Keeper of the Kenyah Ngorek Songs
Sape Master and Living National Heritage of Malaysia
Mathew Ngau Jau, of the Ngorek tribe, is known as Keeper of the Kenyah Nogrek Songs, from Long Semiang in Ulu Baram. Whenever he returns to his birthplace once or twice a year, each night Mathew joins the other musicians, bringing out their four-stringed sape to sing of the stories that their fathers, grandfathers and oko-oko cemaa’ ancestors told them.