How Strong Is Your Cultural Identity?

The Kelabits

The Kelabits are one of the tribes in Sarawak and many of them live near Bario Asal, Bario. They live near the Penans which is another tribe in Sarawak. There are only a few thousands of Kelabits left. Bario consists of mostly women because most men migrate to Miri and other places to work. Paddy plantation, craftworks and eco-tourism are among the common ways the Kelabits generate an income. They are also very hospitable people.

The Kelabit women in their traditional costume.

Longhouse

The longhouse is the traditional house of the Kelabits but there are not many longhouses seen in Bario nowadays. Each longhouse can accommodate about twenty-over families, depending on the length of the longhouse. I must say that each family in the longhouse is proud of their family members. For example, there are a lot of photos in the longhouse showing  their family members graduating, getting married, getting a good job and some of their great ancestors.

The inner view of a longhouse.

Food

         
If there is something that Bario is famous for, it would be their Bario rice. This rice is planted and harvested using traditional methods, and that is why the taste of the rice is pure and organic. Among the many staple foods of the people in Bario are wild boar, jungle vegetables such as midin, paku-pakis and bamboo shoot, and not to mention their famous Bario rice. Other famous food in Bario are their pineapples, salt, chilli tumbuk and wood worms.

The famous Bario rice. Finer and tastier too compared to normal rice.

Dance

          
Some of the famous dances of the Kelabits are the hornbill dance and tarian pocok-pocok. Usually women who perform this dance will wear black cloth that are tight, decorated with a selendang made of beads and a beaded head gear. Sometimes synthetic hornbill feathers are used for their dance instead of the real one as there is only one hornbill remaining in Bario that goes by the name of Turu, which means 'he who comes'.

A Kelabit woman gracefully demonstrating one of the Kelabit traditional dance.  

A photo of me feeding Turu, the only hornbill in Bario Asal.

Craftwork

  
The Kelabits are famous for their bead works and rattan sewing. Among the many things they can make out of beads are head gears, selendangs, necklaces and bracelets. The beads have a great variety of colours. For example there are more that five shades of red and I had a hard time differentiating those colours. If you are given a necklace, it represents that you are a part of their family. They also make wonderful crafts out of rattan such as rattan baskets, hats, bracelets and even rings.

My first necklace that was give to me by aunty Dayang. The huge red lump of ball in

  the middle of the necklace called 'Kabuq', symbolises that you are a part of their family.

Tattoos 

         
Tattoos are used by the Kelabit women to show that they are eligible for marriage. Their tattoos are made up of soot obtained from the burning of kettles and sewn into the skin using big needles. The tattoos cover a big part of the women's hands and legs. For religious reasons, this practice is not carried on in present day.

One of the few Kelabit women that still has tattoos around her hands and legs.

 Some thoughts

It is nice to see how the Kelabits have a strong cultural identity. I felt that I do not know how strong my cultural identity was until I saw their culture. I realised that each one of us actually have our own cultural identity but we are just not aware of it. I am really glad that I had a chance to experience their culture.

The Kelabits also place importance on their food. They have a wide variety of food during meals and they eat on time. They also eat as a family or group. Often in the city, I will not take my meals on time, have an unbalanced diet and will not eat together with my family members. They showed me some simple yet meaningful food ethics that I should practice in the city. I also learned not to waste food and I will eat every grain of rice because I saw how hard the people worked when they were planting and harvesting their paddy plant.

All this while I used to take handicrafts for granted until I saw how much effort the locals put to make those handicrafts. They were so patient and precise while weaving the beads. I found it difficult to separate the different shades of colours of the bead and yet these people are so good at it. After seeing the process of making handicrafts I began to respect and place a high value on handicrafts.