Book of Days Tales

Today is the start of Gawai Dayak, an annual festival celebrated by the Dayak people in Sarawak in Malaysia and West Kalimantan in Indonesia. It is a public holiday in Sarawak and is both a religious and a social occasion initiated in 1957. Gawai Dayak was the concept of the radio producers Tan Kingsley and Owen Liang, and taken up by the Dayak community. The British colonial government refused to recognize Dayak Day until 1962. Instead, they called it Sarawak Day to include all Sarawakians as a national day, regardless of ethnic origin. Gawai Dayak comes from “Gawai” meaning festival and “Dayak” a collective name for the indigenous peoples of Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the interior of Borneo. The population estimate is 2 to 4 million. The Dayaks, previously known as the Sea Dayak are mostly Iban people. Other ethnic groups such as the Bidayuh people (Land Dayak and Orang Ulu) are included. The Orang Ulu include the Kayans, Kenyahs and Lun Bawangs. There are over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups in the region. Although these peoples have common traits, each has its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture.

Before the eve of Gawai Dayak, longhouse residents in Dayak villages may organize a hunting or fishing trip to gather wild meats and fish. Both can be preserved with salt in a jar or smoked over a firewood platform above the hearth. Any wild animal parts like the horns, teeth and claws, and feathers are used to decorate and repair traditional costumes. Here is a Dayak recipe that can be used for hunted meat:

Dayak Black Pepper Stew

Ingredients

500 gm meat
5 cloves garlic, peeled
5 shallots
5 cm ginger
3 tablespoons black peppercorn – coarsely pounded
1-2 cili padi (bird eye’s chile)
1 cm cube belacan (shrimp paste)
salt to taste
cooking oil
2 liters water

optional:

any sourish vegetables such as terung dayak (yellow eggplant), pucuk daun kedondong (ambra leaves) or pucuk daun mengkudu (all sliced thinly)

1 piece asam keping (dried tamarind) for added sourish if preferred

1 piece turmeric leaves for additional fragrance

a dash of whisky

Instructions

Pound the garlic, shallots and ginger together using pestle & mortar, or food processor.

Finely chop bird eye’s chile and shrimp paste together.

Heat up pot with 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Sauté garlic, shallots and ginger mixture until fragrant on medium high heat. Then add in the shrimp paste mixture.

Add in the meat and stir fry. Lower heat, then cover pot with lid for about 15 minutes.

Add water and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to medium low. Cover, and let it cook for about 1 hour until the meat softens, or the water is reduced to ⅓.

Stir-in the black peppercorn, sour vegetables, and salt to taste. Add a dash of whisky if preferred. Cook for another 10 minutes, and it’s ready to be served.