By Hafiz Asnawi
GOMBAK, 4 April 2015: Beautiful bonding moments with the natives were created during a Gotong Royong event held at Bilik Penggalak Pembaca (The Native Library) at Sg. Pusu today. The event started at 8.30 a.m and lasted until 5.00 p.m, organised by the Social Anthropology (SOCA 4520) class in collaboration with Sociology And Anthropology Student Association (SOCASA).
Led by the Head Department of Sociology and Anthropology,  Dr. Nurazzura Mohamad Diah, the project had involved a total of 55 participants. This is also the first time such an event was held.
The objective of this event is to give the students real exposure as anthropology researchers in ethnographic study and create a bond with the natives.
“It is a discipline where as anthropologists they need to go and work at the research site. In order to do that, we give the students experience as participant observers, to let the students know what they are going to do as anthropologists at the research field,” Dr. Nurazzura said.
She added: “Our focus is not mainly on participant observation but also to teach the students to create relationship with the natives, and to achieve that, students have to work together not only with the natives but also with the other researchers and this Gotong Royong event is one of the ways to achieve it.”
From 8.30 a.m until 11.30 a.m, the event started with cleaning the native library and redecorating it to make the place more beautiful. One of the natives, Bahsami, said, ” We are very grateful and glad to receive help from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) to make the library more lively and merrier.”
The natives were very friendly with the students and they were happy to accept the visit to the village.
One of IIUM students, Mat Zulkifli said, “We are happy to get to know them, they are really friendly.”
Another student, Qusyairi said: “They are more systematic from what the social media expect them to be and I am glad that I am one of the participants who joined this event.”
At 11.30 a.m until 5.00 p.m Bahsami started to give the students a tour around the native village for their research. One of the participants, Syazana, said: “We have a very exciting site visit, although it was tiring but it was worth it.”
After the tour, the students were separated into groups to conduct research on their own on the natives.
Dr. Nurrazura said, ” I’m very glad that this event was successfully conducted, because it taught the students to apply the theoretical knowledge that they have learned in class. This has helped them with conducting the interview with the natives. ***
