The Return of the Badeng Sunhat
In a signing ceremony held on 4 November, the looted sunhat at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford was returned to KEBANA President Hilary Samah Tet, together with the title of ownership. Deputy Minister Sebastian Ting Ministry Tourism of Creative Industry and Performing Arts and The Director of the Sarawak Museum Department, Puan Nancy Jolhi, witnessed the signing of the title. The custody of the hat will be with the Sarawak Museum Department, so that it can be well preserved for the people of Sarawak to view it in generations to come.
The looted hat was part of a set of 6 objects, consisting of another similar hat, two wooden bowls and a set of iron pot-stands recorded as "looted from an expedition formerly sent against against the Madangs" in the Sarawak Museum registration book, that were donated to that museum in 1903 by C.A. Bampfylde. One of the two sunhats was given to the Rajah in 1905. It was kept at his museum at Chesterton house. After the closure of the museum, the hat eventually went to the Pitt-Rivers Museum.
Why would an everyday object like this hat be looted?
The Rajah requested his outstation officers collect objects which reflected local cultures and everyday life for his museum in Kuching. Bampfylde commissioned punitive expeditions in 1895 and 1896 against the up-river Kayan, the Badeng and their allies and it is possible that he requested for artifacts to be brought to him. Some of the looted objects are currently on exhibition on the fourth floor of the Borneo cultures museum.
"This is a historic event not just for us as a community, but also for the state of Sarawak and for the University of Oxford. The return of this Badeng Sunhat gives our community visible evidence of the difficult and dangerous time when we were driven out of our homes in the highland plateau of the Usun Apau and lived between Sarawak and Dutch Borneo.
The return of the sunhat helps us to remember our history and imagine the struggles of our ancestors, especially women at the time of warfare. Today, we can reflect with deep gratitude now how far we have come as a community in Sarawak with the opportunities for education and good employment."
- Mr. Hilary Samah Tet, KEBANA President -
The return of the looted sunhat signing ceremony was deeply significant as a historic moment as it is the first time an object has been returned by The Pitt Rivers Museum. In the words of Professor Dr Laura van Broekhoven: “At the heart of our work lies caring for objects and people, given the history of parts of our collections and their entanglements in military violence and oppression, this work of redress is a crucial part of the work we want and need to do as it helps to restore trust and understanding, and builds hope for a future of peace through partnership” so that museums and communities, supported by their governments, can work alongside each other towards reconciliation and healing.”
Also present at the ceremony was the researcher who provided the evidence that the sunhat was looted, Dr. Valerie Mashman (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak).