Sarawak Museum, would immerse visitors to the exhibit in the history of the state’s past.

Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah told the assembly last month the Museum Department’s excellent reputation for collection care “had instilled confidence and led to the return of Bornean objects from around the world”.

Among the repatriated objects were two Orang Ulu machetes originally obtained by Duncan Shimwell McDougal, an officer in the Brooke administration in the 1920s, 19 prints of old Sarawak pictures, one pua kumbu – an Iban blanket – from Australia, and two beaded accessories from the United States.

How the two Orang Ulu machetes were returned was interesting.

“They were not purchased, collected or stolen. They were kindly donated,” said Louise Macul, from civil society group Friends of the Sarawak Museum.

The group promotes the appreciation of Sarawak’s heritage through its museums.

McDougal, who worked for the Brookes from 1924 to 1927, left Sarawak with the machetes in 1927.

The items reappeared at Christie’s Auction House in 1994, which Macul said was “most likely part of an estate sale”.

It was bought by a collector of Borneo tribal art, J.B. Lim, from Penang.

It was in Lim’s possession for 29 years before he donated it to the Sarawak Museum. – December 17, 2023.