Hari Gawai is a festival celebrated by Dayaks in Sarawak and West Kalimantan which is officially public holidays on 31 May and 1 June every year in Sarawak, Malaysia. It is both a religious and social occasion.
The word Gawai means a ritual or festival whereas Dayak is a collective name for the native ethnic groups of Sarawak and neighboring Indonesian Kalimantan who are the Iban also known previously as Sea Dayak and the Bidayuh people also known as Land Dayak and the Orang Ulu (inclusive of Kayans, Kenyahs, Lun Bawangs, etc.). Thus, Gawai Dayak literally means "Dayak Festival".
The Dayaks are the indigenous people of Borneo. Dayak is a generic term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups which are located principally in the interior of Borneo. They have their own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorized as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia. The Dayaks were animist and paganistic in belief; however most converted to Christianity recently. Estimates for the Dayak population range from 2 to 4 million.
The mode of celebration varies from place to place. Preparation starts early. In fact, after the longhouse agrees to hold a big festival, the Dayaks may need to plant paddy in farms adjacent to each other and to implement a labour-exchange program called "bedurok" which is meant to ensure getting enough paddy at the end of the year in readiness for the big feast.
First of all, tuak (rice wine) which is the traditional drink of Dayaks is brewed at least one month before the celebration obviously using the glutinous rice from the recent bountiful harvest mixed with home-made yeast for fermentation. The Ibans also make a stronger alcoholic drink called "langkau" which is equivalent to vodka whereby a fermented tuak is heated up with fire to vaporize the alcohol which is then cooled with water and collected in a container. Among the Bidayuhs, this is called "arak tonok" which means burnt spirit.
The longhouse itself may be cleaned, repaired and repainted by cooperation (gotong-royong in Malay) among the longhouse dwellers, if necessary in time for the celebration. The longhouse itself is constructed in a unique way as a living home and ritual place of worship with the main tiang pemun post and the designated start point of all building materials ("pun ramu"). So, this architecture must be maintained intact. Timber and wooden materials may be obtained from nearby forests if still available. Otherwise, these have to be bought from towns.
Some inside walls of the longhouse can be decorated with ukir pictorial murals with tree and wild animal motives, and bamboo designs by men with the decorating skills. Orang Ulu is famous for their colourful paintings of tree of life on their house walls and their house posts are elaborately-carved. Some men will get traditional tattoos on their bodies to signify their adventures and experiences with land dan marine life motives in time for the gawai.
Highly-decorated shields may be made and displayed near the family room door. Old human skulls obtained during headhunting raids if still kept are cleaned and shown for exposition. Heirloom jars may be cleaned for exhibition. Deer horns may be sticked on the longhouse posts to hang highly-decorated swords.
Modern furniture like tables and chairs may be bought for comfort. Electric fans or even air-conditioners may be purchased if electricity supply has reached the longhouse. Old wooden longhouse ("rumah kayu") may be replaced with concrete and bricks to build it into a terraced longhouse ("rumah batu") either single or double storey if income and finance permits and when all family agrees to do so.
Just before the gawai, traditional cake delicacies are prepared from rice flour mixed with sugar like sarang semut" (ant nest cake), "cuwan" (molded cake) and "kui sepit" (twisted cake) which can last long while kept tight inside a jar because they are deep-fried until hardened but quite brittle when eaten. As the celebration nears, "penganan iri" (spherical-shaped cake) is made because this one cannot last long as it still contains moisture.
Before the Gawai eve, the longhouse folks may organize a hunting or fishing trip if forest is still available in the rural areas to get wild meats and fish from rivers or even seas if nearby. Both can be preserved with salt in a jar or smoked over the firewood platform above the cooking earth in the kitchen, in waiting for the coming feast.
Any wild animal parts like the horn, teeth and claws, and bird horns and feathers will be used to decorate and repair their traditional costumes for the coming big feasts.
Just before midnight, a spirit-welcoming procession (called Ngalu Petara in Iban) up and down the gallery seven times is performed. During this procession, a beauty pageant to choose the festival's queen and king (Kumang and Keling Gawai) is sometimes conducted based on completeness of traditional costume and of course a bit of beauty and handsomeness.
Meanwhile, foods and drinks including traditional cakes and delicacies are continued to be served either at the gallery or within the family room and ready for consumption by anyone based on the open house concept. It is time to show generosity to all!
Among others, a tree of life called ranyai in Iban will be set up at the gallery for celebration purposes and to showcase the traditional ngajat dance, sword dance or self-defence martial art and other merry making activities around the tree according to the sound of traditional music played. Others will sing their traditional poems like pantun for entertaining the guests and crowds.
There are many variations of the traditional ngajat dance which basically revolve around the male dance and female dance graceful and precise movements of the body, hands and feet with occasional shouts of battle cry. The famous and common choreography is called rice mortar ngajat dance, warrior dance and hand-combat dance for men while pua kumbu ngajat dance and above gong dance for ladies.
A ngajat dance contest may be held during this time at the ranyai tree of life. There are various types of ngajat traditional dance which are performed by ladies and gentlemen as mentioned above. The Iban male traditional dance is meant to show strength and bravery and may imitate the movements of a hornbill which is regarded as the king of worldly birds by the Iban Dayaks. The Iban female dance involves more graceful movements of their body, hands and feet.
Other activities that may follow and extend to the next few days include (blowpipe) sumpit contest, traditional game contest, cockfighting matches (nyabong), mini sports and fun games.
The blowpipe is a very long straight cylindrical tube (about 3 meters) made of a hard wood with a circular hole drilled through its middle centreline and its arrow tip is poisoned to kill animals and birds while hunting after being hit.
Gawai Dayak celebrations may last for around a month or so, which can be very busy several days before and after 1 June. It is during this time of year that many Dayak weddings (Melah Pinang or Gawai Lelabi) take place, as it is one of the rare occasions when all the members of the community return home to their ancestral longhouse.
Some longhouses and individual Dayaks will take this opportunity to hold one or several of the traditional original festivals. Within the same longhouse, there can be several types of festival going on depending on the needs of the individual Dayak families.
The ending of Gawai Dayak takes place around one month from 1 June which is towards the end of June. The closing ceremony is signified by symbolically rolling back a mat by each family within the longhouse. It is popularly known as "Ngiling Bidai" among the Iban Dayaks.
After all the celebrations and festival are completed, the Dayak people return to their normal life while those who work in towns and elsewhere will go back to their jobs to continue life as usual until the next coming festive seasons.
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