Balau Information Centre - Is it Possible in Dalat?

Ajau ih ako gak liko a jadi ako dibei gaber bak kenongsi ko jegum kelo gak gi'ih. Jadi ako migek peluang ih bak cerita singen lah.

Bei jatak kawasan gak Kuala Penyu, Sabah saji bei pusat maklumat pasel balau. Pusat Informasi Rumbia. Gak gien bei menak dewan pameran maklumat pasel balau jegum guna balau. Bei aruh atau trail wak ninak bak kedau a melawat makau pilak2 ji balau tubuk gak kawasan ien. Kawasan ien paya wak tenaduk lien balau saji bak dipamerkan gak a didak.

Bei kawak kubo tradisional wak ninak keman kulit jegum daun balau. Bei jatak kedau wak menak pameran ketan an memproses balau secara tradisional jegum moden. Kraftangan wak ninak keman balau bei jenaja gak kedai serta bei wak dipamer lien gak galeri.

Ako dei ngak penah mapun kien tapi mun ngak bei masa ako akan melawat kien. Na'ah mun ngak bei gaber beilah jumit bak tilik ko gak kelo gak gi'ih.

Ako dei rapa pasti sama ada telo gak Dalat, Oya, Igan, Matu, Daro, Mukah, Rejang bei menak Information Centre keji'ih. Serata dunia tao telo a liko (Melanau) saji glamer menaduk balau tapi telo bei menak information centre ji wak ninak gak Sabah ih kah debei? Ako dei tao. Mun telo kenah menak jatak, ien saji dao atang supaya a bak tao ketan an tan atau keja'an ji gaya a Melanau menggunakan balau ih dagen udip telo sehari-hari.

Supaya debei la miau traditional way of Melanau using sago palm in thier life. Just a suggestion singen.

Sago Worms -- Si'et

Ako ngak bei cerita pasal si'et dagen post ko wak siew sabei tapi dibei gaber nak ko dagen ien. So, ako menak posts bao udei pasel si'et buyak ko ngak bei gaber si'et wak igek ko masa ko pulik Krismas taun sabei. Janik ko wak pinyi. Ako gagau angai debei kenah bak pa'ai mapun uma balau kamei. Janik ko pinyi bubo tekilik nyin jegum pinyi si'et alu. 

Si'et ien bak igik janik ko wak labik keman Daled ien. A sawa nyin suka keman si'et kawak. Ienlah kira buah tangan gak a sawa nyinlah ien buyak nyin dei pulik kubo kamei masa Krismas ien. Gagau kalik.

Asau pun suka angai jegum menyi'et..heheehe. Ako pun suka angai menyi'et. Makin agei mun balau wak saji mubo atang ien. Seronok alu tan matuk si'et wak nyat-nyat singen ji apah ien. Pawah tan bak menyi'et walaupun ko dei rapa suka keman si'et...

The Making Of Sago (Menak Bulu)

I am not sure how to explain this in English but this is where the combination of sago starch, coconut milk, paddy dust that has been mixed up to be roasted. Oh my! I am not sure what is the ingredients that we use to make the sago (this is the other traditional food that we use to eat to replace rice).

As you can see, after the mix ingredients turn into small and round they move it on the oven (not sure what is this called in English, we called it "belanga"). It will roasted because of the hot temperature from the underneath.

This is the equipment that they use to make the mix ingredients into small and round size of sago.

Usually the family members (female) will help to makes sago. I was so unlucky because by the time i was born, my mom already stop making sago. She only bought it from Dalat and never makes any of it again. Maybe this is because there were no place to make it anymore. The small house that they use to make sago is not properly maintained and it was ruin by the bad weather. However, my elder brothers and sisters has an experienced with my mom and aunties making this sago. I only know how to eat and i really love to eat it with durians. Nyum..nyum..it's delicious. :)

*Ako saji dibei penah alu pilak a menak bulu. Lian ako agei umit aluk kira debei ngak mereti angai beilah mak mengan ko mapun kedau a tuak kamei gak Kg. Tanam menak bulu. Saie atang kawak ko debei penah bak tao an tan gaya a menak bulu. Ko saji suka angai keman bulu buyak keman umit angai ngak natih lo mak keman bulu. Mula-mula ko tabui sekul jauk keman kubo sabei, mak selalu memiti bulu bak pingah ko. Tapi bila dibei sakai bak keman jegum ko, alulah ko pasad debei luk pepingah agei. Mun keman ramai-ramai, alu dao angai nyam...:)

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities

Hunting and gathering, combined with the cultivation of sago gardens (normally about 4 acres in area) and the export of sago biscuit and forest products (gums, resins, rattan, timber) in exchange for metal goods, weapons, ceramics, and cloth traditionally formed the basis of the Melanau economy. The cultivation of sago gardens was supplemented by growing swamp rice (padai paya) and orchards on the levees of the rivers. Floods at the end of the northeast monsoon frequently ruined the rice crop, which could not be relied on for subsistence. Villages on the coast, where the water of the estuaries was too saline for extraction of flour from the sago palm, depended primarily on fishing and on the import and export trade.

This three main activities is still the main source of Melanau people in my village to survive in this new era, sago plantations, paddy field and orchards.

Trade

During the northeast monsoon, when access to the rivers was limited and fishing was dangerous, expeditions upriver from the coastal villages with dried fish, salt, nipa palm sugar, and craft products—palm-leaf thatch, mats, baskets, and hats—were undertaken to exchange these items for sago biscuit, fruit, canoes, and timber. A similar intrariverine trade for forest products and rice was also maintained with Iban settlements in the hills beyond the swamps. Traditionally sago biscuit was exported under the auspices of aristocratic leaders from both inland and coastal villages and of Malay traders from Brunei and elsewhere. With the foundation of Singapore in 1819 and the demand from the European and American cotton industry for cheap industrial starch, the nature of the sago-export trade altered. After the conquest of the coastal district by the rajah of Sarawak in 1861, Melanau and Malay carriers and traders were replaced by Chinese immigrants, who also entered into the production of flour to the extent that they were allowed. The government, however, did not permit the sale of land to immigrants; the primary production of flour remained in the hands of Melanau villagers until after World War II, when all production was mechanized and only the gardens remained in Melanau ownership. Even though the primary production of flour remained in the hands of the Melanau until then, by 1900 the economy had become dependent on the single cash crop, and extensive changes had occurred in the social system.

Sort of barter system was practice during the old days. I still remember where people from Igan will going upper river up to my village selling sago biscuits, fishes and sometimes we exchange it with our rice. We called it "tukar makan" means exchanging foods. Money is so difficult to get so we exchange foods item.

Division of Labor

Male tasks include clearing the forest and planting and maintaining sago gardens, felling the ripe palm and bringing the trunk to the villages, and stripping the bark off the segments into which the stem has been cut, before rasping the pith inside into a rough sawdust. The sawdust is given to the women to wash on a platform over the river. This rasped pith is placed on a fine-woven mat on the platform, mixed with water, and trampled by the women; the water with the flour in suspension is forced through the mat and a thin straining cloth onto draining boards leading to a trough below the platform, where the crude flour settles and surplus water is drawn away. The sale of this crude flour to a Chinese dealer is also the work of women. The proceeds of the sale are divided in various ways between the owner of the palm, the male feller, and the female trampler of the pith. This cottage industry, in which men and women controlled their own labor and profits, came to an end in the 1950s when Chinese dealers mechanized all aspects of the industry, except the growing and felling of palms. The Chinese dealer did not usually pay cash, but entered the transaction in his books and allowed goods to be bought on credit from his retail shop, thus ensuring that his clients could be kept at regular work and that he could supply his creditors with a regular and predictable supply of flour for export.

Until today we still sell our sago trees to the Chinese dealer which have their own mill. Only one family in Dalat have their own mill which is the only Melanau mill (i think so).

Because only Melanau are allowed to own sago land, only those with sago gardens now have any part in the production of sago. Many of the crops are mortgaged before they become mature. A large part of the male population is forced to leave the villages as migrant laborers in the lumber industry; others migrate permanently. Women are no longer economically independent.

Industrial Arts

In the cottage industry most of the necessary equipment was made locally or acquired through the intrariverine trade. Ironwork and weaving ceased with the advent of a cash economy at the end of the nineteenth century.

River is the main transportation in our area and until today we still use boats as our transport.

Land Tenure

Every village collectively owns a delimited territory that it was formerly ready to defend against all outsiders. Within that territory sago gardens and orchards, carefully delimited, are individually owned. Joint tenancy is possible, especially if a single garden is inherited by two women, for gardens are almost never subdivided. Such an arrangement is not thought satisfactory; other solutions are preferred.

Most of the land that people in my village have now is planted with sago and orchards. We doesn't practice shifting cultivation because we permanently plant sago and paddy in the same land area.

*Pabila ko pepikir balik, masa ako agei umit sabei saji ngadei tan kesusah bak mipih duit. Ako selalu jegum lo mak tubang balau, puma padai, puma balau, pekari, bejaja buak, sayor, pekebun...Saji macam-macem alu ji gaya bak pinyi duit, walaupun cuma kenaan duah telo rigit singen. Tapi rasa syukor angai kawak tan bila kenah mipih duit jumit. Sadik dao kawak gaya hidup lian ih ngak berubah aluk. Bei senang aluk tan agei walaupun aruh debei ngak labik kapong kamei.

Kedau Diam (Settlements)

Modern villages vary in size from 300 to 1,000 inhabitants. Houses, averaging 7 by 10 meters, are built on durable wooden frames in a ribbon pattern along both banks of a river and stand some 3 meters above ground. Walls are of plank or sago bark, and roofing is of palm thatch or wooden shingles.

When i was a a kids we used to have this kind of house but not 3 m above the ground. We use sago bark as walls and nipah leaves or wooden as roofing. It was so unique when i think back how they use to made a house using all the source that we can get from the surroundings. Plants and wildlife is the main source for living.

In some areas, notably on the River Tillian at Mukah, villages were closely adjacent, and today the banks of the river are a continuous line of housing with several thousand inhabitants. Administratively the villages are still separate. Traditionally a village was made up of two, sometimes three longhouses, each with a population of about 300 people. A longhouse, consisting of separate apartments with a common veranda in front, facing the river, was essentially a fortress on ironwood piles, some 10 meters above the ground. They were often sited on the bank of the main river opposite the mouth of a tributary stream, which allowed them to see enemies approaching on the water.

I wonder when Melanau people started to change from longhouses to a single house like what we have now. Since i was born, i only see single houses and never see any longhouses in my village.

At the mouths of the main rivers, where representatives of the sultan of Brunei nominally held suzerainty over the river to its source, villagers had by 1830 already begun to build small separate houses, but still retained longhouses for defense. By the beginning of the twentieth century the rajah of Sarawak had successfully put an end to intertribal warfare and most longhouses were abandoned. Sago gardens were cultivated as near the village as possible, and a communal rice field was organized annually by village elders, with a strip allocated to each household.

It is still the main activities of Melanau people in our area to plant sago and paddy for their living.

*Idak anagai ngak a liko gak kapong ko keluar keman kapong pesawa jegum a luar lalu debei menak kubo gak kapong agei. Dagen kawasan kamei dagen setaun ien payah angai agei bak pilak a nyerakin kubo. Ienlah kapong ko dibei petamah rakyat alu ji agei. Hmmm..ako pun kalik debei balik kapongkawak agei na'ah.

Sejarah Jegum Adat A Liko (History And Cultural Relations of Melanau)

Few reliable historical records of the Melanau exist before the nineteenth century, although European travelers and map-makers placed names not unlike "Melanau" on the northwest coast of Borneo. There are also probable references to the Melanau even earlier in Chinese records. The Coastal Melanau and the Kajang groups in the interior relate that their ancestors migrated from central Borneo and founded a Kajang kingdom from which the Coastal Melanau broke away. The Coastal Melanau believe that much of their culture and many of their institutions are derived from the legendary empire of the folk hero Tugau, who was overthrown in a struggle with Brunei.

Some historians suggest that these events occurred in the fourteenth century, others, as early as the seventh. In 1861 the Melanau coastal district was ceded to James Brooke, the rajah of Sarawak, by the sultan of Brunei. The Rajang Delta was already under the control of Sarawak. The cession was made to gain control of the export of sago flour to Singapore. The trade was essential for the survival of the regime of the rajah of Sarawak. So as not to disturb the flow of trade, the rajahs interfered as little as possible with the local social and political organization. During World War II the third rajah sold the country to the British government, which, until Sarawak became a part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, instituted a number of modernizing economic and educational changes, accompanied by further developments in representative government and administrative institutions.

Source: http://www.everyculture.com/East-Southeast-Asia/Melanau.html

P.S. I can't translate those infromation into Melanau beacuse the language is very difficult. Now i realize that i only know simple Melanau language and when it is more advance i really can not translate it. By the way, i hope the information that i post and gathered here will give others some ideas about my ethnic group.

Ajau ih rasa ko wak belajer sejarah a liko. Idak angai paduhal sejarah pasal a liko wak debei tenao ko. Ngadan singen a liko. Mun tenelabau a idak aluk pasal a liko saji menak jawai palui singen kalik ko. Haiya..susah paduhal menulih dagen ubak liko ih..