Performing Silat in Malaysian diasporic communities in Australia: a cultural heritage analysis of identities, performance and self

Abstract

Malaysian students who come to study in Australia have been organising cultural festivals for more than 20 years. These festivals host cultural heritage performances that represent the various ethnicities found in the Malaysian homeland. However, very little is known about the way these diasporic performances differ from those in the homeland, and whether any differences could jeopardise the Malaysian identities they are supposed to represent. I investigate the role of intangible cultural heritage performances in developing a sense of identity amongst diasporic communities by focusing on the performance of the martial art of Silat in three Malaysian festivals in Australia. The martial art of Silat is acknowledged in Malaysia as both a Malay cultural heritage and a Malaysian national heritage. Silat contains the typical fighting skills and strategies that can be found in other martial arts. However, the culture of Silat has also the element of performance. In Malaysia, Silat is traditionally performed either in private or public contexts. As a Silat practitioner, I have personally experienced performing Silat in my homeland, Malaysia, and in the diasporic context of Australia. Festivals have become key events for diasporic and multicultural communities to represent and accentuate their cultural identities. In the absence of tangible heritage objects and monuments, diasporic communities have relied on intangible cultural heritage to connect with their homeland, as well as to negotiate their own self-identities in their diasporic settings. Malaysian migrants and temporary students in Australia have both contributed to the representation of their national and ethnic identities through festivals, such as the Fiesta Malaysia in Melbourne; the Citra Malaysia in Brisbane; and the Malaysia Festival in Sydney. Using participant observation in Melbourne, my own participation as a Silat performer in Sydney and Brisbane, and numerous interviews with other performers, audience members, and festival organisers, I investigate how the performance of Silat in Malaysian festivals reflects the diasporic and multicultural identities of Malaysian communities in Australia. I demonstrate that negotiations between the different stakeholders are very significant in establishing the representation of identities through intangible cultural heritage performances. Diasporic cultural festivals also allow various performers to negotiate their ideas and skills, and fuse them in order to produce distinct cultural heritage performances. I conclude that Silat performances in Australia are not the same as those in the homeland. Despite the differences, I argue that heritage performances in the diaspora can still be considered as 'authentic' Malay and Malaysian heritage. I discuss these results using the concepts of performance, authenticity and identity within a cultural heritage methodological paradigm. iii Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person e...

Preservation and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage - A Participatory Design Approach

“…ICH develops and changes over time, responding to events, conditions, and development of societies. For that reason, traditions and practices in diaspora communities are never the same as in the homelands, but are nevertheless "authentic", as the diaspora community has developed their own ICH, where heritage is interpreted and re-invented to respond to the new time and setting [6]. Due to the living characteristics of ICH, participatory approaches must address the heritage bearers directly, both when dealing with ICH in its original place or diaspora [3], [7].…”