Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game
The extinction of indigenous languages, which convey cultural worldviews, remains a continued threat to cultural heritage preservation. The nomadic Penans in the rainforests of Malaysian Borneo, have developed Oroo’, their own forest sign language, to communicate with each other. Yet with recent dev...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Institute of Physics Inc.
2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/1/No%2015%20%28abstrak%29.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848837100318752768 |
|---|---|
| author | Tariq, Zaman HHeike, Winschiers-Theophilus Alvin Wee, Yeo Lai, Chiu Ting Garen, Jengan |
| author_facet | Tariq, Zaman HHeike, Winschiers-Theophilus Alvin Wee, Yeo Lai, Chiu Ting Garen, Jengan |
| author_sort | Tariq, Zaman |
| building | UNIMAS Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The extinction of indigenous languages, which convey cultural worldviews, remains a continued threat to cultural heritage preservation. The nomadic Penans in the rainforests of Malaysian Borneo, have developed Oroo’, their own forest sign language, to communicate with each other. Yet with recent developments the younger generations are drawn more to technology than engaging with their surrounding forest, only vaguely remembers few signs. In this paper, we present one of our initiatives to reintroduce Oroo’ to the younger Penan generation by digital means. Under the auspices of a long term collaboration with the Long Lamai community we have developed and evaluated a first digital Oroo’ adventure game for the children. Results show a general interest in digital games with indigenous Penan contents albeit with a slight learning curve only. The project efforts rely on local community’s active participation and using indigenous wisdom as an essential component to digitalize and preserve the language further. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:34:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | unimas-11976 |
| institution | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:34:17Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Institute of Physics Inc. |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | unimas-119762023-08-10T07:48:37Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/ Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game Tariq, Zaman HHeike, Winschiers-Theophilus Alvin Wee, Yeo Lai, Chiu Ting Garen, Jengan HM Sociology T Technology (General) The extinction of indigenous languages, which convey cultural worldviews, remains a continued threat to cultural heritage preservation. The nomadic Penans in the rainforests of Malaysian Borneo, have developed Oroo’, their own forest sign language, to communicate with each other. Yet with recent developments the younger generations are drawn more to technology than engaging with their surrounding forest, only vaguely remembers few signs. In this paper, we present one of our initiatives to reintroduce Oroo’ to the younger Penan generation by digital means. Under the auspices of a long term collaboration with the Long Lamai community we have developed and evaluated a first digital Oroo’ adventure game for the children. Results show a general interest in digital games with indigenous Penan contents albeit with a slight learning curve only. The project efforts rely on local community’s active participation and using indigenous wisdom as an essential component to digitalize and preserve the language further. American Institute of Physics Inc. 2015 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/1/No%2015%20%28abstrak%29.pdf Tariq, Zaman and HHeike, Winschiers-Theophilus and Alvin Wee, Yeo and Lai, Chiu Ting and Garen, Jengan (2015) Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 15 (69). pp. 1-4. ISSN 0094243X https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84955289380&origin=inward&txGid=0 10.1145/2737856.2737885 |
| spellingShingle | HM Sociology T Technology (General) Tariq, Zaman HHeike, Winschiers-Theophilus Alvin Wee, Yeo Lai, Chiu Ting Garen, Jengan Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title | Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title_full | Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title_fullStr | Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title_short | Reviving an Indigenous Rainforest Sign Language: Digital Oroo’ Adventure Game |
| title_sort | reviving an indigenous rainforest sign language: digital oroo’ adventure game |
| topic | HM Sociology T Technology (General) |
| url | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11976/1/No%2015%20%28abstrak%29.pdf |