IDNO

DG.101927.PAO

Description

A group portrait of seven people dressed in adat gawai (pre-Christian indigenous rituals) garb, probably as part of a dance performance for visitors to Kampung Benuk, pose for the camera on the tanju (open gallery) of the longhouse.
The young women wear knee-length Iban bidang (warp-ikat skirts), patterned blouses, dark vests and sepiya (round cloth caps with red, black and white strips and back flaps) and stagi (elliptical bead necklaces); the men wear trousers or sawat (loincloth), headbands with feathers inserted, and stagan (round leopard teeth necklaces). From left to right they are: ?Babai Nasia, Otor anak Sunjam with Bungit anak Paka; Suko; Serayang; Minuau; ?Babai Punjo.
In the background can be seen the sloping attap roof of the longhouse, drying clothes, and foliage.

Place

SE Asia Borneo; Malaysia; Sarawak; Penrissen; Kampung Benuk [Kampung Segu Bunuk]

Cultural Affliation

Bidayuh [historically Land Dayak]

Named Person

?Babai Nasia; Otor anak Sunjam; ?Bungit anak Paka; Suko; Serayang; Minuau; ?Babai Punjo

Photographer

?Paka anak Otor

Collector / Expedition

Paka anak Otor

Date

circa 1960 - 1978

Collection Name

Paka anak Otor Collection

Source

Paka anak OtorChua, Liana

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Source: A selection of 185 prints from Paka anak Otor’s larger collection of approximately 500 prints was made by Liana Chua during fieldwork in Kampung Benuk, Sarawak, Malaysia, in 2005. The purchase of non-exclusive reproduction rights [RM 1845, £250] by the Museum to the family of Paka anak Otor [82 Kampung Benuk, Jalan Puncak Borneo, Kuching 93250, Sarawak, Malaysia], and digital copy photographs of the collection [RM 869, £125] were paid for by the Museum Acquisition Fund [£250] and part of a Crowther-Beynon grant [£125] for the collecting of Sarawak objects. The digital scans were made by Fung Huang Colour Photo Centre [153 Padungan Road, Kuching, Sarawak] in 2005. [Liana Chua 2/8/2007]

Biographical Information: Otor anak Sunjam (d. 1978) was the father of Paka anak Otor, who owned the mini-museum in Kampung Benuk. He was also the village’s tua gawai (ritual chief), and often played host to visitors from the British, Australian and American navies, dignitaries, tourists and government officials. [Liana Chua 2/8/2007]

Context: Kampung Benuk has been a small-scale tourist attraction since the 1960s, being particularly famous for its longhouse. Its first visitors were often members of the British, Australian and American armed forces stationed nearby during the Confrontation years between Indonesia and Malaysia (1963-1966); later visitors included civilian tourists, foreign dignitaries, UNESCO representatives, film crews, and government officials. Benuk’s visitor numbers appear to have peaked around the 1970s and 1980s, especially with increasing domestic and Asian tourism and the state government’s tourist promotion efforts. Today it remains a fairly popular attraction despite its much diminished longhouse. [Liana Chua 6/8/2007]

Context: Adat gawai is a generic term for the complex of indigenous rituals practised in Bidayuh villages prior to widespread Christian conversion from the 1970s and 1980s. Today (2007) it is still observed by rapidly diminishing handfuls of elderly people in various villages. Most rituals revolved around the cultivation of rice, taking place throughout the year at major stages of the rice cycle. Other rituals were held, for example, to mark various life stages, such as adolescence, marriage and death, and to cure illnesses. Adat gawai is premised on the existence of a rather remote ‘Supreme Being’, Tapa, and more importantly, a variety of different spirits – the most important of which is the rice spirit – to whom offerings are made and invocations chanted. Such rituals entangle adat gawai practitioners and spirits alike in webs of obligations and strict protocols, including lengthy ‘taboo’ periods (pantang) which impose restrictions or demands on people’s movement and dietary habits. The key aim of adat gawai is to maintain a state of modud (‘coolness’) in the world: of stability, safety and wellness.
Visitors to Kampung Benuk were able to watch most adat gawai rituals when they took place without restriction. When such rituals were not being held, Otor and his family often performed dances for tourists based on adat gawai, using the same costumes, steps and music. [Liana Chua 23/8/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Liana Chua 23/8/2007]