Gawai is around the corner. It’s gonna be a long weekend for Sarawak starting 1st June. Sabah too as they are celebrating their Hari Kaamatan on 31st May. These two states situated in the Borneo Island are very different from West Malaysia. Not many people know about us even the Malaysians themselves.
I’m half Bidayuh. Gawai to me is no stranger. When I was young, my parents would go back to my mother’s kampung for celebrations. We never stayed overnight though. Basically the day would be spent visiting. Since my mother’s kampung is under Seventh Day Adventist, they don’t eat pork and they don’t make tuak. This is what makes it different from the non-SDA’s kampung. There’s a series of events during that period of time as part of the Gawai celebrations. I remember my mother ever asked me whether I’m interested in joining the kumang gawai contest ;p
Talking about Gawai, I’ll be experience Gawai the Lun Bawang way. Means I’m flying off this Saturday to celebrate Gawai at Ba’kelalan with the other media people. It will be my first time experiencing a very different celebration far away from Kuching. This is gonna be interesting.
Meanwhile, do check out Kaamatan&Gawai 2014 by Petronas. You will learn a lot especially about the Iban and Dusun community. I learnt a lot from these videos as those are the things I’ve never experience partly because my mother’s kampung is a more modern one and because they are under SDA. Also, Bidayuh doesn’t live in longhouse. Frankly, I don’t think I can survive in the environment shown in the video hehehe…
Do stay tuned to my coming Gawai post π
Update: This post was composed few days ago, my latest status is that I will be in Kuching for Gawai, no more trip to Ba’kelalan due to flight change and work commitment stopped me from going π Anyway, at least I get to attend an event on 1st of June which I was actually looking forward to and was torn between these two offers. At least I don’t have to make any decision now, the answer is already there, no decision to make anymore.