Sarawak – Borneo The native festival of Gawai Spending native thanksgiving with the Iban, people whose ancestors were once headhunters!

Sarawak is one of the 14 states of Malaysia. It is not on the Malayan peninsula, but on the island of Borneo, the largest island in the world, home to many wonderful species of plants and animals and to many interesting groups of people. One of which is a group of native people called the Iban. Borneo Is also shared by the Malaysian State of Sabah, the Kingdom of Brunei and the Indonesian states of East and West Kalimantan

I live here, Miri, on the border with Brunei I was invited by Iban friends to spend Gawai here, in the jungle upriver from Kanowit, 550km away over rough roads.

After 9 hours in the car, we took a short canoe ride upriver

Everything is on stilts, several jetties lead to the longhouse. In flood the river can pass right underneath the longhouse. Although the privvy looks basic (it is , just a hole in the floor like French toilets), this is not shared, every house inside tends to have its own indoor plumbing, you can see the sewer pipe from this privvy. Electricity, however only arrived last year!

The people are very friendly. Everyone tends to be related somehow The people are very friendly. Everyone tends to be related somehow. When a bride marries, she moves to the longhouse her husband lives in. Or today, more commonly the city. Many people still live in longhouses, though many may also only live there part time. In this one, people ranged from barely literate to Phds (there were quite a few Master’s and Batchelor’s too) Literally it’s a village in a long house.

There is an outside porch, then just inside the common doors, a LONG, common indoor porch.

This longhouse has 50 doors. The porch is ½ a mile long! During gawai, everyone is invited to drink homemade rice wine (the pale yellow liquid in the bottles on the floor). It is after all a way of saying thank you for the rice harvest! The inside of each living unit is quite comfortable but basic, much like a rural French farmhouse. There is no air conditioner but most people have fans.

The people are very friendly The people are very friendly! Kids, like kids everywhere, love cameras, especially digital when they can see themselves instantly.

People are very friendly, they, like me enjoy a good drink at Gawai! For those with the stamina Gawai can be a 3 day party of drinking, dancing and singing!

The people are very friendly The people are very friendly. Well except for the chief when he caught me with his 19 year old daughter!!!

My that’s a big sword chief!! Back up a bit it’s a little too close to focus! Hey its rusty, you could get a nasty dose of tetanus off that! Actually this is my mate Boniface, dressed as a parody of a warrior, note the drain plug earrings – instead of heads tied to his belt, he’d strung beers which he would occasionally rip off and drink! I asked him to do some scary poses! On the subject of headhunting though, I gave a friend a lift back to Miri. He told me his great grandfather took 7 or 8 heads, consequently he had 4 or 5 wives, one’s prowess as a mate was related to prowess as a warrior. Today most Iban are catholic (hehe, apologies father Ted).

There were many fun events organised, a blowpipe competition (I Came 4th out of 20, yard of ale (3rd alas) and a malaysian dress pageant For the kids. Here my friend Esther (from the Miri Hash) is making up a Dutch Friend’s daughter to compete.

Look out Benneton - United colours of Sarawak!

The colours and the patterns of the cloth amazing.

The dancing has graceful moves.

The festival is a harvest festival, while there was much festivity, there was also a lot of prayer and deeper meaning. E.g. one day is set aside for the dead and the spirits, although rice wine is still much drunk. All in all I had a great time, learned much about the native people, had many great photo opportunities and was invited back next year. I hope to go again if possible. Thanks to my Iban friends for such a warm welcome to Sarawak. – Ian (I.jones@shell.com)