Sabah Student Wins First Prize for Haiku at International Argentine Competition

Keningau Vocational College has produced its fair share of brilliant students such as Alesyah Asa, who was shortlisted for the Global Student Prize. Their teachers also previously made history as the first Malaysians to win an award from GoAbroad, a US-based study abroad provider. Their achievements have made both Sabah and Malaysia proud and last week, Siti Nur Hanisah Omar Hashim, a student at the college, won first prize at the online art festival ‘Argentine Gathering’ that was hosted from Argentina.

The international competition was hosted by the European Association of Folklore Festivals, an official partner of UNESCO, and evaluated by jury members from Argentina and Europe.

Drawing inspiration from her parents and her school life, Hanisah wrote a total of ten haikus and her entry for the competition contains her recital of the haikus which you can watch here:

Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry, and a tradition that spans hundreds of years that consists of three lines with a specific number of syllables for each line.

Hanisah took part in two virtual workshops on how to write haikus. She first attended an online session with a Japanese American, Lynn Nakazawa, and this was followed by her participation in another virtual workshop with Alan Maley, a British English language expert. She learnt to craft her haikus from these two workshops and the effort paid off.

We spoke to her teacher Dr Sirhajwan Idek, who submitted her haikus for the competition. “I always believe that every individual student possesses excellent artistic talents, and they need avenues to showcase their works where they can be as expressive as they can. Therefore, I always incorporate arts into my teaching and after-school activities.”

He explained, “Haiku is a type of short poetry that students can easily learn to do regardless of their English proficiency. Hanisah put great effort into writing her haikus during our poetry workshop and we decided that she should take part in an art competition. I am grateful that she was awarded first prize. I personally felt our goal is not to win competitions but to raise public awareness of the beauty of arts, using it to preserve our cultural heritage, hone our artistic talents, as well as expressing our individuality.”

Hanisah’s college director, Mr. Johari @ Jaibet Bin Sabin, also congratulated the student and hoped this will inspire more students to write poems and other types of literary works that can help to preserve cultural heritage, boost their English language proficiency and hone their talents in performing, visual, and literary arts.

Such lovely haikus! We may just try our hand at writing one. Well done, Hanisah –– you’ve made Malaysia proud!