Report on Jungleblues Boy(Edited)
On 24th March 2015, I joined a small
team of writers on a trip to Bario. The main objectives of our visit were to
cover the 70th anniversary of the Semut operative’s landing in the
highlands and to interview the surviving local guerilla fighters and their
descendants.
Stephen Baya, the owner of the Junglebluesdream
Art Gallery and Guest House, hosted us during our three-day sojourn. On first
impression, the Kelabit man exuded a gentle bonhomie beneath his soft-spoken
exterior, making us feel welcomed and at home. The homestay, which is built in
the style of a long house, is perched on a dome-shaped hill overlooking a wide
expanse of paddy fields with a stretch of abutting forest that belts its way along a
rolling chain of bluish mountains. The vista offered us a pleasing respite from
the workaday concrete forest we were accustomed to seeing in the city.
Almost every wall in the homestay is adorned
with Stephen’s artwork. Painting is a deeply rooted passion of the affable man,
who is a self-taught artist. The whole house pullulates with the colourful splendour
of his masterpieces, which are a blend of local motifs and contemporary art. He
works on polyester fabric with acrylic paint.
Beginning the homestay business with a meagre
capital of RM400, Stephen worked his fingers to the bone for four years to
achieve what he has now—a well-established four-room lodging, compared to its
erstwhile one-room accommodation.
“Before embarking on the
homestay business,” revealed Stephen. “I worked as a window display artist at Printemps Department Store in Kuala Lumpur in the 1980s and as a
resident artist at Hilton, Kuching from 1988 to 2003. These experiences have tipped the scales in
favour of my existing art career.”
During his stint in Kuching,
Stephen met and fell in love with Tine, a Danish exchange student at UNIMAS.
They got married and, against the tide of migration to the city, moved back to
Bario to begin their lives anew. Stephen worked temporarily as a forest tour
guide before he and Tine decided to live a subsistence life off his ancestral
land. They enjoyed their life to the fullest, and Stephen continued to paint.
One day, he sold five of his paintings, and Tine suggested that they use the
profit as capital to open an art gallery. Stephen acted on his wife’s advice,
and in a year, the business reaped fruit and graduated to a homestay.
How did Stephen and Tine attract
customers in the beginning? Rain or shine, they approached tourists at the
airport, showing them photographs of their lodging and pamphlets on the
services they offered. Before heading to the airport, they arranged an average
of twenty fishing rods along their water-laden paddy fields. Once deals were
struck, they would drive their customers back to the lodging. On the way, they
would pick paku ferns and check to see if the fishing rods had snagged any
fish. They always arrived at home with their car boot full of the freshest and
most succulent jungle produce, which would be meticulously prepared and cooked
in a way that seduced the taste buds. Stephen and Tine’s hospitable and rustic
hosting appealed to many tourists—locals and foreigners alike—and they helped
to promote their homestay by word of mouth and through the Internet. To this
day, Stephen and Tine still fervently do what they did before, thus receiving
scores upon scores of positive online reviews. “We serve our customers with
sincerity,” said Stephen, emphatically. “Their satisfaction is our utmost joy.”
Some of Stephen’s artwork is
featured in Monica Janowski’s book, Tuked
Rini, Cosmic Traveller: Life and Legend in the Heart of Borneo. Tuked Rini,
a Kelabit folklore hero, is the favourite grist to the mill of his artwork, and
many of his paintings depict the magical power of the hero’s sword, his cosmic
travels and his fights with his various enemies. One is easily impressed by the
mystifying ethnic aura that radiates from his seemingly random but
well-orchestrated brushworks of multi-coloured dots, jabs and strokes. In 2013,
an eclectic collection of his works were exhibited at the Cambridge University
in England. He received favourable comments from renowned art critic Jonathan
King. Recently, he was invited to exhibit his artwork at Lapland University,
Finland.
Stephen is also noted for his
musical and dancing talents. As he strummed the strings on his elaborate sape,
he seemed to become lost in a trance, and the lively, mellifluous strains that
flowed from beneath his fingers made my heart flutter with sylvan joy. He
danced with verve and gusto, reflecting the courage of a Kelabit warrior. Watching
from one side, Stephen’s cute four-year-old son, the gem of his heart, cavorted
in glee.
Stephen’s grandfather, the late
Ngimat Ayu, played an instrumental role during the Semut Operation against the
Japanese. The headman of the Pa’main longhouse gave the Tom Harrison-led guerilla
force various forms of undivided moral support. After the Second World War,
Ngimat Ayu became the first Kelabit dresser in Bario. Known for his selfless
devotion to treating the sick, he is a household name among the people of the
highlands, who remember him fondly as “the sinseh.” The great man passed away
in 2013 at the ripe old age of ninety-two.
“I hope the younger generation
will continue to treasure in their hearts the contributions of Operation
Semut,” said Stephen. “Without them, we would not be who we are.”
What about his hope for the
Kelabits in Bario?
“I’d like to urge all the people
of Bario to preserve their tradition. This is how we define ourselves, and we
should not let it fall into abeyance.”
Various
wooden message boards are nailed to the right walls of Stephen’s dining hall. Almost
every board displays the feedback of the couple’s multinational customers.
“There’s an interesting story
behind each message,” Stephen enthused. “The sight of each board engenders the
image of each customer who once stayed in my lodge.”
Stephen has an abundance of plans
and dreams, one of which is to open a gallery-cum-restaurant in Miri, where he
can display more of his artwork and serve myriad exotic foods.
You may be curious about why the
gallery-cum-guesthouse was named Junglebluesdream? Well, it has to do with
Stephen Baya’s nickname, which is “Jungleblues Boy.” He did not tell me why
others had given him the name, but it must have been his seasoned knowledge of
Bario jungles, along with his artistic and musical talents, that earned him the
cognomen.
All the best to you and your
family, Jungleblues Boy.
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