The Ladies of the Ring from Kampung Semban Teleg performing the Rejang Gawai.
NYADIK Dulah could not believe they are together again after decades apart.
The 70-year-old grandmother is happy the villagers from Kampung Semban Teleg and Kampung Rejoi have regrouped.
Folks from the two villages are of the same tribe but have lived apart when the earlier settlers split up and created another resettlement about 40 years ago.
After so many years of separation, the Bimban tribe has come together again – thanks to the Bengoh Dam project.
This tribe now lives together at one modern resettlement – the Bengoh Resettlement Scheme (BRS).
According to Nyadik, the Bimban first settled at a place called Kepek Keyong and Bung (hilltop) Lajang about 200 years ago before splitting into two in 1974.
“We are called Bimban and our ancestors were farmers, mainly practising shifting cultivation.
“Although a small community, we have been living together in peace and harmony,” said Nyadik from Kampung Semban.
Kampung Semban village head Bujus Kian said the split among the villagers in Kampung Semban occurred because of a school.
He said some of the villagers wanted to have the school built farther down the village nearer the mainstream development.
The school was named SK Rejoi.
Head of ritual ceremony Kian Tuah, 82, performing one of the traditional rituals at the celebration.
“The people in Kampung Rejoi are actually from Kampung Semban and the pupils at SK Rejoi comprise children from Kampung Rejoi and Kampung Semban,” he explained.
To get to Kampung Rejoi, the people in Kampung Semban have to walk about an hour. Now, villagers from the two kampungs have resettled in BRS where their houses are only minutes apart.
The BRS is about 43km from Kuching and connected to the city by tar-sealed road.
The project covers an area of about 1,000 acres – 300 acres for residential area comprising 204 houses and four community halls (one hall each for every village), and 700 acres of land for agriculture.
The residential area is the new home for residents from four villages, including Kampung Pain Bojong and Kampung Taba Sait.
Last weekend at a joint Gawai closing celebration, I had a chance to mingle with the BRS villagers and learn about their roots.
The Bengoh Dam project had sort of reunited two different tribes from the Bidayuh community.
If the people from Kampung Semban Teleg and Kampung Rejoi are the off-shoots of the Bimban tribe, communities from Kampung Pain Bojong and Kampung Taba Sait are originally the Bidayuh community from the Tibia tribe.
Nueng Maron from Kampung Pain Bojong narrated that the ancestors of the people from two villages first settled at a place called Bung Jogong.
The 72-year-old said the villagers split into two when land for shifting cultivation had become less at Bung Jogong.
As a result, some of the villagers migrated downstream to sustain their agriculture activities and eventually named their new resettlement as Kampung Taba Sait.
“Kampung Taba Sait has already existed when I was born and the people there are of the same tribe with us,” he noted.
He pointed out that the BRS project had not only regrouped his tribe but also unified the two different tribes as close neighbours.
“Although each kampung maintains its own name, we are all the community of BRS.”
Nueng said the successful joint Gawai closing celebration was an indication of the community’s unity, friendship and readiness to working together.
Among the highlights was the culture performance by the Ladies of Ring from Kampung Semban.
The performance featured a unique traditional dance and the sounds of gongs.
It reminded me of my first and the last visit to old Kampung Semban Teleg in 2007.
Wearing their traditional garbs and adorning themselves with necklaces made of wild plants and beads, the five Ladies of the Ring performed the Rejang Gawai (festive dance).
To the beats of traditional gongs and drums in the community hall, the women danced gracefully, stretching their arms as a show of gratefulness for a bountiful padi harvest.
Kampung Semban Teleg village head Bujus Kian (third right) joins the Ladies of Ring and participants from the four BRS villages for the ‘poco-poco’ dance.
The party might have been organised in a modern setting but the traditional celebration remains as one of the core aspects of culture, woven tightly into the overall cultural identity of the community.
This is another common trend of society in that when the new community move to a new place, they will bring with them their cultural identity.
Other than that, they were also exploring the traditions of a new community and joining the celebration of new neighbours. Some of these experiences may provide memories to last a lifetime.
“Joining our new community in this mixed traditional-modern celebration is a new experience for most of us.
“I will always remember this joint celebration within our new home because this is the beginning of our future unity,” said Nyukan Ganjai, a 68-year-old villager.
Inaccessible by any mode of transport, the four villages never had a grand joint celebration like what they had at the BRS.
To get to the old villages will take a few hours on foot from Kampung Bengoh.
Nueng’s younger brother, Nyirim, said he did not see much difference in the traditional cultures of the Bimban and Tibia tribes although they were far apart.
“Only our dialects may be a bit different but from what I see, there are a lot of similarities in our cultures and traditions.
“Most important is we have regrouped as one community of the BRS.”
The 63-year-old farmer said since they had been grouped in the same resettlement, both tribes would have to adapt to each other’s cultures and the new environment.
He believed delving deep into each others’ culture was a good way to adapt to their new home although maintaining their own cultural traditions was just as important.
“Celebrating our traditions helps keep us grounded in our own culture while adapting to a new one.
“This is especially important when going through some of the phases of culture shock that affect many of us in the first few months after moving into our new homes.”
Baha Batel from Kampung Semban said celebrating one of their traditional festivals together had brightened up the community’s mood for weeks, being engrossed in preparations for the event as well as experiencing the excitement of the day itself.
“Celebrating a special day together like this can also help us connect with our new neighbours who can add to our mutual support group.
“When we hosted this joint celebration, we invited our new neighbours and their families who had just spent an exhausting couple of months going through the trials of getting settled into a new home, environment and lifestyle as well as facing new challenges,” he said.
Nyadik said she was grateful for the chance to relax, meet her lost relatives, new friends and exchange previous and new life experiences at the BRS.
“I’m very happy we are coming together again and having new neighbours and friends from Kampung Bojong and Kampung Sait here.
“This is something I have never thought of before.”
Michael Sinar Nikan from Kampung Taba Sait said celebrating their traditions together was perhaps most important if parents had young kids growing up in another culture and if the parents had spent most of their married life in the urban.
“Personally, I’m looking forward to more joint traditional celebrations like this.
“It can help keep our kids firmly rooted in their own cultures and those of others, at the same time, offering learning experiences that might not be possible otherwise.
“Traditional celebration such as this in a big resettlement is also an excellent opportunity for inter-cultural exchange and understanding among the four different villages.”
Sinar, a retired teacher, believed both kids and adults alike could learn about each other’s cultures through the joint celebration.
He said celebrating together while living in the same area would give everyone some memorable experience.
The immediate and future challenge for the BRS community is to blend the many faces into one community. And it will be a part of the commitment of the BRS task force committee to continue preserving and sharing the story of the community’s historical past while adapting to modern ways of living
They are still many unsettled issues that need to be resolved such as compensation and additional agriculture lots for the affected families – and staying united will make them strong and be heard.
The villagers started moving to the BRS in November last year.