Sounds good: A young man holds the sape’, a traditional Dayak string instrument.

It is easy to misunderstand the long-held traditions of the Dayak community. They need to tell their own stories, from their own perspectives.

The Dayak people, an ethnic group native to Borneo, still struggle to debunk stigmas against them, including barbarism.

“The Dayak people have actually contributed to their ethnic community according to their talents and [through] activities in a positive way. Never get trapped in the stigma of backwardness and take pride in being Dayak members,” Dewi Liana Seriestha, a member of Dayak Bidayuh and the Malaysian representative for Miss World Talent 2014, said.

She was among around 50 public figures who attended the International Dayak Cultural Congress, held for the first time in Bengkayang regency, West Kalimantan, early this month. The event aimed to redefine the understanding of the Dayak people using the ethnic group’s own viewpoints.

Masri Sareb of the Dayak Jangkang group said that the Dayak people needed to make an effort to promote dignity within its communities in order to fight against the widespread stigmas.

As long-existing accounts of the ethnic group written by non-Dayak researchers tend to show the Dayak people in a negative light, he said the Dayak people should strive to write about themselves rather than be defined by outsiders.

“A grim history of the past has recorded the tradition of mengayau, or headhunting enemies. Most people only know of the practice without having been informed of its philosophy and true meaning,” said Masri, who wrote Dayak Djangkang: From Headhunters to Catholics.

The Dayak community is multicultural with around 400 sub-groups, each having their own language, traditions and culture. In the case of headhunting, the tradition was not carried out haphazardly. Rather, it involved a customary meeting that would determine the target, time and place of decapitation.

For instance, children and women after childbirth were not to be beheaded. A village in mourning or with a newly born child would not be attacked either. To ward off attackers in these situations, local people would make a signal in the form of food served outside the village.

In the past, heads were required for use in the gawai sowa ceremony, an annual harvest festival of the community. The Dayak people would treat the head with deep respect, making it an heirloom worthy of a ritual practice.

“In modern times, the ngayau philosophy is interpreted as being responsive and having an alert attitude. […] It’s this humanist aspect that should be promoted,” Masri told The Jakarta Post.

A meeting in 1894 facilitated by the Dutch East Indies government in Tumbang Anoi, Central Kalimantan, ended the headhunting practice with members of Dayak groups signing the Tumbang Anoy Agreement.

Elias Ngiuk of the Dayak Mualang group said music and art should be used to promote the values of Dayak humanism because the ethnic group lived in harmony with nature.

“Many Dayak musical instruments were made from natural materials. Some are no longer found and recognized by the younger generation. Deforestation as a result of industrial concessions has also affected Dayak culture,” said Elias, a musicology graduate of the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) and researcher at the Institute of Dayakology in Pontianak.

Many indigenous musical instruments, dances and games have been forgotten about over time, he said.

One of the oldest Dayak musical instruments, a mouth organ called bansi labu in the Dayak Mualang tongue, is made using a gourd connected with six bamboo sections in a row. Similar to playing a harmonica, the bamboo tips are blown into to create sounds.

“The mouth organ is part of Southeast Asian culture. It’s found in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and in Indonesia only the Dayak Mualang people own it,” he said, adding that he only once found the rare instrument, buying it in Thailand in 2011.

However, there still lies a future for the preservation of the community’s traditional musical instruments as an increasing number of youths play the sape’, a Dayak Kayaan string instrument with three or four strings. In its modern form, more strings are added. Formerly, the sape’ was used in rituals and played softly during traditional ceremonies. Today, various contemporary music events showcase the instrument.

James T. Collins, a linguist from the United States, examined the complexity and diversity of Dayak languages. Of around 150 Dayak languages, only two have been studied.

“We’re obviously facing a regional language documentation crisis. Those who are born and brought up in Pontianak, for example, are unable to speak any regional tongue,” said Collins.

“In fact, more perilously, we’re beginning to witness signs of regional language extinction.”

 — Photos by JP/Severianus Endi

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