PAGAR & PADI An exhibition by Catriona Maddocks and Gindung Mc Feddy Simon

Rice has been cultivated by communities in Borneo for countless generations, and in return, rice has cultivated customs, beliefs, traditions, and cultures throughout the Island. Annual rice harvests guide the ebbs and flows of rural life, connecting communities with weather patterns, lunar cycles, feasts and fasts, and communal coming together to reap what has been sown.

(Photo below) Jamin Artists at Work 2023

In Sabah, imbued with the spirit of Bambarayon, rice has become a staple not just in the diets of the community but also in daily lives and practices, rich origin stories, mythologies and cosmic understanding. Indeed legend states that rice was brought to the people of Sabah through the selfless sacrifice of Hominodun.

“My body will give rise to all sorts of edible plants to feed the people. My flesh will give rise to rice, my head—the coconut, my bones—tapioca, my toes—ginger, my teeth—maize and my knees—yams. Our peoplewill never go hungry again.”

(Photo below) Jamin Artists at Work 2023

On 31 August 1964, a year after the formation of Malaysia, the Batu Sumpah, an oath stone was revealed in Keningau to commemorate the terms to which Sabah agreed to its role in the nation-building of Malaysia.

Upon this stone, a metal plaque bore the words:

The Malaysian Government Guarantees

Freedom of Religion in Sabah
The Government of Sabah Holds Authority over Land in Sabah
Native Customs and Traditions Will Be Respected and Upheld by the Government

Fifty years later, it was discovered that the plaque had been tampered with and that the words “The Malaysian Government Guarantees” (in Malay, “Kerajaan Malaysia Jamin") had been removed.

The Guarantee, the "Jamin" to the people of Sabah had been erased. But not forgotten.

In October 2022 British artist Catriona Maddocks and Dusun artist Gindung Mc Feddy Simon collaborated with community members of Kampung Kilimu, a rural village at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu. Together they undertook the annual Mongomot, rice planting, using heritage rice grains to spell out the guarantee, JAMIN, into the earth, commemorating the promises of 1964 of the Batu Sumpah. In March 2023 the padi was harvested. In early November the artists once again returned to the Padi fields in Ranau to re-plant the land art, and it was once again harvested in March 2024, becoming an annual, cyclical honouring of the land and people of Sabah, Borneo.

The exhibition title references the famous Malay proverb “Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi”. Translated as “Trusting the fence, yet the fence eats the paddy”, the proverb implies that sometimes those that we rely on to protect something can end up destroying it.

The work in Pagar & Padi explores how man-made promises wrought in iron may be easily erased but the soil and toil of Sabahan community members guarantees that the land remembers; rice will sustain, the crop will grow, the community will come together and what was sown will be reaped.

Jamin Harvest 2023

Artist Bios

Jamin Harvest 2023 (left and right)

Gindung Mc Feddy Simon is an artist, musician and researcher from Ranau in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. He is the co-founder of the printmaking art collective Pangrok Sulap, and a revivalist of the traditional boat lute from Sabah, the sundatang. As a child, Gindung helped his family plant and harvest padi, but this is the first time that he has returned, as an adult, to padi-planting to produce the land art that forms the centrepiece of Pagar & Padi.

Catriona Maddocks is a curator, artist, and researcher, originally from the U.K. and based in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo for the past fifteen years. Her cross-disciplinary work focuses on collaborative platform-building and developing spaces in which to explore identity, community narratives, and cultural heritage within a contemporary context. She has worked with rural communities documenting cultural practices for a decade but this artwork is the first time she has combined her art, research and creative practices to explore land activism and indigenous rights. As a British women Catriona’s role in the padi planting is an acknowledgement of the colonial legacies of the lands of Borneo, and the legacy of which continues to be felt today.