ABSTRACT
The Kelabit Highlands Community Museum was envisaged as a community museum, a concept that has an affinity with the ecomuseum. This chapter describes the characteristics of these museum types and their sustainability. In this context, the role of the oral transmission of traditional knowledge was critical to social cohesion, but its significance is explored here in light of circumstantial change since WWII. The Kelabit people themselves cite the influences of Christianity, western education and the modern development focused policies of Malaysia as important influences. This raises an issue of the extent to which the museum will create a place where the community can coalesce around shared aspirations and values.
