Life in a Longhouse – Hedda Morrison (1966)

S$74.00

Life in a Longhouse – Hedda Morrison (1966)

S$74.00

Title: Life in a Longhouse

Author: Hedda Morrison, Huang Jun Hien, Abang Bohari, Michael Buma

Publisher: Borneo Literature Bureau, 1966.

Condition: Leather, rebound by JARO. Very good. Slight tanning and inscription to ffep, and a crease on the middle of the pages of first half of the book, not affecting legibility. With text in English, Chinese, Malay and Iban. A photobook with beautiful black-and-white photos. 205pp. 10.5″ by 7.5″.

From the foreword:

I have spent rather than 15 years in Sarawak and during that time I have been fortunate enough to have been able to see a good deal of the life of the country-side. Whenever I visited longhouses I was conscious of the fact that the longhouse way of life is in the course of changing. I have tried to record faithfully in photographs whatever was typical of the people, and which might not be there to photograph at all for very much longer.

When I lived in Kanowit District I came to know and to enjoy the friendship of the people who lived in a typical, integrated longhouse community by the Ngemah, a small river which joins the Rejang 50 miles above Sibu. It was not a sensational, glamorous longhouse but a very typical one and represented all that is best in Iban life…Most of the photographs in this book were taken in this house, Rumah Garu, with the addition of some others to illustrate things which did not take place in Garu’s house while I was there.

About the author:

Hedda Morrison, the wife of an official in Sarawak, has taken her camera and her gift for catching intimate reveal scenes on tour through this fascinating country. Hedda Morrison’s technically brilliant photographs show in a most spontaneous way the mode of life of these varies peoples and the beautiful country in which they live.