The Tuyang Initiative

 

Mathew is an amazing teacher.

I went to him with a request: I wanted to experience Dayak culture through Sape' as an art form, and what he shared with me subsequently was priceless. A truly dedicated master of music. Learning Sape' from Mathew was a very spiritually enriching experience.

 

I had the pleasure of working with Juvita and The Tuyang Initiative for our Merdeka celebration. They were very professional and a pleasure to work with. Their performances were engaging and riveting, it definitely added to our sense of pride in being Malaysians. What I like most was how the dancers came off stage and encouraged employees to participate in the Magunatip dance. Employees were having a blast and for many a first time experience they truly appreciated. Juvita is great at advising you what works best for your event. I highly recommend you to give them a try.

 

The Singapore Botanic Gardens had the opportunity to work with the Tuyang Initiative earlier this year (Feb 2018- Jul 2018) as part of the recently opened new attraction of the Gardens, the Ethnobotany Garden.

Juvita Tatan Wan as the main coordinator for the organisation was responsive and helpful. After a quick explanation of the brief, she was able to quickly adapt the company’s offerings to suit our needs, which included both workshops during the opening week of the development, and hand-made artefacts that could be showcased in the garden. It was a joy working with her.

Both the workshops and the handcrafted artefacts from the team at the Tuyang Initiative were a great value-add to the development. There is clear intentional effort to raise awareness amongst the general public of indigenous knowledge; the artists engaged were familiar with their craft and authentic plant materials were used in creating the artefacts for the Gardens. As a result, these were effective in offering an educational insight into the intricate relationship between humans and plants, much in line with the vision of the Ethnobotany Garden.

We are satisfied with the professional work done for us at the Ethnobotany Garden.

 

When Juvita (co-founder) first knocked on our door, we were very certain at that time that we wanted to partner with Tuyang due to the content they have to offer, and we did not regret that decision. Especially for folks here in West Malaysia, this sort of cultural/arts programme is not something that we experience regularly; and indeed, the entire curation that happened during the festival finale was an eye opener to a lot of the festival-goers.

Throughout the entire process, Tuyang’s team was very professional and well-organised. They were prompt, and despite being based in Sarawak, we were kept updated at all time on their progress. As any festival organiser will know, this eases the worries of the organiser, help alleviate potential miscommunications and at the same time, ensuring things planned are on track with the festival direction and commitment.

It was a real pleasure working with The Tuyang Initiative!