Gawai Special: Gayu guru, gerai nyamai
Jun 1st, 2007 by Clare
Selamat Hari Gawai ngagai suma bansa Dayak bak Sarawak! Gayu-guru, gerai-nyamai!
(In Iban means Happy Gawai to all Dayaks in Sarawak! Long life, health and prosperity!)
To my dearest friends, Anne S. Juan (Australia) and Elaine Patrick (UK), who are not in the country at the moment, if you are reading this, Happy Gawai to both of you and your family!
Well, today, 1st June is a Gawai Dayak (Gawai Day) festival celebrated mainly by the Dayaks in Sarawak. Gawai means festival where Dayak is a collective name for the natives races in Sarawak, namely Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Murut, and so many other name that I currently cannot remember. Oh, by the way, for those ignorant West Malaysians, Sarawakian are not all Dayak! Yes, they are the original owner of the Sarawak land but the idiot Temenggung J***h gave the land away to the government during Independence Day there are also a lot of Chinese and Malay here. I get annoyed when people assumed that I am one of the natives when I introduced myself as Sarawakian. But sometimes I played along and called them “janik” and they were happy 0.o!!! *snicker*
Anyway, a lot of people (read as IGNORANT WEST MALAYSIANS) do not realize the existence of the Ibans in Sarawak. Traditionally, they lived, and still do, in rumah panjai (long houses) along the rivers in Sarawak. I had been to a few long houses before. A lot of rumah panjai found today are upgraded and modernized with electricity and water facilities, some even have Astro, Streamyx, etc. But rumah panjai in more ulu places are still without electricity supply, never mind Astro and Streamyx. They get their water supply from the river nearby.
The younger generation nowadays can be found vastly in urban areas. Inter-racial marriage in Sarawak is as common as the sight of trees (the two good friends I mentioned above are the products of inter-racial marriage).
The Ibans, during their quest for tribal expansion once upon a time, were feared by other tribes then. They were renowned for practising piracy (Nothing like Pirates of the Caribbean lah!) and head-hunting (Yes, they chopped your head off and hanged it in their house to show the strongest chopped the most heads). Hence, the name Land of Head-hunters.
I have never been to a traditional Gawai celebration so I do not know the actual protocol of the celebration. To my knowledge, there are tuak, ngajat dance, blowpipe skills. etc. But family friends in urban area who do not balik kampung during Gawai will have open house and the main focus on this day would be the tuak (I love tuak!) Well, you can google about it to know more.
Today is a public holiday in Sarawak! Too bad, not here in West Malaysia. Therefore, I still have to work. Sigh! Well, anyway, TGIF!!!
Have a nice day everyone! 
But I do realize the existence of Ibans in Sabah…hehehehehe… ok ok…Sarawak, was just pulling your leg…
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hey… i know of their existence u know… but knowing it doesnt get me a hol… sigh…
i like your struck through line… brilliantly joint.
Yeah, doesn’t get me a hol as well…The struck through line ar, I was just lazy to delete it. Hahaha!!
mana tuak?
Aku nadai tuak! Bak Sarawak bisik mayuh tuak! (I don’t have tuak! Sarawak got a lot lah!)
gawai almost always reminds me of tuak!
Hey Simon! Thanks for dropping by. Yeah, me too!
both your friend over there… not pure iban… they’re chiban… ha ha. i have never actually met elaine patrick actually, but i know the family..
Hello? Wake up liao…I did say that they are not pure Iban, didn’t I?
Thanks dear clare. Happy gawai to you too
Be happy, be merry 
Heheh! Have a nice day!
wat the fish?? i tried googling up the word kampua and i found this blog, lmao! and apparently, it belongs to a good fren of my sis (mentioned in this post) who also happens to live near my house, does that ring any bell ?
yah, lotsa ignorant westies. you know the cliche “live on the tree” thing and their inability to tell the slightest of difference between “Sarawak” and “Sabah” ? freakin annoys me. Theyd also ask stupid things like “Eh, how did you come here ah?” wtf ?? they think what, sampan ka? stupid fucktards. I especially hate those kids from big cities, theyd be like “Oh, Im from KL (not pronounced K-L but Kheyyy-Aillllll), im from peee-jay, im from bang-saaarrr” yeah, BIG DEAL! and they owez think that they are the coolest ppl with the best sense of dressing in college, which they are NOT ! ok, enuf of them.
Btw, the above is a good read. Very informative
Hello! Thanks for dropping by. So you are Anne’s bro/sis or Elaine’s bro/sis??? Anyway, yeah, those things annoy me to the bones as well. Normally I played along. When they asked ‘how you come here?’ I’d say ‘Oh, use balloons! Just now I tersangkut atas pokok, so bergayut from tree to tree till I reach here lor…’ with the straightest face and 0.o!!! they actually believed!!!
im Gilbert :-). they actually believe it cause theyre just downright ignorant. whatever you tell dem goes into one ear and goes right out from the other ear. no matter how many times you tell them you are from sarawk theyd always ask without fail, “Going back to Kota Kinabalu this holiday ?” see ?? they even got the capital wrong.. dimwits =.=
Oh, hi Gilbert!
Yeah, you should read my previous entry on this:
http://clareng.com/2007/04/11/do-you-know-your-root/
http://clareng.com/2006/10/15/sibu-the-infernal-affair/
Hmm…I think I should write a post on this and tembak them kao kao hoh…Thanks for the inspiration