The title of my Postdoctoral research project is "Documentation, digitisation and preservation of Oroo', the sign language of nomadic Penans". Oroo’ is a living cultural heritage of the Penan which from a historical, political, social and scientific perspective is of extreme value to society. The Oroo project’s main goal is to preserve the traditional knowledge and revive the sign language of the community, given that the older generation is slowly dying out, and knowledge is no longer being transferred to the younger generation. The younger generation although living in the remote village does not travel the forest any longer. Thus they are not interested in learning and retaining Oroo’, as being the old way of communication. The project activities comprise documenting of Oroo signs and messages, creation of a database (photos, video description, and drawings) and a rule system, developing cultural Oroo’ educational games for Penan children and developing ICT tools for contemporary use of Oroo’ signs as communication medium.

 

Research Outcomes

  • Zaman, T. & Winschier-Theophilus, H. (2015) Penan’s Oroo Short Message Signs (PO-SMS): Co-design of A Digital Jungle Sign Language Application, J. Abascal et al. (Eds.): INTERACT 2015, Part II, LNCS 9297, pp. 489–504, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-22668-2_38 (Indexed in ISI-Web of Science)
  • Zaman, T., Winschier-Theophilus, H., Yeo, A.W., Ting, L. C., Jengan, G. (2015). Reviving an indigenous rainforest sign language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game. Paper presented at Proceedings of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, 15-18 May, 2015, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Plimmer, B., He, L., Zaman, T., Karunanayaka, K., Yeo, A.W., Jengan, G., Blagojevic, R., Yi-Luen, E.D. (2015). New Interaction Tools For Preserving an Old Language. In: Conference 33rd Annual ACM conference on Human factors in Computing Systems (CHI) ACM, (2015) (SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award : among the top 5% of all submission to CHI 2015)

  • Zaman, T., Winschier-Theophilus, H., Jengan, G., Yeo, A.W. (2014). Signs, Concepts and Representation: Experiences in Documentation of Penan Indigenous Knowledge. Paper presented at Proceedings of the 4th Regional Conference On Local Knowledge, 12-13 October 2014, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kuching, Malaysia

  • Zaman, T., Jengan, G., Winschier-Theophilus, H., Kulathuramaiyer, N., & Yeo, A.W., (2013). Digitalising and preserving Oroo', a secret signage language of the nomadic Penans in the rainforest. Project concept paper presented at the 4th eBario Knowledge Fair 2013. Bario Sarawak: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia

Awards

  • The IFIP Brian Shackel Award 2015 for the paper Penan’s Oroo Short Message Signs (PO-SMS): Co-design of A Digital Jungle Sign Language Application, 16 September 2015 Bamberg, Germany (http://ifip-tc13.org/awards/)
  • The IFIP Interaction Design for International Development (IDID) Award 2015, for the paper Penan’s Oroo Short Message Signs (PO-SMS): Co-design of A Digital Jungle Sign Language Application, 16 September 2015 Bamberg, Germany (http://ifip-tc13.org/awards/)
  • SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award : among the top 5% of all submission to CHI 2015

Project partners

  • Long Lamai community, Upper Baram, Sarawak Malaysia
  • Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan, Malaysia
  • Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

Funder

  • Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) Asia, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), Australia. The project is amongst the 11 recipients (out of 139 applicants) of ISIF Asia grants 2014
  • Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia (under Post-doctoral Research Fellowship)