Certified judges to assist in Unduk Ngadau judging
Published on: Sunday, April 15, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: The judging of Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan (UNK) pageant will be further improved through the preparation of a list of certified judges, said State-level UNK Organising Chairperson Joanna Datuk Kitingan."Once the list is prepared, the State-level organising committee will provide it to each district coordinator," she said during the UNK Judging and Preparation Workshop at the State Museum, here, Saturday."We encourage district coordinators to refer to the list to facilitate the judging of competitions in their districts."
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She said the workshop aimed to build a pool of certified judges for the pageant in the State."The workshop will be one of the criteria for judge selection in future as it is a comprehensive programme where participants can deepen their cultural knowledge."Last year, during the inaugural workshop, we managed to certify 70 judges while this year we have 61 participants."The response is overwhelming as many showed their interest on the workshop but we had to limit the number of participation."
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Joanna said the workshop was also one of the best ways to impart cultural knowledge to the participants."UNK is different from other beauty pageants as it has a deep cultural significance.
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"Through the workshop, it is hoped participants will not only know about the preparation for UNK contestants but also the dos and the don'ts."They would know what to look for during the judging sessions…they must have sharp eyes as to the 'common' eyes, the UNK participants are all beautiful, and that is why certified judges must be wise to scrutinise based on the specified criteria."Choosing the best is not easy and judges must have a comprehensive knowledge of the Kadazandusun Murut culture, especially when most of the young generation have forgotten about their traditional customs and worldview," she said.Joanna also disclosed that the State-level organising committee has considered many factors to select the judges for the annual event."The chosen judges have a sound experience in judging UNK at district-level competitions."They have also shown fairness and wisdom in their decisions, apart from having good knowledge on the KDM culture."We also select judges who are fluent in their own mother tongue but as the contestants come from various districts with their own distinctive language, we are going to prepare interpreters for the judges."The presenters for the workshop were Joanna, Dr Benedict Topin, Angeline Boilis, Martin Buguk and Richard Gontusan. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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