KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah State Library is encouraging more locals to write their own ethnic folklores for record purposes.
Its director Fatimah Abdillah said it was crucial to document the oral traditional stories for the future generation to read.
"Most of our youngsters nowadays do not believe that such events did happen in the past.
"So to document it in a book will be good reference material for them and others who are doing research," she said when receiving the depository of a fourth book titled "Scary Tales and Uncanny Encounters" written by Anna Vivienne at the Sabah State Library here.
"I think every ethnic in Sabah have their own beliefs to share, but many do not document it into a book," said Fatimah.
It was a good effort by Anna to document the stories that she had heard from her ancestors, she said.
"I encourage more people to write so that we can preserve the traditional unwritten stories in the library's depository.
"We have a provision in the Sabah State Library 2007 Enactment, to encourage people to write and deposit three copies of their published book for us to keep," she said.
She said many people had written books but they had not deposited them in the library.
"Depositing the books in the library is also one of the ways to promote their books where the big publishers will be aware of them because we have the ISBN identifier," she said.
Anna is a veteran journalist spanning 33 years of experience since the 1980s is a Dusun of Bunduliwan descent, from Kampung Bambangan Inanam.
"I was born during a time of transition, at least that's the way I felt, between animism and monotheism," she said.
"We were animists, and we believed spirits dwelled in everything around us.
"As a child, I lived a life according to our tradition and culture.
"My paternal grandmother was a bobolian or a medicine woman and spiritualist, and my mother was a novice before she embraced Christianity."
Before this, Anna has written three books according to stories and supernatural beliefs, related to her as children.
"The stories are fleshed out for dramatic reading, all fictions, pegged on our beliefs in the olden days.
"I have always wanted to share the little knowledge I have about our beliefs, as I feel there is a lack of interest in this field from our younger generation.
"Perhaps with entertaining reading, a spark of interest might light up within them and encourage them to know more," said Anna.