Safety is top of mind for many travelers as they plan out their trips for 2024 and beyond. But for those in the LGBTQ community, and their allies, knowing which countries are welcoming towards gay travelers is an important consideration. Part of measuring that sentiment is knowing where residents stand on rights, including same-sex marriage. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about issues and attitudes shaping the world, released a new study showing which country’s residents support same-sex marriage the most, and which countries have the lowest level of support.
Legends of Kuching: in conversation with the craftspeople of Sarawak
06.12.2023 - 08:05 / nationalgeographic.com
Malaysia’s island region of Sarawak is a treasure trove of relics and rarities. Take a stroll down Carpenter Street in Sarawak’s capital city of Kuching and you’ll see stalls selling wood carvings, colourful beadwork, blankets and the woven mats that line the floor of traditional tribal longhouses. Nearby, at the waterfront, a bazaar of handicraft booths in the historic Steamship Building sells jewellery, paintings and scarves created by some of the country’s leading artisans. They’re guardians of Sarawak’s heritage, preserving skills that date back thousands of years and that might otherwise be lost in the rush to embrace 21st-century technology.
Nabilah Abdullah has been sculpting with clay for nearly 20 years, from one of a dozen workshops in the Sarawak Ceramic Centre, just to the north of Kuching. Nabilah spends each morning making new pieces and each afternoon selling them from her shop, Ally Clay Craft, in Kuching’s Steamship Building. Works in progress fill every shelf of Nabilah’s workshop. There are containers of clay beads, pots waiting to be fired, bowls about to be glazed. I look at a row of elegant leaf-shaped brooches, deep green and highly polished. “They’re made by pressing real leaves into the clay and making a unique imprint,” says Nabilah. “I take inspiration from nature — the rainforest is my supermarket.”
But Nabilah’s consuming passion is a black, amphora-like pot. Evidence of pots like this has been uncovered in the Niah Caves, an archaeological hotspot in the north of the region where a skull was found that dates back around 60,000 years. Nabilah was inspired to create her own following a visit to the Borneo Cultures Museum.
“It was used to cook rice — the rounded bottom allowed the fire to heat it evenly,” she explains. “I travelled three hours into the rainforest to learn how to make these pots from an old man in a longhouse.” She shows me how it’s done, pushing a smooth, spherical stone down into a cylinder of clay, then beating its outside with a wooden paddle called a pemaluk until it takes on the round shape of the stone. She’s doing this just as her ancestors would’ve done thousands of years ago, following the same process and using the same tools. The only difference is that the pot will be finished in a kiln rather than an open fire, because fire smoke is far too polluting.
“Tradition is so important, it marks where we are from,” explains Nabilah. “Our ancestors were very clever and we mustn’t lose that wisdom. If I don’t do this and show others how to do it, the art will be lost forever. It’s my mission to preserve these skills for future generations.”
Ramtiniwati Ramlee is one of Sarawak’s top songket weavers. Her company, Seri Gedong Songket, operates from a
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