The Sekapans – a vanishing tribe

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SHE struggled to endure the pain of pricking needles for three straight weeks to get the tattoos done on both her hands and toes.

TATTOOED HANDS: Iton (right) showing her heavily tattooed hands together with Rumat.

She begged the tattooist to discontinue the excruciating skin-piercing but her elders stood firm – and she had to abide by her tribal tradition.

Iton Lasah, now in her 60’s, can still remember vividly how her elders had to pin her down on the floor to steady her hands so that her fingers and forearms could be properly tattooed.

“If not for our steep tradition, I would have run away from home to escape those painful moments,” she thesundaypost at her home at Sekapan Panjang, some 20 minutes downstream from Belaga Town.

She said it would take the whole day and over at least three weeks for both hands to be properly tattooed.

“Normally, the tattooist would use three to five needles so that both hands – from elbow down to the fingers – would be properly covered with ink.”

Iton is one of the last Sekapan women whose generation has to ensure painful tattooing on their hands and feet in accordance with an age-old tradition of her tribe.

She said the tattooing would normally take place before puberty to enhance the beauty of the Sekapan girls and prepare them for meeting their suitors.

After all, marriage among the Sekapans, like many natives during those days, was permissible once they reached puberty.

Both Iton’s friends, Livan Sepit and Rumat Sapok, also in their 60’s, had to undergo the same ritual just to keep the tradition alive. Tattooing their bodies was not the only painful rite of passage for Sekapan women. Like their neighbours, the Kayans and Kenyahs, they too had to elongate their earlobes to complete their feminism.

According to the three elderly Sekapan women, having their ear lobes inserted with heavy brass was also a painful experience but they had to endure it for the sake of beauty and tradition.

As for the menfolk, looking macho and manly meant they had to elongate their ears so that they could decorate them with leopard teeth. That’s the testimony of Livan’s husband, Banyai Bajat, 70. However, as modernisation sets in, the practice of tattooing the hands and feet among Sekapan maidens as well as elongating their earlobes is slowly diminishing – just like their own tribe.

Now numbering slightly above 2,000, the Sekapans are among the most endangered ethnic groups in Sarawak. This is due mainly due to assimilation of their culture into those of the much bigger and more prominent ethnic groups such as the Kenyahs, Kayans, Malays, Ibans’ and even the Chinese.

“Because many of our maidens are fair, Chinese men in Miri and Bintulu prefer to take them as their wives,” Banyai revealed.

And to meet present-day challenges, especially for better education, most Sekapan couples now have smaller families.

“This lack of natural growth is also one of the reasons why our number is declining rapidly,” Iton admitted.

KUMANG PESTA: Cironilla Yahya, 17, the Kumang Pesta Sekapan 2012.

Ensuring recognition

Today, the Sekapans are found only at two settlements on Sekapan Panjang and Sekapan Piit (formerly Sekapan Pendek).

Efforts to preserve their traditions and culture have never been serious until the recent Pesta Sekapan from Nov 15 to 17.

Held for the very first time, the festival highlighted the existence of smaller ethnic groups in Belaga District to the rest of the country.

In fact, the inaugural Pesta Sekapan was an initiative of the community itself and Parti Rakyat Sarawak’s (PRS) nominated parliamentary candidate for Hulu Rajang Wilson Ugak Kumbong, whose wife Leyta Kupa, is, incidentally, a Sekapan.

Leyta is the daughter of Iton, who, in turn, is the sister of the former paramount chief of the Orang Ulu in Belaga, the late Temegggong Matu Puso.

The objective of the festival was to ensure that the Sekapans were recognised by the much bigger ethnic groups not only in Belaga but also throughout the country.

During the opening ceremony, Senior Minister and Minister of Land Development Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing asked Assistant Minister of Culture and Heritage Liwan Lagang to help the Sekapans preserve their traditions and culture “for as long as possible.”

“The government will not neglect any community in the state. Though development can be rather slow in coming, this does not mean the government is neglecting the Sekapans or any other smaller ethnic groups in Belaga,” he assured.

Masing pointed out that other smaller ethnic groups found only in Belaga such as the Sihans, Bhukets and Sepings, whose populations numbered only a few hundred, would also be taken care of.

“This Pesta Sekapan will allow the much bigger ethnic groups to appreciate your existence. Without such a festival, probably no one will know about you,” he told a big gathering of Sekapans.

“I’m happy there is an effort to highlight the smaller ethnic groups such as the Sekapan.

By organising the pesta, we hope the bigger ethnic groups in Belaga will not ignore the Sekapans.”

Masing said the festival would also encourage the various ethnic groups in the district to interact and forge closer ties.

On his part, Ugak, who was also the organising chairman, assured he would continue organising the event if elected as MP in the future.

He said he had plans to improve the basic infrastructures in the area such as roads, electricity and water so that Pesta Sekapan could be included in the tourism calendar.

TWO GENERATIONS: Iton, Livan and Rumat with the Sekapan beauty contestants.

No concrete answer

Meanwhile, when asked about the possibility of their tribe becoming extinct one day, Iton and her friends could not offer any concrete answer except that they would leave it to the younger generation to deal with the issue.

“We are already in our sunset years – there is nothing much we can do about it. Our population is so small, what can we do? But if we are asked or consulted on how best to preserve our culture, we are ever ready to assist,” they said.

The younger Sekapans prefer to be like their peers from the other races and they are not to be too worried about their future.

“After all, we are all Malaysians. Even if there are no longer any Sekapans in the future, we hope whoever have Sekapan blood will carry on the legacy of our race,” said a teenager who declined to be named.

The festival had been memorable for the Sekapans at Sekapan Panjang as well as the other communities such as the Kayans and Kenyahs. Even the Penans from Murum joined in the celebration. Among the activities were futsal, water-based activities, games and singing competitions.

But the highlight was the beauty contest for Sekapan maidens. In the grand finale, 13 Sekapan maidens paraded on stage in traditional costumes.

Cironilla Yahya, 17 was crowned the fairest of them all with Ronika Ugu, 20, as the first runner-up and Azira Lia 17, as the second runner-up.

Before the finals, they said the festival was an excellent platform for the Sekapans to preserve their culture and traditions and should be held annually.

“We all hope this Pesta Sekapan will one day become a major tourist attraction in Belaga,” they enthused.