ABSTRACT
The Kelabit Highlands Community Museum Project Development is an example of community action in museum practices. This chapter discusses two trajectories which influenced the project: the local historical background and the contemporary international conservation discourse. It draws on the colonial history of museums in Sarawak and argues that following the end of WWII, circumstances and attitudes towards the conservation of heritage of indigenous cultures in Sarawak were influenced by Tom Harrisson, an explorer, collector and principle in the research organisation Mass Observation, whose close engagement with the Kelabit community was profoundly influential.
