Lecture: Sarawak Rice: From Traditional Significance to Modern Sustainability by Karen Shepherd, Writer, Content Creator, Strategic Director, UCCN Kuching Creative City

Lecture: Sarawak Rice: From Traditional Significance to Modern Sustainability by Karen Shepherd, Writer, Content Creator, Strategic Director, UCCN Kuching Creative City

Saturday, 18 February 2023 9.40am
Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Rice is the most widely eaten staple across Asia, though it’s often merely a vehicle for other, more exciting foods. In Sarawak’s traditional indigenous culture, this grain has great ritual and cosmological significance. Set against a backdrop of extreme rainforest biodiversity and management dating back 50,000 years, it is one that has long puzzled anthropologists. Modern agricultural research confirms that Sarawak now has at least 100 heirloom varieties, many of them unique to this area, and most of them boasting a flavour, texture and aroma profile unmatched by commercially available alternatives. This lecture gives background to the importance of rice in Sarawak’s indigenous and gastronomic environment and address the approaches being taken by the UCCN Kuching team to make the story of rice into the story of Sarawak: its indigenous land tenure, its relationship with this land and its modern, sustainable landscape. It furthermore explores how the UNESCO designation has impacted this as part of a larger network focused on food security and food justice, sustainability and traditional knowledge systems.

2023-02-18

This lecture gives background to the importance of rice in Sarawak’s indigenous and gastronomic environment and address the approaches being taken by the UCCN Kuching team to make the story of rice into the story of Sarawak: its indigenous land tenure, its relationship with this land and its modern, sustainable landscape.

General

Graduate/Post-Graduate

Professional

Offsite

Yes

No

No