KOTA KINABALU: Tenom-native Hereckson Frex Rubin was astonished when his nephews and nieces could fluently sing Mexican nursery rhymes after watching them on YouTube.
In 2017, while attending a church function in Sandakan, Hereckson stayed with his brother. During his visit, he lent his phone to his young relatives.
"I didn't think much of it at first, but I was fascinated when I saw them effortlessly singing along to a nursery rhyme channel in Mexican.
"This moment was a revelation. If my nieces and nephews could learn and sing Mexican nursery rhymes so easily, why not create similar content in our own languages?" he said.
Determined to preserve and promote Sabah's indigenous languages, Hereckson embarked on the Linduk Nursery Rhymes project.
This initiative aims to teach the Murut, Kadazandusun, and Bajau languages to children through music and animation.
In 2019, he reconnected with his university friend Aaron Richard. Both are graduates of Universiti Malaysia Sabah's music programme. They embarked on a journey to fill this educational void.
The Linduk Nursery Rhymes initiative not only provides educational content but also acts as a cultural preservation tool.
"Our goal at Linduk Studio is to make learning these languages fun and accessible through engaging music and animation," said Hereckson.
"Our journey started in 2019 and continues today. The character Linduk has undergone four redesigns - three prototypes, and finally, we managed to create one main character suitable for children."
Their hard work bore fruit in 2023 with the release of their first video, which received a wave of positive responses.
Each video production is a detailed process, taking approximately three months and costing around RM16,000. The budget includes RM4,000 each for song drafting, animation drafting, audio production, and animation production.
Despite the costs and time, both are dedicated to their mission and currently have two more videos in production.
Their latest videos, which are posted on YouTube, have garnered almost 15,000 views each in less than a month.