KUALA LUMPUR: About a year ago, filmmaker and graphic designer Jesse Joy worked on “Finding Bundusan”, a documentary about his search for grey sedge, or bundusan, grass.
His grandmother would use the plant, which is significant in Kadazandusun culture, to weave mats. In the course of his research, the 32-year-old realised that books about his grandmother’s weaving culture were as difficult to find as the plant itself.
In fact, he recalled, it wasn’t easy to find books on Bornean culture at all. So the intrepid Joy, who is also an avid book collector, decided to seek them out.
“I started posting the books I had found on Instagram, and many people would ask me about them. I realised there might be an opportunity to provide them, so I went back to Kota Kinabalu and started collecting books,” said Joy, who hails from Putatan, Sabah, but is now based in Kuala Lumpur.
This led to him eventually deciding to start an online bookstore – and what better name for it than the plant that kickstarted this whole adventure?
In June last year, Bundusan Books opened its doors, so to speak – specialising in books about Borneo as well as indigenous and cultural topics. Beginning with just 11 titles, some from Joy’s personal collection, the store now carries over 500 books.
With part of his plan being to represent the business in a physical location at least once a month, Bundusan Books was recently part of the “Hin On The Move” market at the Zhongshan building in KL.
Up for grabs was a showcase of the finest works of East Malaysian literature. Various subjects, fiction and non-fiction alike, were stacked in neat piles, their bold titles enticing readers to venture into brave new worlds, whether traditional recipes or native customs, romantic poetry or folk tales, travel guides or spooky stories.
Joy, who is of Kadazan-Indian heritage, personally curates the selection. While he tries to have a nice mix of everything, he has a particular fondness for those with a cultural focus.
The store also carries a smaller range from peninsular authors, which is important to him as he wants East Malaysian readers to acquaint themselves with all forms of local writing.
Meanwhile, he invites those who are interested in older and more unusual titles to check out Bundusan Plus. This offshoot, usually available during pop-up events such as fairs and markets, stocks rarities, prints and collectibles, as well as first-edition and out-of-print books.
Joy is also happy to accept requests from customers to locate a book for them; so far, he has always been successful, he said.
Indeed, what brings Joy the most joy is when he connects a customer with the book they were looking for – a process he calls “book matchmaking”.
He recalls a particular instance involving a customer of Dusun Tombonuo heritage. “I said, ‘Ah, I have this book for you!’ – and I showed him this Dusun Tombonuo vocabulary book, which he was quite pleased with,” Joy laughed.
Reflecting on his bibliographic journey, Joy acknowledged that finding books of this nature can be a challenge. He visits shops and online booksellers, makes direct contact with publishers, and even takes trips to museums, all in a bid for more Bornean books and texts to add to his inventory.
Looking at things from a bigger perspective, he believes more efforts should be made to record and document information about East Malaysia’s rich culture and traditions.
“Speaking for Sabah, I hope it has a bigger selection of books. A lot of people there still assume books are just for school, when they should be part of lifelong learning,” he said.
“I think we can do more to push books and reading, and I hope to be part of the effort to do so. For too long, other people have been telling our stories, and often not in the way we want.
“I think it’s time for us to tell our own stories.”
Visit Bundusan Books on Shopee, and also check out its Facebook and Instagram profiles.