Gawai back in full swing at Lubok Antu longhouse

 

Gawai is the time for homesick Dayaks to catch up with relatives and friends in Sarawak’s longhouses.

KUCHING: The “ruai” (common area of a longhouse) at Sebangkie Panjai, a 57-door Iban longhouse in the Lubok Antu district of Sarawak, has come alive again this Gawai Dayak after two years of silence.

Previously, the longhouse chief made sure that the Covid-19 rules on social distancing were strictly enforced in all longhouses.

That, and other rules to stop the spread of Covid-19, meant that there was no Gawai for fear the virus could infect many in the community.

In 2020, the Sebangki Panjai residents, who lived and worked in Sarawak’s major towns like Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri, and even as far away as Kuala Lumpur or Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, could not go home due to the movement control order and border closures.

Despite the ban on gatherings, some residents furtively invited neighbours over for a small “ngabang” (visit) just to get some semblance of that “Gawai feeling”.

Gawai Dayak marks the end of the rice harvest festival. It is the most important festival in the calendar for the state’s largest ethnic group.

The decision of the longhouse elders last year to ban all outsiders, including non-residents – those who have a room at the longhouse but do not live there for more than three months in a year – meant many could not go home for Gawai.

Sebangkie Panjai was not alone. The experience was the same in the thousands of longhouses that dot the state’s hinterland.

However, with most Covid-19 restrictions being either abolished or loosened in recent months, homesick Dayaks almost everywhere packed their bags, their beer, whisky, brandy, pork and other goodies to enjoy Gawai with the folk back home.

‘Ugly’ contest

It is a four-hour drive from Kuching to Sebangkie Panjai and 12 hours from Miri, in the northern part of the state.

As expected, traffic on the 70% completed Pan Borneo Highway was unusually heavy.

Elizabeth Serai, who works for an oil and gas company in Kota Kinabalu, is back in her husband’s longhouse to assume her role as the “chief chef” in the family kitchen.

Nothing prepared in the kitchen gets served without her approval.

While pork still holds an important place on the Gawai table in longhouses in Lubok Antu, it is coming under serious threat from the tilapia fish. The fish is not only cheap, it is plentiful at the lake of the nearby hydroelectric dam.

A contestant in the ‘engkeratong’ to pick the longhouse’s ugliest, dirtiest-looking resident.

Festivities start in earnest in the evening of May 31.

Unlike most other longhouses, Sebangkie Panjai does not hold the “kumang” or “keling” contest – a beauty contest of sorts to pick the most beautiful single woman (kumang) and the most macho man (keling) of the longhouse normally held on Gawai eve.

This, however, is not because the longhouse does not have enough eligible young people to take part.

“They just want to do things differently,” Francis Ranggau, a member of the longhouse Gawai organising committee, said.

Instead, the longhouse holds slapstick contests sure to bring about more fun and laughter.

One such contest is called engkeratong – a contest to pick the longhouse’s ugliest, dirtiest-looking resident.

While the contest is guaranteed to have everyone in stitches as they watch fellow residents show their ingenuity and the depth of their foolishness, the engkeratong is actually a replay of local lore.

The contraptions the contestants strap onto their body as they parade on what could be the longest catwalk anywhere – 70m of the “ruai” – are enough to start a riot.

Traditional games

The other unusual contest this longhouse holds is one to pick the “best transgender”. A handful of boys are made to wear their mother’s or sisters’ clothing and are given a touch of make-up.

Aside from the fun and games, the thanksgiving prayer gathering is still very much part of the longhouse Gawai programme.

Another unusual contest is one to pick the ‘best transgender’.

It is also held on Gawai eve with the “miring” ceremony for residents who still hold on to the old belief, and Christian prayers for the converted.

The Gawai eve celebration goes on all night long with the endless karaoke sessions and, of course, drinking till the wee hours of the morning.

Residents of the longhouse are prohibited from calling the police and making a noise complaint.

On Gawai day itself, residents compete among themselves in traditional games, such as the blowpipe shooting competition.

With many people finally returning home, the number of contestants for the dozen or so games for this Gawai has been reported as “unusually many”.

Yes, Gawai in Sebangkie Panjai is back with a bang. - FMT