THE long-awaited day has arrived. After a two-year hiatus, Sarawakians woke up to Gawai today, willing themselves to celebrate the harvest festival in the colours of the season and in a rapturous mood.
Churches in the state too hosted special masses in conjunction with the annual rice harvest day.
Cutting a dash for the season, the congregation dressed in colourful native dress turned the pews into a sea of prismatic colours, during special church services throughout Sarawak today.
Some churches held their Gawai masses as early as last Friday.
Over at St Anne’s Church in Kota Padawan, near Kuching, Franciscan friars Don Don Ramirez, David Aw and Aiden Peter, together with their parishioners marvelled as a bevy of dancers injected a traditional sense of the 'primordial' at the end of the service.
The dancers presented native dances in what was meant to be a joyful “liturgical expression” of gratitude for the bountiful harvest that God had bestowed them with this year.
The parish’s entire choir and presenters of the Word (lectors) too looked radiant as each one, whether Iban, Bidayuh or Orang Ulu, attended the mass donning the colours, designs and stripes of their very own tribes and indigenous clans.
In his homily, Fr Ramirez called on the faithful to rise and celebrate the harvest festival with an earnest thanksgiving to God.
“This Gawai is historic as we are celebrating it for the first time during this endemic phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We must thank God, that the full brunt of the historic global pandemic has eased, and we can now celebrate the annual festival with the rich blessings of the new grain once again, just as we had celebrated in the years before,” Ramirez said.
At St Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching Archbishop Simon Poh told his flock: “I understand that some of our friends and families were unable to book the limited flights to fly home for the festival. I invite those present here to celebrate Gawai through this special 'thanksgiving' mass.
“May the Lord of the Harvest pour down blessings from the heavens to bless all our families here, and elsewhere who are celebrating Gawai.
“May this be a season of joy, peace and hope and the strengthening of family relationships and friendship as we build a society of harmony, goodwill, mutual respect and acceptance in Sarawak and Malaysia,” the prelate exhorted.
Poh also said: “As the chairman of the Association of Churches (ACS) in Sarawak, on behalf of the various bishops and pastors of ACS, I implore God's blessing upon all families for a ‘Blessed Gawai’ this year.”
Fear of police drone
Having just arrived home after attending the special Gawai service at the St James Anglican Church in Kampong Quop, Veronica anak Lawrence tells The Vibes: “We missed Gawai in the last two years. So we are going to celebrate this year, eating and merry-making with gusto.”
Asked what it was like to celebrate Gawai last year under SOP restrictions, the 25-year-old said: “Although we celebrated the festival last year with so many restrictions on us, it was far from being fun.
“The number of people allowed to ngabang (attend open houses) during the movement control order was so limited,” said Veronica.
“In fact, our neighbours told us to keep an eye in the sky to look out for police drones that might swoop down to survey the movement of people on the ground.
"How to celebrate Gawai like that?” she giggled.
For Veronica, Gawai this year will be doubly special as she will celebrate with her parents on the first day of Gawai today, and with her husband’s family in nearby Landeh tomorrow.
“I am looking forward to celebrating Gawai for the first time in my in-law’s house.
“Certainly it will be a new Gawai experience for me with my extended family of in-laws and their guests."
A healing Gawai
Politician Lina Soo tells The Vibes that she perceives this year’s harvest festival as one that would kick off the healing process for the Dayak community.
“In the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic had been a nightmare for many Sarawakians. Many have lost jobs, lost businesses, delayed education and worse, some have lost loved ones.
“This year’s Gawai for the Dayak must help kick in the healing process. All have to pick up the threads of their lives again, after the harrowing losses suffered in the last two years brought on by the pandemic,” said the Parti Aspirasi president.
Soo said: “Gawai this year, must highlight the ‘coming together' where the Dayak community try to get home for this auspicious date from near and far after a long absence. It should be a rapturous homecoming.”
She urged the Dayak community to muster all courage and hope, to leave all past sorrows behind, and to move forward with bravery and confidence to carve out a better future and a better harvest in every aspect of the word.
“The Dayak people are a resilient and stoical group, and we believe their future endeavours will be met with good results and returns. For them, Gawai 2022 will be purposeful and meaningful as they reflect on their immediate past."
When contacted, the president of the Bung Bratak Heritage Association, Datuk Peter Minos, said he is urging the Dayak community to see the event in a new light.
He said in the midst of all the merry-making which helps to bring the community together, it is important to perceive Gawai as a day that reminds the Dayak people of their identity and all that they stand for.
“History has amply shown that in the modern world we are now a small indigenous group that can get easily and marginally lost and totally forgotten.
“The community must keep intact and perpetuate its customs and traditions, language and dialects, heritage and cultures and their ways of life that can blend with the more modern world.
“Gawai gives us the opportunity to raise our tone on matters such as education, economic development and progress. This the reality,” he added.
Farmers’ take
Politician Baru Bian as usual issued his annual harvest day message peppered with words that lend focus on the farm, the land and the farmer – words devoid of any hint of political murmurs.
The Selangau lawmaker, a practising lawyer and a compulsive man-of-the-land, lent meaning to Gawai, putting it in its existent pastoral context.
“I have often said that the movement control order and its restrictions during the Covid pandemic had forced many to go back to their roots at their village.
“Some started to farm their customary lands during the lockdown. My siblings who are all retired and I have been doing that over the past few years.
“Even before the restrictions were imposed, we were going back regularly to our original kampung Pa Berunut to do farming where we planted wet padi, coffee, strawberries, avocado, pineapples, and cleared land for rearing buffalo, cattle and sheep.
“There is nothing in the world as satisfying as living off the land, on wholesome food produced from your own labour,” said Baru, who is also the state assemblyman for Ba’kelalan.
And to cap Baru’s take on the farmer and what it means to live off the land, economist Dr Madeline Berma puts it succinctly: “Gawai Harvest Festival reminds us that we have a lot of reasons to be grateful to our farmers.
“A farmer’s success is a success for the entire nation and so let us celebrate. Selamat Hari Gawai Dayak and Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai." – The Vibes, June 1, 2022
