Who cares about Malay music--and why?: migrant musicality, Christian composition, backlash and boundaries in an Indonesian province made for Malays

The Riau Islands have a diverse Malay musical heritage, but also a population of extreme demographic diversity. This raises questions about the ways in which non-Malays might engage with creating and performing ‘Malay music’, and how such endeavours are received more widely. This paper explores how such issues affected the Trio Komodo, a Florinese music group resident in the Riau Islands. It examines how and why ‘Malay music’ has become a genre in which Riau Islanders of various backgrounds and ideological persuasions can be become passionately invested, and thereby outlines the political considerations that surround all performances of ‘Malay music’ in the province today.