Life by the banks of Oya River
A LUN Bawang boy was abducted by Lanuns (pirates) who raided Limbang and was taken to Kampung Medong near Dalat, Mukah Division.
The Lanuns were not supposed to leave anyone alive but because the boy was so good looking and fair, one of their followers, a Melanau, decided to adopt him. When the boy grew up, he was taken as a son-in-law by a Lun Bawang family.
“That was how my father was born of Lun Bawang-Melanau parentage. And it’s also our heritage,” said a Lun Bawang woman, known as Aunty Bidah.
Her grandfather was the young Limbang boy who was kidnapped and taken to Kampung Medong, the Lanuns’ operation headquarters 150 years ago.
Aunty Bidah said her grandfather was so young at the time that he only knew to say his own name – Ejau.
Relating her story at her Kampung Kekan house in Dalat, she added, “Years later, my father and grandfather went back to Limbang and Lawas to check out our ancestral lineage and managed to find many family connections.”
Aunty Bidah runs a small supply business with her brother Yusup M Akap in Dalat.
She is no stranger to children and young people coming to her place to buy snacks and sweets whenever Yusup arrives from Miri in his blue lorry.
Aunty Bidah, a single woman in her 60s, and her brother have been running their business ever since the road to Dalat was connected with Mukah, then Miri a few years ago.
Yusup brings in from Miri the merchandise, ordered by the kampung folk, and other sellable items for his sister. When he returns to Miri, he brings fresh fish, dried prawns and fruits to sell to friends and relatives there on Aunty Bidah’s behalf. Four-hour drive These days, the drive from Miri to Dalat is four hours.
Theresa, a student from Dalat studying in a Miri college, told thesundaypost, “It’s always very exciting when approaching Dalat in a car with images of the township appearing in front of our eyes. I normally take a ride on a Friday afternoon from Miri and would be home by seven or eight. It’s wonderful these days because I can come home by road.”
Until about five years ago, many Dalat students studying in colleges and universities in Miri could only return home by coastal vessels and the journey usually took several days. Or they would take a flight from Miri to Sibu, then travel by speedboat from Sibu to Dalat. They could also take a flight from Miri to Mukah and from there take a boat home. That would have been the fastest way.
Another student, D Ting, who had just visited Mukah and Dalat, described the trip as memorable. She enjoyed the food and brought back some sago products for her family. She said she would like to return by bus with her friends and arrange a DIY tour.
“It’s so easy now as there are lots of very affordable homestays,” she added excitedly.
The roads to almost all the kampungs in Dalat are tar-sealed.
Most school children know about Dalat from a short story by Heidi Munan called ‘How Dalat Got its Name’, which has been used as a Form 3 English language subject (literature component) for several years. Manmade canal Dalat is associated with Sarawak’s famous man-made Kut Canal whose story is featured in the book titled ‘Melanau Stories’ (2005). The canal shortens the distance between the area known as Three Rivers and Sibu via the Igan River. It is also located in the state constituency of Datuk
Fatimah Abdullah, the Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development.
Today, Dalat is a self-contained town with housing, shops, a secondary school, a primary school, a post office, a hospital, a stadium, a Chinese temple and two mosques.
The town is situated by the Oya River, one of the famous Three Rivers, after which a popular school in Sarawak, is named. The Three Rivers comprise the Oya, Mukah and Balingian Rivers.
The majority of the locals are Melanau (60 per cent) and Iban (30 per cent).
Dalat is only two hours from Sibu by speedboat for a small fee of RM20. River transportation continues to be vital lifeline for the people there. Making belacan After Chinese New Year, Yusup has been bringing bubuk from Miri to Dalat. This bounty has enabled Aunty Bidah to make quite a big amount of belacan for sale this year. Her small-scale retail business is picking up. And she is happy the access road has been built and she can get her supplies all the way from Miri.
Wooden planks for floors, beams and the like can be transported from Miri straight to her shop. The lorry Yusup and his wife have just acquired is truly a godsend. It has made a lot of difference to the lives of the kampung people.
The couple will ferment the bubuk brought in from Miri for one or two nights and deliver to Aunty Bidah as soon as they can. Fermenting is paramount in making belacan. Salt and a bit of sugar are used but every belacan maker has a unique recipe. Some leave the fermenting over two days, others, three or four days, depending on the weather as well.
Yusup told thesundaypost, “The weather in Sarawak is such that when it’s belacan-making season, the sun is often at its hottest!” The making process Once the fermentation matures, the bubuk are poured onto plastic sheets or zinc trays for the first drying. After the bubuk are fairly dry, the pounding begins. This will result in coarse belacan which will be dried in the sun the next day.
The drying of belacan is best done when there is hot sun for more than three hours. If it rains, the coarse belacan, which is forming, will turn a little more black and lose its sun-dried fragrance.
On sunny days in Dalat, especially by the riverside, there are virtually no flies. The belacandrying platform is actually the jetty or jelatong belonging by Aunty Bidah. Wearing her Melanau sun hat or terendak, and turning the pieces of belacan over from time to time, she watches out for sudden rain, in which case, the plastic sheets will immediately be folded and carried into the house.
After the first drying comes the second pounding, a tedious and heavy job even for men. Helpers, skilled in using old wooden sets of lesong (mortar), are welcome.
A lot of physical strength is needed to make fine belacan. Sometimes, two men pound with one wooden pestle each and the ko tok ko tok pounding sounds take on a rhythm of their own – like that of some ritualistic chanting.
The drying and pounding can be repeated three or four times. So usually by the end of three or four sunny days, the belacan is wellformed and very fine like chocolate, fragrant and ready for packing.
According to Louis, a Mukah man who is very experienced in the pounding process, if the sun is strong, and the drying and pounding can be done quickly, another round of drying can be done on the same day. It’s often a very TLC (tender loving care) kind of work.
Packing by Aunty Bidah and her sister-in-law is very carefully done. Wearing rubber or plastic gloves to ensure the highest level of hygiene is a must. The belacan can be cut into rectangular cakes or shaped into cylindrical tubes.
Besides belacan, Aunty Bidah also makes dried prawns – and salted fish for her siblings. Although she makes belacan for sale, her main income is from her sago farm.
She has two or three helpers who also have contracts to cut sago palms for other sago farm owners. Sales are divided 50:50 between employer and employees.
Aunty Bidah has 10 siblings and is number six in the family. After her eldest sister died in 2016, she became the mother to her nieces and nephews.
She did not attend formal school but has learnt to weave, bake and cook from sekolah dewasa (adult school).
At her farm, she plants sago palms and fruits such as engkala, mango, salak, lime, banana and durian, which give her a good income. She gets her supply of fresh river and sea prawns from Miri.
For her, life is as sweet as the bubuk in the sea.
That was how my father was born of Lun BawangMelanau parentage. And it’s also our heritage. — Aunty Bidah, business owner