UPDATE (as of 1 Apr 2024): Festival has extended our deadline to 29 April 2024!

Our team have been invited to perform at World Music & Dance Festival, Japan in August 2024. 

We are honoured to be invited to a festival that hosts 30,000 people annually, that is why we intend to debut a new body of work which highlights cultural practitioners from various Dayak communities, namely the Kenyah, Kayan, Iban and Lun Bawang. 

Showcasing our various expressions of "Wind & Earth" under the banner of Lan e Tuyang (founded by Mathew Ngau Jau, Malaysia's Living National Heritage), it will be a performance rich in exploration through music, song, poetry and dance. Combined with the fact that it is a huge platform for our cultural practitioners to professionally grow from, we feel that this will not only inspire, it would also amplify the impact within our communities, and the work that we do as a social business and community-led creative company.

Now, the festival will take care of most of our logistics, however we will need to find our own way there (flights from our various home bases in Sarawak to Hakodate, Hokkaido). We've calculated that for the size of our group of about 15-18 pax (including possible layovers, excess baggage, insurance), it would cost us around RM180,000 to get to Hakodate and back.

For a micro social enterprise like ours, we just don't have that.

To just share some of the efforts we have exhausted:

• Writing in to various ministries and agencies since September 2023 for mobility grants that is accessible to us as a social enterprise OR for this group size OR for this value, within a suitable timeframe.

• We had also asked Sarawak's Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry & Performing Arts for assistance since September 2023, but only in February 2024 were we asked us to put in an application through association for a grant, instead of applying under our own entity (we are a nationally accredited social enterprise and impact driven company).

• With a MOTAC (Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia) support letter for tax exemption, we had also written in to different companies, including Sarawak Tourism Board, even our national airlines to try and get sponsorships with offer to explore ground activations at the festival and international media interview for mileage.

As the deadline to update the festival on our ability to secure our flights is 10 April 2024, we are running out of time and need your urgent assistance in helping us make our way there.

Tiga tawai (thank you) for hearing our plea.

And thanking you in advance for your contributions, including helping us share this with your network, friends and family!

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To corporate organisations who might be keen to assist:

We have a MOTAC Malaysia support letter which gives tax exemption to corporate companies who sponsor MOTAC-supported arts and culture initiatives. So if you would like to lend a hand, at ANY value in cash or in-kind, do message us personally and we will email the letter to you and work on the process together.