Notes on an Iban community in Danau Sentarum National Park.
Minarchek, Matthew
Between 15 August and 25 August 2008, I visited the Iban community
of Sungai Pelaik located on the periphery of Danau Sentarum National
Park in West Kalimantan. This was a preliminary field survey for thesis
research on rural electrification and development in Indonesia. What
follows is a brief sketch of the community.
I traveled from the coastal city of Pontianak via overnight bus to
Sintang, about twelve hours up the Kapuas River. In Sintang, I stopped
by the Danau Sentarum National Park headquarters to gain entry permits
for the park and discuss the research with park staff. The following
morning I took a local minibus (opelat) for seven hours to Semitau
located near Danau Sentarum National Park. From Semitau, I entered the
park by speedboat, passing through numerous Melayu villages and
eventually arrived at the Sungai Pelaik longhouse.
The Iban longhouse is located on the Pelaik River just upstream
from the lakes region, about two hours by speedboat from the Melayu
village of Laboyan, depending on water leveis. Sungai Pelaik is a 9-door
longhouse with 43 residents, and one family of four lives in a
neighboring house. The longhouse was constructed at the current location
in 2002 and is situated just a few kilometers from the old site. The
residents use Iban adat and the annual gawai is still practiced every
July. Most commonly the men of Sungai Pelaik leave the village upon
marriage and join the household of the wife and the opposite is true of
the women, but one of the male residents had stayed after marrying and
his wife moved to Pelaik. At the time of my visit, ten residents were
working wage labor jobs in Malaysia and a few of the children were in
Lanjak for school. It is common in this community for whole families to
travel to Sarawak for work and oftentimes families will move there for
up to ten months.
I arrived during the dry season and fishing was the main activity
for the residents throughout my stay. Villagers woved fishing traps
(bubu ikan), fishing nets (nyala ikan), baskets for carrying the fish,
and carved pronged fishing spears (jerpak ikan). Throughout the days,
both men and women traveled downstream to the lake to check the fish
traps or take dugout canoes out for net fishing, and then returned back
to the longhouse to clean their catch for drying or to prepare for
dinner. To take advantage of the low waters during the dry season, the
community partnered with the Melayu village of Nanga Telatap for jakat.
Jakat may be described as the following activity. In the early morning,
the villagers of Pelaik loaded fishing nets, food, and drinks into their
dugouts and paddled out into the lake to meet the residents of Nanga
Telatap. All the canoes then moved into a circle formation around a
large pole sticking 15 feet out of the water. After the dugouts were in
place and the signal had been given, cheers quickly erupted and everyone
paddled their canoe as quickly as possible towards the center pole and
then cast their nets into the water. The movement of the watercrafts and
pounding of the paddles into the lake caused the fish to flood toward
the pole in the middle and all the fisher folks' nets emerged out
of the water full of fish. After a few more casts, the nets were emptied
into the hull of the dugouts and then the boats slowly dispersed. The
Pelaik longhouse residents made their way back to the longhouse and the
freshly caught fish were sorted by species and then cleaned for drying
and cooking. Delicious fish was then grilled over a small fire in
celebration of the catch and eaten with rice and a homemade sambal.
Craftwork was another of the main activities within the longhouse
and women wove traditional textiles such as pua' and tanun, fabrics
used in ceremonies or for clothing. Plant material was collected from
the surrounding forest to make dyes for the cotton string that would
soon be woven on the wooden loom. Rattan was also harvested and used to
make floor mats and baskets for use in the longhouse. Some of the floor
mats, weavings, and baskets were being sold to buyers in West Kalimantan
and Java for supplemental income.
Due to the remote location of the Sungai Pelaik longhouse,
electricity from a central grid network is inaccessible. Two of the
apartments own diesel generators and produce electricity in the evenings
for a few hours when fuel is available. In 2007, a micro-hydro
electricity scheme was built on the Pelaik River just upstream from the
longhouse. The project produced electricity for all the apartments of
the longhouse for nearly a year. However, at the time of this study, the
small-scale hydro project had encountered a few problems and the two
operators were working to get the system running again. The operators
were two residents of the longhouse who were trained to maintain the
system throughout the development process. The project was facilitated
by the Center for International Forestry Research and Riak Bumi, a
Pontianak- based nongovernmental organization. CIFOR initiated an
adaptive collaborative management approach and both organizations
continue to work with the local people to repair the project. The
alternative energy system provided a renewable electricity source for
the community and allowed every apartment within the longhouse access to
electricity. At the time of writing the micro-hydro system is producing
electricity for the longhouse again and it appears the dry season and
the low water levels may have affected the project.
Note: This preliminary survey was funded by a Luce Grant from the
Center for International Studies at Ohio University.
Matthew Minarchek
Master's Candidate, Ohio University
Southeast Asian Studies
56 E. Union Street
Athens, Ohio, USA
