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“My name is Katherine Mendung Anak Embau and I’m 26 years old. I married when I was 19 and had my first child a year later, and my second child last year in 2015. But I’d like to have 5 children. It’s a Sarawakian culture to have many children because they are considered assets.

Most people around here get married around the age of 20, and they would find a job prior to getting married. The youngest mother here is 13 years old, married to her husband who is about 30 something.

The best age to start having children is in your 20s. It’ll be a bit too late and more difficult if you have them in your 30s. There are cases instead where a married couple can’t get children. And it’s not because of contraceptives, but speaking of that, my husband does not like to use a condom.

My children was born in the government hospital about 40 km from here. It would take us about 30 mins or so to reach the city. Of course it would be more helpful if there is a hospital nearer to us. But it is what it is. So we learn to plan our trips during our pregnancy. Like when is the expected time or date for me to go to the hospital.

We only have a motorcycle to move around, not many people have cars here. If we have to go to the clinic, we’d hold our children on the motorcycle – there are ways of holding them. We’re used to it.”

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur went with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Malaysia) into the jungles of Sarawak, where they were helping out underprivileged Sarawakians and orang asal in their mission to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

For the next week, Humans of KL, as the biggest storytelling platform in Malaysia covering all the states as its capital, will feature the amazing stories and challenges faced by these Malaysians. Please check out their page to find out more about how you can be involved.

Is there a stigma for women who get pregnant outside of marriage?

 

There is. Here in Iban language we would call it as Tinggan Adat (?). This means that they go against the Adat (customs) of the Ibanese people. If a woman is pregnant without being married to a man, we would make her bathe in pig’s blood. This is because we want to ward any bad things happening to their paddy crops. This could affect our crops too. The ritual occurs  in the river. We would slaughter the pig in the river and make her bathe there. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve only heard stories of it.

However nowadays when it comes to contraceptives, we don’t use condom here. Most women here use injections / medication instead. It’s far for us to buy condoms anyway. It’s all the way in the Pasar (market) and it’s rather expensive.

Last time, we had to use the perahu (small boat) to go and see the doctor. If we want to go to the hospital it would be very far for us. But with the KK (Klinik Kesihatan) here, it has made things easier for us as it is much closer to us compared to the hospital. The work they (the Klinik Kerajaan) do here is very helpful because if they did not come and visit us, it would be difficult for us all. I wish they came here more often. We do not have proper transportation – some don’t even have transportation at all. Our main problem here is transportation. Sending our children to school is a problem. And when it comes to water, some people have access to water some don’t. But that highly depends on who can afford it.

“My journey in music started with my mother and my church. My mother taught my first few guitar chords and my church gave me the exposure to try my hand at different instruments and to see how a band functions. In fact, some of my first songs ever written were composed for church camp.

Hello, I am Sam Lopez and I am the lead singer of Lost Spaces, a band I found when I first moved to Kuala Lumpur from Ipoh to pursue my passion for music.

When I first arrived, my thought was, how do I get my band started? Coincidentally, my first band was made of my very own family, including my brother and my cousins.

As time went on, some band members ventured out to try other different things but I continued to stick with my music dream.

Lost Spaces was born after I attended my very first music festival in Singapore.

Seeing bands like 1975 and The Internet perform live transported me to a whole different space and hence the idea and concept behind Lost Spaces came to life.

The experiences that I have had growing up and in the present time, shape a lot of the songs I write today. My music has moved far away from the religious writing that I did as a child, as sometimes religious structures inhibit creativity.

Today our songs are all about people and observations of daily life. They are a commentary of life as we see it from topics like dating, love, friendship, acceptance and a personal struggle to fit in that most millennials go through. Although most of our music is fun and upbeat, lyrically there is always a deeper underlying message.

Our music also resonates with artists like me, who tend to live under the pressure of acceptance. What if people don’t enjoy our music? What if we have not met expectations? Sometimes we also have to deal with negative comments and criticism.

My only defence mechanism at times like these is to tell myself that we are yet to display our full body of work and this is just a part of what we do.

Of course, the journey thus far has not been an easy one. I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience, but at the same time I have lost out on friendships, relationships and financial stability.

Every month, I need to pump about 50-60% of my income to sustain my art. This means strict budgets, cutting down on socialising and thinking about everything that can help me to scale down my spending.

At present, along with being a singer-songwriter for Lost Spaces I also have a 9 to 5 job in marketing with Breaking Music Sdn Bhd, the independent record label that represents Lost Spaces.

This means less time to work on my art, but in the longer run, I’m banking on this strategy to help me create a sustainable outlet for my music.

But there is solace in knowing that things are working out for Lost Spaces. This year we will be performing for the very first time at Good Vibes Festival along with the release of a new album. We also have plans to look for an opportunity overseas and doing a music tour if possible.

All artists like me harbour the hope that one day we will have better infrastructure in Malaysia to take our art forward. Although I believe that a lot of that will come when our economy starts to improve and audiences are ready to pay for art.

From certain conversations, some working young adults today find it difficult to fork up RM20 for a show in the current economic scenario where they are unable to make sufficient savings once they have paid their loans, rent, food and utilities. This sadly is the harsh reality.

At the end of the day, I personally believe it is important, to be honest with your intention of the art you create and base your plans around that and hopefully, things will work out just fine for you.

That being said, I do have plans for myself and Lost Spaces and I’m banking on these to help us take our music forward”.

 

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Samuel Lopez is the lead singer of the band lost spaces. They will be performing at Urbanscapes which is running from 16 – 24 November! Get your tickets at https://www.urbanscapes.com.my/

And do check out their Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/387YZVajWRq3ZPiCxiX07b?si=ECXqtIw4QE2V0wDn_QxlOA

Photostory by Nafisa Dahodwala and Yap Sue Jiun
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

“5 years ago, I came from Pakistan as a refugee, and have been a refugee for 5 years. I knew that as a refugee, we are not welcomed, our rights are being denied, so I thought to myself that I want to help, I want to contribute, and so I decided to volunteer here at IDEAS Academy, a secondary learning centre for underprivileged children, including those who are refugees, stateless and undocumented

It was a very small team at that time, and the old principal, she’s from Australia, she was just sleeping on the dirty floor here, she also away from her home, the classroom was very small, when I saw this, I felt like I wanted to contribute, I wanted to be a part of it and I decided to volunteer here.

I remember last time we were not getting enough funds. It was a sad moment for me because we were only getting RM300 for the month, but we had students coming in – it was really depressing.

And do you know that children actually have their own depressing moments at home that we don’t know of too? Here, they get to learn, they get to play with each other, and they are happy and content. So when I see the happiness on their faces, and the things we’ve created here, that’s that happiest moment for me.

I believe that when you start to give out rights, you will get your rights. If you can’t even attend a charity, then what is it will come to you? If you do the same thing, it will come to you. So I thought, for their rights, and myself being a refugee, I want to help – that is my ambition here”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Samantha Siow
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on March 14th 2019)