is in Sydney â thank you for sharing your stories and experiences with me. A ..... school teacher in teaching the Iban language -â both of whom are ..... My cousin Singka recently began to work for Sime Darby, a UK-âbased company. ..... brought food and two pastors from the Anglican Church so that they could pray for Akek ...
Name:
Hazirah Suhaillah Abdullah (43083919)
Supervisor: Dr. Christopher Houston
Master of Applied Anthropology Department of Anthropology May 2014
Contemporary Iban Longhouse in Malaysia: Space, Social Connections and Translocality
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Table of Contents Declaration Acknowledgments Notes of transliteration Abstract
3 4 4 5
Chapter I: Introduction 1.1 Historical Background and Context 1.2 Understanding the Longhouse
6 11 15
Chapter II: Methodology 2.1 Rumah Panjai Revisited
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Chapter III Iban Mobility Practices 3.1 Bejalai 3.2 New Patterns of Mobility 3.3 Analysis of Iban ‘Translocal’ Movement
30 34 38
Chapter IV Inside Rumah Panjai Johnson 4.1 Spatial, Structure and Livelihoods Change in the Longhouse 41 4.2 Nation Building in a ‘Translocal’ Longhouse 42 4.3 Imagining and Reproducing Domestic Translocal Space 51 4.4 ‘Translocal’ Longhouse Livelihoods 55 Chapter V Translocal Iban Identity 5.1 Interpreting Identity 59 5.2 Buyau and Mujab Syndrome: Exploring Translocal Iban Self 61 5.3 Challenging Iban Stereotypes 66
Conclusion
71
Bibliography
73
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Declaration
I confirm that the work hereby submitted is my own and that it has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree. All quoted material is clearly distinguished by quotation marks and the sources of information referenced. Signature:
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Acknowledgments Teima Kasih to all the people I met and shared a piece of the journey with, especially to Enek Tuai and Enek Tipas for their stories who inspires me. I am deeply grateful towards my relatives in the longhouse particularly to Unyin who is in Sydney – thank you for sharing your stories and experiences with me. A warm thanks to Chris Houston who acts as my supervisor and for all his understanding, help, and support in my quest to understand the longhouse. Also, to Payel who helped me greatly with the administrative protocols. Thank you to my boyfriend, David, who not only believes in me, but my constant solid rock who shares the ups and downs and the one who listens to all my complains. Also, to all my family for their love and faith in me, to Dr. Jaap Timmer for his motivation, support and advice, and to Dr Lisa Wynn, for patiently and painstakingly checking through my ethics form. Without each of them, I would not have realized the final version of this dissertation. I would also particularly like to express my sincere gratitude to the Anthropology Department for their very kind financial assistance for the research fieldwork. Without this it would have proved extremely difficult to embark on the whole project.
Notes on transliteration All Malay and Iban words are rendered in roman type and with macrons when necessary, except place names, which are not rendered with macrons. Place names and persons’ names are rendered in the commonly accepted ‘western’ manner: family names last.
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Abstract
The paper examines the transformation of space and sociality in the modern Iban longhouse by exploring the changing dynamics of social relationships in this environment, paying particular focus to issues such as how new forms of mobility are developed, how space in and around the longhouse is used, and how understandings of the self and others are affected. As Iban longhouses are irrevocably situated in today’s reality, they are confronted by challenges originating not only from the central government in Kuala Lumpur but also from their residents’ own practices of migration from within the longhouse situation to locations outside it. In particular the increase in residents’ mobility will be explored, in terms of the way this directly relates to activities carried out in the past by men called bejalai 1 (a particularly pertinent term for this paper as it means: ‘to go on a journey’) in what might be viewed as a form of new mobility. I will analyse the longhouse as a space that has been appropriated by the administrative powers in Kuala Lumpur and which now partially conforms to their desires. Nevertheless dwellers both passively adapt to and actively resist the influence of the political powers (KL) in creative ways. Lastly, the notion of identity will be explored, revealing a new understanding of the Iban self. Key words: Longhouse, Space, Bejalai, Iban, Mobility, Identity, Transclocality 1 Interpreted as equivalent of head-‐hunting expeditions
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1. Introduction
At first glance the Iban longhouse (see fig. 1) might be seen as a “single
structure and [viewers may] perhaps be left with the impression that it reflects values of the unity and communal living” (Kedit, 1993:39). Davison describes the longhouse as constituting ‘’an acephalous meritocracy, bound together as ritual community, but otherwise fragmented into autonomous bilek families which interact with one another in an egalitarian but highly competitive social milieu’ (1987:108).
(Figure 1. A modern version of an Iban Longhouse in Seloi)
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Both descriptions summarize and capture an older image of how the Iban
people lived before Sarawak2 became part of Malaysia in 1963. According to Sutlive, the longhouse in the past was “a microcosm of the Iban world on which the sun, moon and stars have been focused” (1978:1). In this sense, the longhouse created a world of its own or as the anthropologist Metcalf suggests, the longhouse could be regarded as a form of metropolis3 (2011:61). Today, Iban longhouses are significant more as places that symbolize Iban culture and identity, as they no longer appear to be central in Iban people’s social dynamics (Sutlive, 1972: 1988). Modern media such as mobile phones, radio and television are becoming dominant in each bilek4 within the longhouse. Living in the longhouse is becoming less appealing for those who yearn for the busy hustle-‐bustle of city living. The longhouse now has a rather quiet air to it in which only old people and children are living. The reader therefore might wonder about my interest in the contemporary longhouse. Looking back, I picture vivid memories which usually originated at the start of each June, a repeated memory of my grandmother Tipas -‐ who is a celebrated traditional weaver -‐ informing me that she would be returning to her kampong5 for what is a central cultural event, the Gawai6 festival. Her statement 2 East Malaysia 3 The living spaces (individual apartments) within the longhouse were not uniform. Some apartments were richly decorated compared to others. 4 Bilek is referred as individual apartment in the longhouse. It is also considered the as the smallest spatial unit within the longhouse. 5 Home 6 A traditional Iban festival celebrating the beginning of harvest, it occurred every year beginning of June.
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always struck a deep chord of curiosity in me because it made me wonder about her concept of ‘home’ and exactly where her home is, in terms of its location in the heart or in the mind. Have you ever wondered how it might feel to live in a completely different dwelling: a yurt, an igloo, underground or perhaps even in a longhouse? Imagine though, that the longhouse you were contemplating living in is not located in the jungle or in an isolated rural location. To complicate matters, picture as the setting a neat row of suburban concrete longhouses, a little like an Iban version of ‘Coronation Street’. If the imagination is stretched a little bit further think what happens if the longhouse we are picturing is influenced not only by the laws and regulations of the Malaysian nation-‐state within which it is located, but also by its immersion in an ocean of social processes on a global scale such as new technology, economics, media and ideology, all working in different directions and tearing at the very fabric of the building, to the extent that, in the words of Arjun Appadurai, it has become ‘disjunct’. The deliberate reference to disjunction here is meant to illustrate how the Iban people are “confronting the world that has been characterized by diaspora, rootlessness and faux nostalgia” (Metcalf, 2001:165), all of which affect the everyday realities of their longhouse existence. This being the case, the subject of this thesis is the transformation of space and sociality in the modern Iban longhouse, for which the concept of translocality has proven particularly useful. By translocality, I mean to “describe
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socio-‐spatial dynamics and processes of simultaneity and identity formation that transcend boundaries – including beyond of nation states” (Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013:373). In other words, Rumah Panjai Johnson in Sarawak, where I conducted my thesis research, constitutes a good example to explore both changes and continuities in Iban lives. It demonstrates how the inhabitants of the longhouse cope with the reality of contemporary life in their chosen habitat in a contemporary Malaysian context. For most of us in city environments, living in the jungle comprises a walk on the wild side and perhaps an experiment in being able to sample proximity to nature. Accordingly, some may fantasize or glorify the isolation and romanticism of the jungle and the people who live there. By contrast, most longhouses existing in the jungle are now abandoned as their ex-‐residents seek to pursue a new life in the city. My grandmother explains: “only during Gawai, is the longhouse ever filled…otherwise it is quiet .. Quiet as a graveyard..” My grandmother’s observation refers to those longhouses situated in the deep jungle. What about those in the rural area? How is the longhouse there lived-‐in and understood in today’s reality? The stark difference is that the rural longhouse is fully equipped with modern facilities and the inhabitants are actively commuting from far away cities, even from overseas. Despite this, living in the longhouse is assumed to be old style, unsuitable for the modern lifestyle that the younger generation seeks despite their current process of relative modernization.
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Therefore the aim of this paper is to describe my fieldwork in the Johnson longhouse amongst my family, before progressing to a theoretical discussion of what the fieldwork revealed before finally moving on to an ethnographic perspective. This is undertaken with a recognition and awareness that this particular longhouse, as is the case for all longhouses now, is irrevocably situated in national and global, social and economic relations, and thus faces challenges originating not only from the positions and policies applied by a powerful central government located in distant peninsular Malaysia, but also from the increasingly common practices of migration from within the longhouse situation to various destinations and employment opportunities outside it.
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1.1 Historical Background and Context
Sarawak -‐the lands of the hornbills – is located in the island of Borneo
where a plethora of indigenous and ethnic groups reside. Roughly a third of the state’s population consists of Iban people who are the focus ethnic group in this thesis (Postill, 2006; Boulanger, 2010). The Iban were previously known as the Sea Dayak (Postill, 2006:44) but such a term became a problematic description and by the twentieth century, the Dayak category is regarded as part of a “political tool lacking in cultural depth” (Boulanger, 2000:54 cited by Postill 2006:44). In most cases the Iban were generally regarded as “non-‐ Muslim peoples of the region” (Boulanger, 2010:221). They were famously known as the most ‘aggressive’ native people (Sutlive, 1978:2) within the interior of Borneo, much feared due to their headhunting proclivities. However, headhunting has become non-‐existent in today’s Iban communities. In the past, the Iban social structure was based on a family unit, the bilik. A household generally consisted of three generations, including grandparents, parents and children. However, the contemporary Iban longhouse can be extended backwards so that it could contain more residents such as in-‐laws and grandchildren. Family units often amalgamated into a larger community, building individual apartments adjacent to one another as a single longhouse structure, which acts an economic, political, social and ritual unit (Freeman, 1970; Sather, 1994). Hence, it is no wonder that the longhouse was regarded as a universe of its own, as mentioned above.
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Within the longhouse community, each member was regarded as autonomous. Individualism is one of the fundamental principles in Iban society and is assigned much symbolic capital. The Iban also have an anthropological reputation as being highly egalitarian, and are known for equality between individuals in society (Sandin 1967; Freeman 1970; Sather 1996; Pashia, 2005). However, the question as to whether the Iban are truly egalitarian is debatable, considering that hierarchy does form through achieved positions (Sather, 1996). Early academic writings suggested that mobility and migration were an integral parts of the Iban traditional lifestyle since it was influenced by the shifting cultivation system (Freeman,1970; Padoch, 1982). Iban people constantly moved around the island in order to seek for new land as well to expand their territorial power (Sutlive, 1980). Such behavior led them to both abandon current dwellings and construct new longhouses elsewhere. Therefore I suggest that the Iban longhouse should be understood as a translocal house. According to Yea, the longhouse had only fifteen years of lifespan (2002:174). Thus the longhouse was characterized by abandonment and impermanence allowing it to travel from one location to the other, spreading widely throughout Borneo until well into the 1960s. The significance of the 1960s lies in the making of a border between Sarawak and Kalimantan. The implementation of borders secured the territories of the new nation states of Malaysia (Sarawak) and Indonesia (Kalimantan). Eilenberg (2012) writes that the nature of the Iban’s local movement and mobility as well as their social ties have been heavily affected by these borders. He notes that the
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Iban did not agree with the concept of national ‘border’ and its affecting of their movement, as they focused more on the practicalities of kinship ties. Consequently, the border between Malaysia and Indonesia created problems regarding the Iban’s relationship with their lands. It also politicized their identity (Soda, 2007:34). As Metcalf observes, ‘natives’ in Borneo are the victims of stereotypes, repression and political abuse (2002:13). Within the context of Malaysia, especially in the past, the Iban people proudly perceived themselves to be independent and to be able to move around the jungle without any outside agencies or authority imposing on them. By contrast the entity that is now known as Sarawak has merged with West Malaysia, and authority and power are no longer allowed to be held by indigenous communities like the Iban and Dusun, but rather are siphoned off to those who are currently securely ensconced within the insulated political safety of Kuala Lumpur (centrally) and Kuching (regionally). Sutlive has explained this process: “The Iban are no longer politically dominant in their own state. Whereas they once moved at will and were the primary agents in their own creative activities, they now are caught by the forces of modernization” (1978:189).
It is important to note that historically, according to Sutlive (1978), the
Iban would travel from one place to another to expand their territorial power. The changes of power and government had affected the Iban’s lives radically
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especially imposing policies on the forests. After Sarawak became part of Malaysia, the government encouraged the Iban to discard traditional farming practices in favour of a more sedentary lifestyle. The longhouse itself became a more permanent structure built with durable modern materials like concrete, corrugated iron and glass. Settling the longhouse in one particular place was new to the Iban. Enek Ebe confirmed that she used to move from one longhouse to another. She further explains that due to the oil palm industry implemented by the government from Kuala Lumpur, it was best to grow oil palm rather than to continue shifting cultivation. The shifting cultivation system has declined as it experienced government pressure and prejudice. It has been declared an “unsustainable form of agriculture” and as undesirable in building a modern Malaysia 20207 (Tan and Yeoh, 2011:44).
More recognizable processes of modernization swept through Sarawak
and made significant changes to those people living in the longhouse. Currently longhouse life is more interconnected and synchronized to the world outside, especially to the local settlements and the cities nearby its location. 7 Malaysia 2020 is the policy document created by ex-‐PM, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, in which Malaysia aims to be a fully developed country by the year 2020.
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1.2 Understanding the ‘Translocal’ Iban Longhouse
What follows is a selective review of key literature and an examination of
some of the issues relating to aspects of life in an Iban longhouse. Generally, the studies focusing on the Iban longhouse have tended to be relatively limited, with the major areas of study being the ‘process of modernisation’ (Postill, 2006:33), dealing with mobility (Sutlive, 1978; Padoch, 1982; Kedit, 1993), Iban urban studies (Sutlive, 1978; Soda, 2007), the nation-‐state (Postill 2006, O’Gorman, 2010) and Iban as an ethnic identity (Boulanger, 2010; Metcalf, 2011). Less has been written about the changes longhouses have undergone, and little has been produced on the processes of translocality as the main framework in understanding the contemporary Iban longhouse.
On the other hand, the Iban longhouse has been relatively well scrutinized
regarding its structural organisation (Freeman, 1970), its role as a site for perfunctory and ceremonial rituals (Sather, 1988), and how space within the longhouse has been regarded as ‘governmental’8 (Postill, 2006), the latter being evident ever since Sarawak became part of the Malaysian nation state as discussed above. Scholars such as Freeman, Sather and Postill have provided us with a wide range of knowledge in understanding the structure of the longhouse, but again it is argued here that not much analysis has been applied to the underlying and ongoing transformational forces at work on the longhouse both from the point of view of the inhabitants and the evolution of the architecture. 8 According to Postill, the Iban longhouse is no longer being administered solely by the Iban people but under the demands of Kuala Lumpur.
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The one exception is a brief explanation of changes facing longhouses during a period of ‘modernisation’ (Sutlive, 1978). The early seminal research on the longhouse can be traced to the 1950s, based on an interest that attracted an anthropologist who ended up famously holding views opposed to those of Margaret Mead 9 , Derek Freeman. His understanding of the longhouse is rather structuralist in that he views the longhouse organization as being based on an independent unit. Such a view of the longhouse shifted when Peter Metcalf noted and commented on the drastic changes occurring when ‘modernization’ hit the longhouse. He witnessed the longhouses being literally emptied of their residents as a result of depressed economic conditions forcing the Iban to move out of their ‘bilek’ and take up residence in the neighbouring cities. Another anthropologist Sather (1978) examined the longhouse and suggested that it should be viewed primarily as a ritual space based around the staging and enabling of ritual obligations. When living in the longhouse, one must conform to adat, codes of conduct. The adat is crucial in Iban everyday’s lives in the longhouse to the point that Rousseau (1975 cited by Freeman, 1981) expresses that: “The adat itself is treated as if hallowed, and is regarded as a body of correct behavior essential to the continued existence of the society… 9 Her work with Samoan girls was opposed by Freeman. She did not contribute any ethnography on the subject of Iban people.
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Without it, they say, there would be chaos and a quick demise of their society. This is why a person who repudiates the adat is driven from a group, for he is regarded as a harbinger of destruction. Each Iban, therefore, belong to an adat community, the harmony and continued existence of which is dependent on the members behaving as the adat requires”. The significant of adat is usually maintained and performed by the burong tuai (augur). The augur’s role in each longhouse was vital for rituals to be performed and in this regard, his observation of traditional rituals and adat of each longhouse was immensely important. However, the role of augur is absent in today’s longhouses, which inevitably changes their structure and order. The lack of the augur raises questions about how the longhouse operates during ritual ceremony particularly the act of bejalai. At this point it should be stressed that the experiential dimension of life in the longhouse should not be overlooked. Halliwell contributes a significant account of her experiences of the longhouse in which she refers to the dwellers as a community of voices. She observes that the Iban’s voices permeate and resonate throughout the entire length of the longhouse in waves that travel up and down, back and forth. As a result the permeable walls of the longhouse gives a sense of living in one community (Halliwell, 1996:145). Moreover, Postil (2006) gives an updated version of the space in the longhouse. He was more concerned with the transformation of the longhouse as
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it becomes integrated and subsumed into the Malaysia nation state. This is demonstrated by how ruai (public space) is decorated with banners that support the current coalition. A community under the nation state is equally important in affecting the lives of the inhabitants and the way people position their needs and wants according to perceived demands and requirements of the state (perintah). Postill demonstrates such effects by studying the dissemination of mass media in the Iban everyday lives so that they could be engaged with the latest news from Kuala Lumpur. Postill persuades us to see the way the longhouse has been created under the consciousness of the “imagined community’, channeled through mass media in order to achieve a “Malaysian social formation” (185:2006).
The work of Freeman, Postil, Halliwell and Metcalf respectively has been
instrumental in helping to conceptualize and generally comprehend how space and its sociality within the longhouse are constructed and function. However, there is an overwhelming emphasis on the households as the most important unit of social organization, as most ethnographers of Dayak societies have been content to describe a longhouse simply by outlining a single apartment (Halliwell, 2013:183). There is insufficient academic research on the treatment of space usage in contemporary Iban longhouses. Postill confirms that “various indigenous Iban notions of space and place have not been adequately explored” (2000:26). Departing from the idea of the usage of space, I am concerned with the Iban longhouse as a translocal space. This is because longhouses are shaped by “consumption, remittances, social networks as well as the rise of social media” (Brickell and Datta, 2011:13).
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The Iban longhouse can be characterized as a translocal home in the
sense that it “transcends the physical and [national borders] that connects different, sometimes distant physical places and social fields through interactions and flows” (Etzold, 2014:4). The key force for the appearance of translocal space is mobility.
Currently, the Iban society is becoming highly mobile. People’s
movements are not restricted to rural or urban migration but also overseas leading to the emergence of an Iban diaspora and of individuals who are placeless (Metcalf, 2001: 165). Consequently, these effects are manifested by half-‐empty longhouses inhabited by groups of old people and families with school-‐age children. However, such interpretation is rather insubstantial. One must understand that migrants do not simply “leave their home behind” (Etzold, 2014:4) and permanently settle in their dream destination.
Many researchers have generally classified aspects of Iban migration and
mobility as either urban or rural (Cramb, 2000; Blaikie, 2002; Soda, 2007), focusing on disjuncture (Appadurai, 1990; Metcalf, 2001), non-‐farm employment (Adam, 2002; Rigg 2005) or the notion of ‘urban villagers’ (Mangin, 1970; Soda, 2007). Most of these studies are quite problematic considering they focus on work-‐based movement from the country to the city. However, in reality Iban’s mobility is comprised of “a complex types of movements” (Soda, 2007:49) and it cannot be simply understood within the scale of ‘rural to urban’. Using the concept of translocality as a framework for this research “draw(s) attention to multiplying forms of mobility without losing sight of the importance of localities
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in people’s lives” (2006 cited by Brikell and Ayona, 2011). It must be noted that Iban life can no longer be accurately characterized as simply rural or urban. Rather they “remain situated in one translocal social field” (Etzold, 2014:4). Therefore, the focus must be necessarily shifted to a translocal perspective in understanding the changes in both the Iban livelihoods and the structure of longhouse through their translocal practices.
McKay’s (2006) research amongst the Filipino community demonstrates
their translocal mobility facilitates and is facilitated by their usage of modern technologies. Furthermore, their translocal practices including arranging remittances and regular communication are mediated by mobile phones in scaffolding and maintaining their family relationships. This study has been helpful in conceptualizing the translocal Iban lives to be discussed here.
Additionally, to view the Iban living conditions as ‘deteriorating’ is also
unproductive. Translocality offers to moderate the notion of Iban lives and experiences as simultaneously embedded in “their social networks across specific local places” (Etzold, 2014:5). In this regard, notions of Iban placelessness should perhaps be disregarded as well as it tends to blur the rural/urban distinction. The work of Soda (2007) is useful in how it assesses the Iban custom focusing on the Iban family relationship especially those who migrate. He elaborates that “one can remain a member of his/her original community regardless of present residence as long as specific conditions are met” (2007:52).
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In this research, I show how the sets of interpersonal relationship and
cultural practices involved in articulating migrants with their home-‐base families are a significant factor in longhouse dynamics. From this angle, people’s movement constitutes an ongoing process of adaptation within networks of family and community over space and time, and requires an appreciation of the nature of translocality as experienced by the social actors involved. Consequently there is a deliberate effort to get away from the attention of the migratory resident towards those who are left in the longhouse environment. Therefore, deriving from approaches outlined above, translocality demands that the reader takes serious consideration of the space in and around the longhouse by concentrating on the “material, embodied, and corporeal qualities of the local, as opposed to the translocal – the place where situatedness is experience” (Brickell and Datta, 2011: 17) highly influenced by movement. With this background in mind, the dissertation explains the changes within the longhouse. In addition, it will facilitate a discussion and posit a productive argument about the changes of the longhouse brought about by both migratory and employment movement and central government pressure.
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Methodology 2.1 Rumah Panjai Revisited
I was honoured to be able to conduct my research in Seloi. Seloi might be
classified very loosely as “sub urban” but this is relative as the “urban” location was in reality a small Malaysian city called Miri. It is to be noted that Miri was officially proclaimed as a city in May 2005. Ever since this public announcement, Miri has continued to flourish, building more high-‐rise buildings in order to provide housing and to conform to popular perceptions about what a successful city looks like. One result of this rapid process of modernization has been changes in the longhouse dweller’s lifestyle. The Iban are forced to make choices about how to make ends meet and where to live. They face constant pressure and tension in getting jobs in the city, and often uproot themselves and their families in order to conform to their newly found surroundings and situations both in the sense of the economic realities that prevail and global politics in terms of indigenous rights (Metcalf, 2001:166). Additionally, being absent from the longhouse has caused dramatic changes both in social relationships and in the physical space of the longhouse architecture. The changes within the longhouse and its inhabitants resonate with Metcalf’s experiences while conducting his fieldwork in a similar longhouse environment. He found that most of the inhabitants of the longhouse had left, leaving only a remnant of a once thriving community in the bodies of old people and school-‐aged children (2001:170).
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The longhouse in which I lived temporarily is called Rumah Panjai Johnson. Most of the longhouses are called after the tuai rumah. He is the person in charge of the longhouse but he does not have the power to control its inhabitants. This largely stems from the fact that the Iban practice an egalitarian system as referred to above. Subsequently, the role of the tuai rumah is to simply advise or to appease residents if there is ever conflict within the longhouse. The tuai rumah is the person who will be in consulted and charged with the task of bringing back balance to the longhouse. Rumah Panjai Johnson10 was chosen as the field site for several reasons. First of all, it is geographically convenient, as the longhouse is situated near Miri city, which takes approximately forty-‐five minutes to reach. The ride to reach the longhouse was quite pleasant despite the potholes and the bumpy, hilly road. A causal remark dropped by one of my contacts early in the research turned out to be very accurate: ‘You’ll need a four wheel drive to get to my front door!’ said Aunty Rita. **
So the journey started. As soon as Miri city was out of sight, huge trees
emerged along bluffs and craggy hills with imposing cliffs, but after half an hour of driving gradually merged into a vista of thousands of palm oil trees panning out on both sides of the rough track. I had to close the 4x4’s windows because of the pungent oily smell invading my senses. 10 Johnson Longhouse is a shortened form in referring to the longhouse (Rumah Johnson)
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Approaching the longhouse, a collection of thriving small shops came into
view along with a nearby school. Next to the shops, a dilapidated Petronas11 filling station fenced off with wooden planks came as a surprise to me. My grandmother who was our chief navigator informed me that the Chinese family who owned it had been declared bankrupt. However, what I found interesting was the little pondok (hut) near the edge of the road on the left selling babi (pork). As a Muslim, that was not part of my everyday scene at home in Brunei. It was surprising to note the accommodation of minority values. Eventually the destination jolted into view through the 4WD windscreen, off to one side of the unmade track.
To the weary traveler, the longhouse revealed itself as a welcome respite
from the arduous driving on the route where many of the inhabitants travel to and fro along the well-‐trodden tourist route to reach Gua Niah12. Thus, the longhouse being located dekat jalai (near the road) presented me with an opportunity to observe as well as participate in their movements, so that I could physically witness the dynamics of translocal movement as well as their intra longhouse social interactions. Obtaining access to participants was relatively straightforward as I had established contact with the key longhouse residents in a previous undergraduate research effort. Having met two years ago with the dwellers of the longhouse, who also consisted of my close cousins, aunties, uncles and great 11 The national oil company 12 Niah Cave, a famous tourist site that preserves the lifestyle of people who lived in the cave.
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aunts and a great uncle, their familiar faces and presence made it easier to establish myself amongst the longhouse inhabitants. However, I found it difficult to explain what I was trying to seek and learn from them. I told them in the simplest manner that I was interested in the longhouse life. By using examples of the names of families I knew who had left before, I explained that I was interested in the act of mobility as well as migration, and the impact it had in their lives. They seemed to be both perplexed and intrigued by the research idea yet it appeared to strike a nerve with them as the overwhelming reaction was a palpable eagerness to help. Surprisingly, one of my aunties creatively explained to the neighbor somewhere at the end of the longhouse not to worry as I was only there to do ‘practical’13 in the longhouse for skool14 -‐ an elegantly accurate description of what would be occupying my time for the next month or so. It should be recognized here that Rumah Johnson collaborates with one of the Australian-‐based universities operating in Sarawak (Curtin University) in their successful ‘get to know the locals program’ or as some of aunties would prefer to called it, ‘program anak angkat’ 15. Not only has the longhouse recently become famous for being a popular tourist attraction but it has also caught both national and global attention, being visited recently by representatives of the ACWW (Associated Country Women of the World). Relatives agreed to assist me in arranging visits to neighbouring longhouses located in the same area. My intention was to treat Rumah Johnson as the base camp or headquarters for the central research activity. 13 In this context meaning doing research in a scientific manner 14 School 15 Adoption program
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I conducted semi-‐structured interviews and informal conversations; these were carried out during berandau times (opportunities for social hanging out and interaction). For many others sessions, I would go and seek interaction by visiting various longhouses or residential locations. The Iban are known for their love of talk and gossip and this is why berandau makes a perfect opportunity to ask about and listen to stories. It is a way for them to socialize in productive situations where there are very few restrictions between male and female and even across the various age barriers including children. I focused on their narratives as well as their habits in the ways how the inhabitants expressed translocal change in the longhouse manifested through their material possessions in their own quarters. From berandau, I met several new faces like my cousins’ wives (Indu and Ibe) whose husbands were resuming their work back on cargo vessels operating on the high seas I met Ayak16 Asong who came back to the longhouse after spending 3 months away at sea, who became one of my main informants. I also met adults like Aunty Rita (a housewife) and Aunty Ala previously a primary school teacher in teaching the Iban language -‐ both of whom are representatives for Rumah Johnson whenever there is a state meeting held in the regional capital. I talked to Enek 17Yu, Enek tuai who are former weavers as well as befriending my cousins Singka, Ah boy, Russell and Sulita who helped me throughout the fieldwork explaining difficult Iban words. 16 Uncle 17 Grandmother
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Most of their berandau consisted of telling stories about what happened in their day to day lives as well as a whole range of other topics such as their past experiences and how many people visited their longhouse. It was in these moments that I seized the opportunity to ask about their experiences and views about working elsewhere. It turned out that there was a great deal of debate about Iban mobility throughout the globe to the point that Ayak Asong proudly showed me his several different passports that he earned in his life while working for an offshore company. I used a non-‐intrusive way of taking notes. The bulk of my field notes were composed of reflections, descriptions and annotations of what people did and said during the day. I tried to make my note taking as less invasive as possible but it can get quite uncomfortable since I was always feeling the gaze of other inhabitants. Notes were often written down in hasty jottings, and when I had a few minutes between activities I developed more in details at night -‐ time. I found excusing myself to go to the toilet was an effective method in expanding the points that I was trying to elucidate. Also, I often repeated things in my head, parrot-‐fashion, for hours fearing that I would forget a crucial point or detail.
Two challenges emerged out of my fieldwork. Firstly there is an ethical
concern as I was engaging in fieldwork amongst family members, and thus perhaps comprising the trust that is inherent within Iban family. Secondly, how do I carry out research that examines their experiences in dealing with mobility and ‘translocality’ in relation to the longhouse by those who move and those who do not?
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I found that trying to execute fieldwork amongst my family members was challenging because in effect what it means is that the whole process is no longer about the “researcher and a cluster of cherished contacts – documents and archives, people and places, organization and outlooks” (Starrs and Huntsinger, 2001:75) because I am dealing with people who are related to me. Furthermore, I found I was starting to question my identity and the role that I played there because I found that there is a fine line between being both a native researcher and a daughter, niece and granddaughter. Bunzl conceptualizes my problem by noting that no native is ever really native, given that they too inhabit multiple identities, as the work migration makes clear (2004:436). Coffey further supports this issue when she highlights that “the fieldwork self is always, to some extent, shaped by the cultural context and social relations of the field” (1999:30). In many ways, I had decided to turn my analytical gaze towards a neo – Boasian approach observing the “order of difference in the present” (Bunzl, 2004:441). By adopting this method, I was hoping that “the present would never appear as a transparent entity, but as the very site of critical investigation into ongoing processes of historical reproduction. The seeming reality of difference would thus function not as the starting point but as the explanatory telos of anthropological inquiry”. Consequently, it might be possible to overcome several dilemmas of the awkward status of the ‘native anthropology’ (Bunzl, 2004:441) that I experienced during fieldwork. At the same time, I took careful steps to not disrupt or jeopardize my relationship with my family.
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Brickell and Datta give useful guidance in resolving my second challenge; they suggest researchers should utilize the notion of habitus as a tool in investigating the Iban’s experiences across different scales of movement (2011:11). Basically, habitus is a field of practice that demonstrates the expected disposition and values obtained through the experiences and activities of everyday life within a certain society. Habitus should be observed as a heuristic method that bridges structure and agency (Brickell and Datta, 2011:11). Using habitus as a tool would perhaps give a better understanding of ‘the rules of the game’ (Brickell and Datta, 2011:11) within the Iban’s longhouse everyday setting. An example of these would be the common practice of communicating through mobile phones and internet access. Apart from that, I also took pictures of the interior of the chosen bileks and the exterior of the longhouse as well as ‘photo-‐documenting’ (Brickell and Datta 2011:7) their everyday activities. The collected photos demonstrated not only how inhabitants both experienced and treated the space of the longhouse during the movement of people, but allowed me to identify emerging and comparable patterns of behaviour. By adopting visuals aids as part of my methodological tools, it helped my understanding of the ‘habitus’ as part of the Iban everyday practices within the context of mobility. To this end, I requested one of the residents to draw a diagram of how they understand and located their past and their current present in the context of the longhouse.
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Chapter III
3.1 Bejalai
Iban Mobility Practices
“Mobility is practiced, and practice is often conflated with mobility. To move is to do something. Moving involves making a choice within, or despite, the constraints of society and geography”
-‐ Cresswell and Merrimen, 2011:5
The notion of translocality relates to concepts of mobility and locality, and is both narrated by and engaged in by the participants consulted in this study. The argument proffered here is that in the emerging new types of mobilities pursued by my informants, they bring their translocal experiences from the outside realm to the spaces of the longhouse. Their involvement in these types of mobilities has transformed and constructed the bilek (room) in relation to other localities. During a gathering (berandau), I asked my family what bejalai means to them. Uncle Asong quickly went into his room and brought out two small battered looking padded bags to the ruai (gallery). Carefully unzipping both of them he extracted his prized collection of old passports. He told me that these passports symbolize his bejalai. Looking through his passports, it was evident
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that he had been to almost every continent in the world. In his own words, ‘Nadai satu negeri pun! Semua sudah. Tetapi hatiku masih di rumah panjai tu’ (There’s not a single country I’ve missed! I’ve been everywhere. But while I was away, my heart was always and still is in this longhouse). As my Uncle Asong’s story shows, migration and mobility are not new phenomena in Iban culture. Rather they should be considered a dominant practice of Iban society, particularly bejalai (Kedit, 1993; Soda, 2007). Bejalai literally means ‘to go on a journey’ while in Malay it means ‘to walk’. Kedit’s dissertation titled ‘Bejalai’ (1993) argues that bejalai was not only a significant part of Iban culture but was also an initiation or rite of passage into manhood. He further characterized bejalai as a significant institution. It entailed a courageous act to travel abroad or overseas but it also involved a project of knowledge investigation as well. In the past bejalai was part of headhunting activity. However, Ngidang (2000:8) criticizes Kedit for having a romantic take (i.e. the quest of headhunting) on the concept and questions as to whether that was why bejalai became so prominent in Iban culture. This is evident when Soda justifies that “most of the Iban mobility has been closely examined in relation to their patterns of subsistence instead of other motivations” (2007:50). In this regard, whether bejalai is important within Iban culture is highly debatable.
Today’s bejalai has been completely transformed and its meaning has
shifted into the economic realm (Soda, 2007:). At present, it is best to observe bejalai as a travelling away from home as a last resort to seek long -‐ term
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employment in the hope of securing a cash income. (Kedit, 1993; Soda, 2006:83). This was evident when I was interviewing my great aunt, Enek Tuai. She told me that most of the men moved out from their houses in search of jobs since life was difficult (merinsa). From her memories, she told me that my grandfather (Akek Arin) went to Brunei to track down a job when he was only 17years old. She further commented that he embarked on the journey taking only a biscuit tin stuffed with a small emergency supply of food, two shirts, a pair of trousers as well as a twenty Malaysian ringgit (dollar) note. That was how life was back then. However, this is not the case today. People move out not only because of the ready availability of jobs in the city but because of an accompanying belief that life in the city is preferable. The current situation is complicated by the trend of women leaving the longhouses in order to find work in the urban areas with their husband. There are many reasons for women to move out from the longhouse, to study abroad as an example. It should be noted that the custom of bejalai can also be a form of division of labour between genders in their daily life (Soda, 2007:83). Due to this, women tend to become invisible in migration studies being routinely described as dependants of active male migrants, expressed in the common phrase ‘migrants and their family’ (Morokvasic, 1983:16). Weyland stresses that the male bias in many publications implicitly projects a conception of migration as a predominantly male issue (1993:7).
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Soda suggests that changes in Iban migration patterns meant that it was difficult to describe contemporary Iban movements within the traditional framework of bejalai (2007:107). Such a view is the opposite of the one adopted here, as I found that most of my respondents demonstrated a clear understanding of the term and the changes connected with it whenever I discussed this with them. The reality here is that the practice of bejalai has become flexible in that it is no longer confined exclusively to men (Postill, 2006:131).
During my fieldwork I identified three emerging experiences of mobility
practiced by my participants at different levels. The first one is local migration (urban), the second quasi-‐local (interstate) and the third is distant (international). Though international mobility can be identified as transnational, I prefer to view it as a genuinely translocal activity because: “the transformations arising from individual migration are
experienced as local and personal, with the links migrants create
between home and away mediated at the household and village
level” (McKay, 2006:266).
I will illustrate this translocalism with three selected anecdotes from my Aunty Unyie, Uncle Asong and Singka. The stories are presented below with accompanying analyses, in order to show how participants situate and relate their translocal experiences to the longhouse.
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3.2 New Patterns of Mobility
Even as Rumah Panjai Johnson was transformed into a stationary and
fixed dwelling, myriad new types of human mobility started to emerge from the longhouse to local, quasi-‐local and distant locations (ibid). Acceleration of these three major patterns of movement brought about substantial changes in the longhouse community. In the ‘distant’ category, we can place the emergence of women’s mobility (first anecdote), and men working at sea (tasek) on cargo vessels (second anecdote). In parallel with this, there is also a dramatic increase in the number of quasi-‐ local commuters and both of these will be the target for extra focus. First Anecdote– Aunty Unyie Aunty Unyie has a petite frame, long black hair and a friendly disposition. She has been residing in Sydney for 22 years. She married Mr Vasquez in 1990 who was from Spain and recently died 3 years ago after contracting a serious illness. “I met Mr.Vazquez and fell in love with him during my cousin’s traditional wedding. After we got married, we migrated to Australia. Sydney is home but I still miss living in the longhouse because that is home and where I grew up. I tried to go back home every 2 years and see how everyone is doing and take pictures of everything. With all the technology we have nowadays, I ended up as a practitioner of Facebook, which is just amazing! I love it so much! I constantly check my Facebook via my phone. It feels like I’m connecting to my family in the longhouse, especially my parents. Even though I’m very far away and not physically present there but I’m always in contact with them. Through Facebook I can share my everyday life here in Sydney with them. At least via such social networking website, I can be there with them. Plus, I can speak Iban whenever I want, regardless of where I am
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which is comforting. It’s quite lonely to be the only Iban for miles around here in Australia”.
In the light of Aunty Unyie’s experiences living apart from her family was
difficult for her to cope with, particularly as she believes she is the only Iban in Sydney. Facebook, however does seem to be helping to connect in such situations. Rose (2003 cited by Tan and Yeoh, 2011) notes that the more distant people are, the more important social media becomes, in order to be closer with family members as well as regaining the feeling of living in the longhouse. Aunty Unyie’s experience thus points to the significance of the emotional geographies of translocality, which preoccupy migrants and their attempts to deal with the spatial splintering of households in the contemporary period.
Additionally, she found that Facebook helps her to sustain her family’s
translocal existence, particularly with her parents. Facebook as a ‘virtual contact’ can be considered as a strategic form of care and intimacy that used to be traditionally performed and readily available within the confines of the home (Baldassar, 2007). This is a similar case to Tan and Yeoh’s (2011) research in Northern Thailand concentrating on the ‘left-‐behind family’. They demonstrate that the outward movement of people experienced by the left-‐behind family should not be wholly understood as “loss, abandonment and ossification” (2011:53). Instead, acts of intimacy and care can be reconciled for translocal communication through the usage of mobile phones or by any other means of communication.
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Second Anecdote (Uncle Asong) My Uncle Asong tells stories of his first encounter working on the high seas and how he is now been awarded major responsibilities on the vessels he works. He also asserts that the ships must necessarily become his second home. ‘The work in the sea was challenging as I had to learn different names for the parts of the ship and communication was especially difficult during those times for me. I didn’t know any English. Back then, all I did was pull one of the ‘orang putih’ (caucasian) by their arm and point to one of the mechanism that needed to be fixed. The people on the boat undermined me because I didn’t have any qualifications and I was only a mere Iban. One day I saved the person in charge’s life and today he respects me because of what I did for him. Whenever I get back to the longhouse, I will wait for a call from the company. So I spent my time doing my usual routine like going to the kebun (orchard garden) and selling some goods to pasar (market) like bananas or vegetables. I put up pictures of my ship in the bilek to remind me of where I will probably be soon, so that it gets me ready for moving again. When I’m out at sea, I constantly send money to my wife. So, when I’m not in the longhouse, my wife is the person who is in charge of the household”.
As my Uncle Asong’s story shows, it is standard practice for male
members of the longhouse to seek employment in expatriate locations performing skills that they have honed previously. This could well be, for example, as crew on board international cargo vessels plying their carriage of goods all around the globe. Such movement is considered bejalai by Kedit. In this case, the individuals involved stay away from their longhouse home and family for significantly protracted periods of time. This process enables these individuals a different perspective on the place and value of the longhouse as
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home. These men are able to see the longhouse as ‘travelling’ through time and space from a relatively detached perspective – albeit a forced translocality. Third Anecdote – Singka June, 5am. The weekend has gone and it was time for Singka to go back to Bintulu as his mother, Aunty Ala reluctantly says goodbye once again. Singka emerges out of his bilek carrying a blue pail with the stuff he needs. He starts the engine of his Maroon-‐coloured Hilux. Aunty Ala inquires of him again whether he has all the things that he needs and has not left anything behind. It’s overcast and the monsoonal rains are falling. Aunty Ala advises Singka to be careful while driving, “jimat – jimat dreber awu? (Drive safely, yes?) Don’t forget to call me when you have arrived in tulu18, yes?”. Singka nods and hops onto the vehicle and waves goodbye to his mother. He’ll return again next weekend but this is never certain. My cousin Singka recently began to work for Sime Darby, a UK-‐based company. He told me that it was the first time for him to be away from home. “I’ll be away from home for quite a long time. But home has always to be with my family. But the great thing is that I’ll usually go back home during the weekends, and then I’ll go back to work. It’s not far from home. I always stay in touch with my mother. She always calls me. So, it’s not really a big deal for me. It takes me about 4hour’s drive but on a rainy day this, it usually turns in to more like 5hours” 18 Short form for Bintulu
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That was a snapshot of everyday life amongst contemporary Iban people. The Iban longhouse’s locality can no longer be understood as a given territorially bounded social reality. Once remote and far away from the city Rumah Johnson is no longer isolated but is increasingly connected to the urban centres of the region. One effect of this connection is that the social balance of the longhouse is knocked out of kilter as modifications of the concept of ‘local’ are adjusted to.
3.3 Analysis of Iban Translocal Movement
The outcome of such patterns of mobility has become the scene of
everyday Iban life. It is not surprising to the Iban if one of their families decides to head off somewhere only to return sometime later to find a place again at home in the longhouse. The understanding of bejalai as an activity of seeking wealth outside the longhouse arguably is retained amongst the Iban people. Even so, such a framework is not sufficient to comprehend today’s movements. Instead, bejalai as a term has become flexible and develops new interpretations in order to cover contemporary practices. Also contemporary bejalai appears to be closely linked to the idea of loss of home and discontinuation of “rural roots” (1993:153). Metcalf admits that: “For older people, it came as a bitter realization that everything they
knew about how to make a living, not to mention communal lore, was
suddenly judged worthless” (2011:305).
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Furthermore, for many Iban the rural homes remain the sentimental,
social and economic centres towards which they direct their activities and aspirations. This resonates with Uncle Rudy’s explanation of the imagery of the fly. He told me that:
“In Iban understanding, the fly symbolizes that we are connected and
linked. No matter how far away you are, when you see a fly, let it sit on you
for a few seconds and then gently brush it off. The fly is trying to tell you
something from either a short distance or across the ocean. Maybe it is
trying to tell you that you’ll meet us again one day. We are always linked no
matter the distance. That is how important the fly is to us. The metaphor of the fly fits with the participants’ mobilities experiences
regardless of the distance. Deriving from the examples, participants illustrate their practices of using technologies to stay in touch with their families residing in the longhouse even though they are physically in different locations. Thus to be in a different place does not limit their communication with those back home as participants increasingly engage “in a world of increasing movement, multiplicity, exchangeability and virtuality” (Lord and Marchessault, 2005:4). McKay (2006) suggests their usage of technologies demonstrate their translocal movements do not ‘fracture’ their localities but that localities have become extended even as participants creatively fabricate new localities. In fact, this type of movement does not necessarily have a deleterious impact, rather it can have positive spin-‐offs in terms of preparing for inevitable
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change. This ability to adjust accordingly is the outcome of something more that just simply a movement from country to city. This leads to my next argument suggesting that translocal mobility and migration has affected and shaped the space in the longhouse into a translocal element in the making of place. The fourth chapter focuses how transformations and translocal influences take place in the longhouse.
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Chapter IV Inside Rumah Panjai Johnson
4.1 Spatial, Structural and Livelihoods Change in the Longhouse “The house is not fixed forever by its site and structure: it is also evolving entity of layered residues and accretions, responsive to the subtle modifications of habitual experience” -‐ Moran, 2006:42 This chapter involves an analysis and discussion of translocal livelihoods and spatial appropriations in the longhouse focusing on the bilek (the domestic area), with a brief introduction describing how the longhouse is currently under the surveillance of the current coalition in KL. Following this the chapters makes a shift to examine the structure of the longhouse and two ethnographic case studies on the bilek, reflecting upon their translocal spatial practices. It is to be noted that the creation of space is closely tied to the inhabitants’ experience of translocality, personal relations and imagination. Translocal migration and mobility are considered normal practice amongst the inhabitants of the longhouse and both the space and structure of the longhouse are actively re-‐ produced, re-‐worked and re-‐configured by their translocal activities. Thus the overeaching question is how translocal practices structure the longhouse livelihoods and their spatial appropriations?
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4.2. Nation Building in a ‘Translocal’ Longhouse
Rumah Johnson – a modern longhouse made out of corrugated iron
roofing and preformed concrete -‐ has 52 bileks in total. Each is unique in its presentation and its style and it seemed to me that many of these differences had their origin in translocal influences. However, the planning and the construction of the longhouse had to be approved by the state. The site of the longhouse building is vital considering the thorny question of contested land ownership, particularly if there is no provision of correct legal documents. Iban cannot build a longhouse anywhere anymore, related to their new status: “the Iban today are no longer a widely scattered network of self-‐governing longhouses, rather they are defined as Malaysian race” (Postill, 2000:289). As soon as one enters the longhouse, one can understand why the ruai (public space) has been described as the main street of the village (Metcalf, 2011). Nowadays, the ruai is filled with modern necessities. For example, motorcycles are neatly arranged near their respective bilek and speak to the lifestyle of the occupants. Moreover, the wall of the longhouse is covered with health posters and pictures of the current coalition party as well as the Agong19. Whenever there is a public celebration, the ruai is usually decorated with banners. The blue and white banners sticking on the ceiling below at the time of my visit showed that Johnson longhouse supported the BN (Barisan National) party. Postill further confirms that “politically, the longhouse is firmly within the
19 The present Sultan in ruling Malaysia.
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governing Barisan National fold” (2000:237). This is manifested clearly in their voting behavior (Soda, 2007:54). Usually the ruai is observed to be the “center for ritual events” (Sutlive, 1978:54) including formal visits by perintah (government officials). In this sense, the ruai has been appropriated by the State as an official meeting point between itself and the inhabitants since the space is charge with “symbolic campaigns” Etzold, 2014:5). One of my informants tells me that it was necessary for most ruai in the longhouses to hang those pictures in order to show their recognition, support and loyalty towards the state.
(Figure. 1)
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These pictures portray above symbolize that the power of the state is being “asserted and made more tangible” over the Iban (Amster, 2006:33) in order for them to be part of the Malaysia’s ‘imagined community’ to use Anderson’s term (1991). This returns us to Postill’s point. He (2006) examines how the Iban constructed their Malaysian identity through the usage of mass media. He insisted on viewing the longhouse as a “Malaysian social formation” (2006:185) and developed a perspective on Iban society as “an organization increasingly built around the demands of nation building, demands partly met by enacting media rituals” (2006:185). However, the argument downplays the inhabitants’ independence in practicing and taking initiatives about their translocal mobility decisions. Most scholars have represented that the Iban people as powerless and controlled by the state (Postill, 2000, 2006; Low, 2008; Yea, 2010; Bissonnette, 2011). Yet, as I became more involved with my informants, they informed me of ingenious ways of controlling the power of the state either implicitly or explicitly. From conducting fieldwork, Aunty Rita eloquently demonstrated how effectively she uses both of her clearly delineated identities as a marginalized person and longhouse original as a strategy in handling the state and supervising my emergency medical condition while in the field. To expand, I suffered from a severe and debilitating tonsillitis and Aunty Rita promptly took me to the nearest state clinic. The only problem was the clinic fee. She told me that for foreigners, I would have to pay M$25, whilst locals are charged M$1, which was infinitely preferable, as we were both financially
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challenged! When we arrived at the clinic, she told me she would be using her identity card for registration. Before seeing the doctor, she instructed me to remain quiet and let her answer all the questions including my proof of identity. Aunty Rita was afraid that the doctor might identify my Malay accent and my Muslim name, which could expose my real identity. Aunty Rita spoke Malay and informed the doctor that it was I who was sick. The doctor who was a Malay in his late thirties probed me with several pointed questions like ‘what’s my Kad Pintar’ (Identity Card) number but Aunty Rita quickly replied with an imaginary number. Afterwards, she hastily introduced me as her daughter and newly returned from Australia to live in Johnson longhouse. Upon mentioning the longhouse – the doctor relinquished his line of questioning and proceeded to deal with my complaint. This is because, according to Aunty Rita, there are cases where foreigners particularly from Kalimantan disguised themselves as the locals in order to take advantage of the low medical check-‐up fee. The recounted event demonstrates that the relationship between the state and the Iban people is constantly being negotiated, encouraging a necessary ‘savviness’ in difficult situations. Although the ruai appears to be a space that is organized under the government’s supervision, I suggest that we perceive such an arrangement as positive instead of harmful and repressive. Helliwell’s Good Walls Make Bad Neighbours (1992) makes a fruitful argument concerning the Dayak and how both ruai and bilek spaces can be interpreted in terms of sawah (our space) and lawang (the space of others). This outlook
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reveals a parallel perception that the state is generally not regarded as the former so much as the latter. She places a greater emphasis on the lawang (ibid) in the ways it reflects how the Dayak understand themselves, in particular, their “diret” (self) as well as their construction of the ‘other’. She further elaborates that the space within the longhouse should be viewed as inside (community) and outside (strangers) which again, links to the Dayak understanding of these same notions: self and other. Applying this study to the Iban, it reveals how contemporary Iban understand their identity as an “imagined community”, that is as Malaysians who manifest who they are in their treatment of space in the longhouse, particularly the ruai. **
Furthermore, Metcalf raises an interesting point when he compares the
longhouse to the existence of living in a city. He suggests that it is better not to be misled by a sense of uniformity in the appearance of the longhouse. People lived in the spaces and the environs of the longhouse, and even though there was a sense of uniformity in the ruai area, in fact it varied a great deal (Metcalf, 2011:15). In this regard, the longhouse like a city is always in the process of transition produced by the inhabitants’ everyday local and translocal practices. Such transitions take place at two levels. The first is at a purely structural level, particularly the bilek where the domestic space is carved out and expressed through their imaginations of what constitutes a modern longhouse. Here, although, the physical structure of the longhouse may not be easily changed, translocal practices can fashion its “ [living] quality of the space” (Etzold,
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2014:5). The second is on an individual level whereby the emphasis is on the translocal relations that will be discussed in greater detail in the proceeding sections.
Below are representations of a bilek (fig.2) and the longhouse (fig.3).
These representations are intended to illustrate how the physical structure of the longhouse is constantly re-‐configured through translocal activities and over time. Recognizing structural changes is to note in particular improvements to contemporary Iban’s lifestyle.
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(Figure. 2) Contrasting plan view of a bilek in the 1930’s and 2013 -‐ Soda, 2011
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(Figure.3) Drawings from my informants (Singka and Arnold) how they understood the structure of longhouses have changed.
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Drawing from (Fig 2.) the bilek used to be “a rectangular space enclosed
by four walls” (Sutlive, 1978:54) without any internal partitions. In sharp contrast, the contemporary bilek is not only equipped with electricity but divided into small rooms such as the bedroom, toilet, kitchen and the living room. Clearly, the bilek in 2013 has far more physical segregation compared to the 1930’s version in order, partly, to accommodate the constant comings and goings of the translocal worker/migrant. To exemplify, in Aunty Hala’s case one of the bedrooms is empty. She told me the room belongs to her eldest son, Bujang. She further commented that his room would remain empty till his return from the sea. Such a practice was rarely found in the past. Following the new structure, translocal activities may not only change the fate of the inhabitants but turn the domestic area, tanju20, kitchen and sadau 21into a little chapel, maintaining bee hives, a brewery and other “sites of consumption and leisure” (Etzold, 2014:5) according to the proclivities of the residents of each respective bilek.
Additionally, the creation of partitions is significant in the bilek as it leads
to a sense of privacy. Previously, privacy was a foreign concept to the Iban who only respected basic spatial division such as inside (dalam/lawang) and outside (luar/sawah) instead of the relatively modern notion of the private/public dichotomy (ibid). Thus privacy within the longhouse is seen as a form of luxury “simply because one is recognized as never being alone” within the longhouse environment (Helliwell, 1992:190).
20 The back of the longhouse 21 The second floor
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Moreover, Metcalf argues that the modern longhouse reflects the new
cash economy and is not necessarily related to the increase in family members (2011:314). Interestingly, most of the income comes from remittances. Remittances play a significant role in constructing and projecting a “desired future” (Tan and Brickell, 2011:32) in a home. Essentially, the bilek should be regarded as a “physical domain of familial aspiration” (2011:32) that needs to be improved.
Therefore, it seems evident that although the state may appear to have
nominal control over the longhouse particularly in the ruai, it was clear from the interactions I experienced that this is countered by a general reluctance to accept this as a status quo. A major contributory factor to this attitude is that the structure and internal dynamics of the longhouse are constantly being reformed and re-‐configured through translocal movement. 4.3 Imagining and Reproducing Domestic ‘Translocal’ Space
I stayed with Aunty Rita who is a housewife and also a member of the
Women’s organization formed in the longhouse. Aunty Rita’s apartment was decorated and filled with translocal signs of modern furniture. She told me that her husband sends her money monthly since he is away working at tasek22. The room resembled any contemporary Malay living room; the living room was 22 Tasek in the Iban context refers to the sea. In Malay language, it is referring to the river.
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furnished with two identical sofas, an expensive mahogany coffee table and a gargantuan flat screen television that I would not have imagined being here. The walls of her bilek were covered with photos of visitors that she had hosted in the longhouse.
The presentation of photographs was evidently a common practice in the
longhouse especially of those men who are away working at tasek. Such practice is evident whenever I visited other bilek. The walls were filled with pictures of family weddings, especially of her husband both old and recent. I am not exaggerating to say that most pictures of families are not confined to the living room but are in the kitchen too. This was another example of the reaching out and inviting of the translocal destinations into the local origin, the longhouse. These photos are significant because they transcend both time and space, and are concrete proof of the experiential benefits of translocal movement by enterprising individuals (Postill, 2000:252). Aunty Rita told me that her husband usually returned back home every three months. Currently, her son and her daughter in law are living with her. The domain of the living space has been completely transformed into not only a female site but also a space of memory. Lawrence (1985:129) points out that home at a “deeper level is an expression of a warehouse of personal experience”. There is a sense of order in Aunty Rita’s arrangements of the photos, but in this order the artifacts and pictorial representations were an earnest effort to capture translocal adventures.
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Aunty Rita’s spatial representation of her bilek is symbolic of her desire to be modern, as well as an expression of translocal connection particularly with her husband. Her marital relationship is mostly maintained through the mobile phone and in producing and taking new photos of her husband whenever he is home. This is similar to Lozada’s (2006) research in China in which he argues that ‘taking family photograph with dispersed members provides a physical manifestation, as an object material, and as a performative reminder – through its display and viewing by family members and friends – that the deterritorialized family can remain connected virtually’ (2006:95).
(Figure.4) Both pictures display the
interior of Aunty Rita’s bilek
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Another bilek viewed and experienced was Uncle Asong’s. Glancing around Uncle Asong’s bilek, I saw the walls were filled with pictures of the cargo vessels of the international maritime companies he worked for. There were also pictures of his family and children, as well as other modern technology like the television and huge sound system. He said that it reminded him of the tempat (place) where he worked and gave him comfort and pleasure. He was excited to tell me about his experiences that he had to show a video about the ship. Apart from that, in his bilek was a cabinet full of a prize possession: alcohol. There were various types of alcohol and his most precious of them all was the one he bought from Dubai. He said that he would only drink it on special occasion during Gawai (ibid) or if one of his children decided to get married. It should be noted that tuak (rice wine) is the Iban traditional alcoholic beverage. Uncle Asong’s display of his alcohol collection exhibits his bejalai adventure. In the context of the longhouse, furnishing one’s bilek with ‘foreign’ materials attained from bejalai is respected by the inhabitants of the longhouse. Brickell asserts that “souvenirs from foreign places were typically imbued with positive association tied to open-‐mindedness and self-‐progression” (2011:37). In this sense, the domestic space (bilek) is moulded and constructed based on Uncle Asong’s translocal experiences of working abroad. By instigating this ethnographic investigation, I wanted to indicate the emergence of two important themes in shaping a ‘translocal’ longhouse. Bilek as discussed above might be considered as ‘spatial symbolism’ as they not only reflect their inhabitant’s wishes to be modern but also serve to “connect to the
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faraway sites” (Ma, 2002:). The construction of the domestic space (bilek) was translocally inspired both by the dweller in the longhouse as well as by the mobile traveller. For the dweller, it was derived from personal consumption and remittances whilst the migrant (Uncle Asong) gained through his work experiences beyond the border of Sarawak. In this regard, they both illustrate Cresswell and Merrimen’s claim that “spaces are not only contexts, they are also actively produced by the act of moving” (2011:7). In sum, the portrayal of the rural domestic space in the longhouse as a translocal space was transmitted through the “materiality and symbolic qualities of home possessions that transcend … to the traversing of the mind and imagination across times and spatial scales within and beyond [Sarawak]” (Brickell, 2011:38).
4.4 ‘Translocal’ Longhouse Livelihoods
From the above discussion, it is evident that static portrayal of migration
from rural to urban or a permanent movement out of the longhouse should be discouraged. Instead one must view the residents of the longhouse as “living translocally” (Etzold, 2014:7). To reiterate this point, I will focus on an ethnographic case study of my great aunt, Indai Tuai, whose story demonstrates that translocal relations strengthen the bond of her kinship ties rather than the accentuating helplessness and the deterioration of family relation.
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Enek Tuai is 75 and living with her sick husband as well as taking care of
her three grandchildren. The immediate question here is how do elderly people cope with translocal lives? She instantly told me that living translocally is a blessing in disguise. She did not see her family being far away as preventing her from establishing an intimate bond. Her phone, an old Nokia model is her only medium for both establishing and in maintaining “close relations to family member” (Etzold, 2014:9). Her daily contact routine is made up of an average six calls either initiated by her or her translocal family.
She sells sweets and chewing gums from her kitchen to children in the
longhouse. However, Enek Tuai feels rather distanced and lonely in the longhouse ever since a conflict emerged, initiated seemingly by one of her children who resides in the same longhouse. Consequently, she turns to her phone for comfort, care and sympathy from those translocated family members who have become an increasingly significant feature of her day to day life. Apart from that, among all the longhouse residents her family ties are not only made with the Iban ethnic group but to people from different types of ethnic background. Due to this she does not worry over her status as a “left-‐behind parent” (Tan and Yeoh, 2011:48). Enek Tuai explained that those who are different from us (Iban), simply have different ways of respecting and showing love to their parents.
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One day, one of her daughters in law dropped in for a visit, which came as
a surprise to Enek Tuai. Her daughter in law, Cindy – who is a Kelabit23 -‐ heard that Akek Joni24 was extremely ill. Cindy was not only stopping by a visit but also brought food and two pastors from the Anglican Church so that they could pray for Akek Joni’s health (see fig. 5). Enek Tuai was really grateful that someone so far away remembered her. In this case, Enek Tuai’s experience of translocality is both productive and pleasant.
From the perspective of this study, it seemed like an example of
technology linking the local with the translocal, heightening its significance simply by using a mobile phone. Henri Lefebvre (1984:18) argues, that in living in modern times, we are subject to strong pressures to be uniform and to copy current trends. This was certainly the case in the longhouse visited for this study, where there was an undeniably predictability about the interiors of each bilek – the smart phone and social networking are just wider manifestations of this trend.
23 One of the smallest ethnic groups who lives in the highlands North of Borneo. 24 Enek Tuai’s husband
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(Figure.5) Praying for Akek Joni’s Health
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Chapter V Translocal Iban Identity 5.1 Interpreting Identity
‘An ethnic group cannot be regarded as an
entity with cultural characteristics as it was once naively believed’. -‐ Uchibori, 1984:218
At this point, it is pertinent to summarize what has been argued so far in
relation to the translocal functions of the longhouse. I have shown that new forms of Iban migration patterns are problematic and difficult to describe within the traditional form of mobility (bejalai). In turn, these new migration patterns have largely affected the structure of the longhouse and how people live and manage their lives. Following the emergence of these new movements, the translocal experiences of the inhabitants shaped their sense of place and space within the longhouse. Ultimately, these transformations contribute to the reconstruction of Iban identities. These developments must be considered in light of the fact that the longhouse is also significantly affected by other ‘forms of
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deterritorialization’ such as tourism and the influences of the nation -‐ state (Low and Lawrence-‐Zuniga2003:29).
This chapter will explore how translocal movement and practices create
new forms of Iban identity (subjectivities) deployed within the translocal longhouse. Such practices influenced the internal management of the longhouse by its residents as they move to and fro across local, national and international level. Currently, the longhouse is experiencing translocal forces on three levels: urban (local), national (the state) and global (working overseas). By addressing these movements, the focus is not intended to be on Iban migration but rather on the translocal “flows and circulation of ideas, symbols [and] knowledge” (Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013:389) that constitute and influence the Iban’s identity. It borrows the term translocal to explore the overlapping relational identities that have emerged. This approach suggests there are wider implications in understanding Iban identity and to illustrate this, further anecdotes from the longhouse residents will be presented and analyzed.
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5.2 Buyau and Mujab Syndrome: Exploring Translocal Iban Identity
Speaking to my grandmother, Tipas who came to Miri for a day visit
during berandau (ibid), I enquire about her opinions about today’s Iban identity. She asked if I ever heard of the story of Buyau and Mujab. I told her that I had never heard of it. She said, ‘it was a famous story in the radio. How could you miss it?’ This story is selected here not only because it is popular amongst the Iban but the portrayal of identities (in the programme) kept emerging in interviews conducted to examine translocal situations.
I employ narrative as a method in this particular section to demonstrate
how my grandmother was able to verbalize and situate her translocal experience. The narrative provided below should be regarded as a text that hopefully reveals how the translocal Iban identity is perceived as well how it constitutes an area of contest while engaging in translocal practices such as working overseas. Buyau and Mujab are famous caricatures performed in the CATS25 radio programme that satires Iban daily life. Everyone present at this particular transmission sat cross-‐legged in reverent silence listening to my grandmother26.
25 The only radio programme for Iban listeners 26 Please note, the narrative provided is using my grandmother’s voice
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“This is based on a true story. It is about Buyau and Mujab who
went to Singapore for two years to work and decided to come
back home to Kuching.
When they arrived at the Kuching terminal, Induk Missy27, an old
friend of theirs saw them walking and she decided to say hello in
Iban language.
Induk Missy: Atai ni duai de? (Where did you two come from?)
But! They arrogantly reply in broken English.
Buyau and Mujab: We two just come back from Singapore, two
Presumably, they no longer knew how to jaku Iban28
That’s because in Singapore, most people communicate in English.
Everything is in English and even the toilet cleaners speak English!
Of course this is not true!
They simply wanted to show to Induk Missy that they had been
working in Singapore and could speak in English.
Then, Induk Missy who was both astonished and amazed
told them: Appu, lawa duai de! (That’s very lucky for you two!)
years we work there!
27 A nick name when someone works as a Nurse. 28 Speaking in Iban language
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So, the three of them exchange more news about Gawai and
their relatives.
Suddenly an uduk (dog) appeared and started barking at Buyau
and Mujab!
Terkeyit seduainya! (They were so surprised!)
Without any further notice, Buyau and Mujab miraculously spoke
in Iban!
Mujab:
Apuu!29 uduk buyau! am lari tua, parai legi kitai tu.
(Apuu! It’s a dog, Buyau! Let’s go now or else we’ll
die)
While Induk Missy was startled when they spoke in Iban and
commented: Ih, nemu seduai tu jako Iban. Ngumbai ku nadai
temu!
(Ih, so you two, do know how to speak Iban. I really
thought you didn’t!)
Buyau:
Awu meh! Am, elak betemu agi Missy”.
(Ok! Let’s go, we’ll see you later Missy)
** 29 A surprise sound effect
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When my grandmother finished telling the story. Everybody laughed
heartily. The above story demonstrates my grandmother’s awareness of how and to what extent the Iban identity has been affected by change. This can be clearly seen in their attitudes towards Iban language and not remaining in the longhouse (ibid). It should be noted that identity here is understood as how “people conceive of themselves and are characterized by others” (Vertovec, 2010:577). I was drawn to this story because it sits nicely with Ochs and Capps’ notion of narrative. They claim that narrative allows the storyteller the chance “to impose order on otherwise disconnected events and to create continuity between past, present and imagined worlds” (Ochs and Capps, 1996: 19). In this case what is prominent about the story are the different attitudes towards mobility affecting both identity and language between the past and present. Postill explains this further: “whether people are reweaving their webs of beliefs inferentially or
imaginatively, they are inevitably transforming the new belief or item of
knowledge in the process, adapting it to their mental webs and to those of
their social milieux” (2000:211)
To contextualize, mobility in this case refers to bejalai (ibid). My
grandmother’s experience of bejalai is completely different compared to the present. Prior to the new forms of mobilities, bejalai was simply a man going
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away for an extended time in order to gather wealth to achieve status in the longhouse.
There are two themes related to the translocal Iban identity, which are
modernity and ethnicity. It is to be noted that most Iban folk fall somewhat short of these ideals. Modernity refers to identity that reflects the ideal Malaysian ‘modern’ Iban self (Boulanger, 2010:299). Essentially, it is comprised of being educated, and the ability to speak English as shown in the story. Ethnicity on the other hand has become problematic to the ‘natives’ as Iban “ethnic [identity] is caught in between placing or deterritorialising themselves – either becoming part of the places in which they are located or identifying with cultural nationalisms” (Dirlick, 2001 cited by McKay, 2006: 274).
What follows displays how my grandmother at a local level perceived the
Iban migrant identity as a conundrum caught between the pull of ethnicity and push of modernity. Boulanger manages to capture the essence of the problem faced by the Iban in the questioning of their identity, when she asks “how can I be ethnic and modern at the same time?” (2010:229). According to the nation-‐ state’s policy, the culture of any ethnicity should be minimized, transformed into a “guided culture consisting of superficial elements such as costumes and cuisine” (Boulanger, 2010:231). This leads on to how inhabitants creatively use translocal materials and relations to disseminate a conventional image about Iban and to convey that they should not be exoticised.
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5.3 Challenging Iban Stereotypes
Presently, Malaysia aims to be a tolerant melting pot of different cultures
and ethnicities who get along reasonably amicably. Postill in Media and Nation Building (2006) argues that the national media plays an important role in transforming and shaping Iban identity into a bland Malaysian version (ibid). However, being Malaysian as part of the ‘imagined community’ identification process has become problematic for the marginalized Iban and one of the problems is the sense of the belonging either to “modernity [or to the] status quo or Iban tradition”(Ngidang, 2000:3).
Being an Iban in a general sense is not only to be a person represented as
exotic but to a greater extent it involved being labelled as ‘backwards’ in a crude social, economic and political sense (Uchibori, 1984: 226). Low asserts that Iban “went from being Dayaks with a proud identity centred on the code of warriors, to the perception of them, held for many years in west Malaysia, as ‘primitive headhunters’ and jungle dwellers’” (2008:77). Resistance to such contempt can be detected in their political mobilization.
Over the last few decades, many Ibans have felt increasingly frustrated by
their political situation (Soda, 2007:23). Such discrimination can be traced to the implementation of the New Economic Policy30 introduced in 1970s. Ideally, being
30 An affirmative action plan to propel poorer indigenous people into the economic mainstream
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a Malaysian citizen particularly under bumiputera31 -‐an umbrella term referring to ‘sons of the soil’ that theoretically includes the Iban – means everyone should be able to access social, medical and educational benefits. In reality however priority is clearly given to the Muslim bumiputera, while the Iban who are mostly non-‐Muslim are relegated to a second-‐class division of bumiputera. In response the discontentment felt by the Iban has deepened (Soda, 2007:23). One is reminded of George Orwell’s reference in Animal Farm that ‘some are more equal than others ’.
A case in point is my great uncle, Akek Joni, who suffers from kidney
malfunction. Having married my great aunt, I naturally assumed that he is a Malaysian Iban and not a ‘foreigner’ (Orang Asing) from Indonesia, which I have only recently discovered to be the case. Only through the onset of a chronic illness was his citizenship status revealed to me, when I heard Aunty Rita complain to the family members that the government were heartlessly denying my great uncle any concessions or adequate support towards his medical bills and needs. Akek Joni had migrated from Kalimantan to Sarawak through bejalai and had not changed his nationality status, thus excluding him from being classified as bumiputra.
The government views the Iban as a backward ethnic minority, with
pointed references to sub-‐par educational achievement, and claims that most of the longhouses are situated in remote jungle and rural locations. This portrayal 31 The NEP is often referred to as the Bumiputera policy. It is an administrative term used to distinguish the Chinese and Indians from Malays, while favouring Malays as indigenous.
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of backwardness is increasingly challenged and becoming more ambivalent as translocal practices and relations are gradually growing.
A visit by the ACWW32 (Associated Country Women of the World) to the
longhouse at the beginning of last year was a most rewarding experience for the residents. For my Aunty Rita, it was a window of opportunity to show to both national and international representatives that the Iban is no longer conformed to the portrayal of them in West Malaysia. She told me that she was ecstatic to meet the visitors especially the Tuan Puteri33, Tengku Azizah.
Aunty Rita was so proud that she further expressed her delight that the
princess viewed her bilek including her lavatory. “Can you believe it? A Malay princess viewed my toilet! She said it was really clean!” exclaimed my aunt. She noted too that “some of the visitors asked me where did I get my stuff? I told them my husband bought it from overseas. They were really impressed!” Soda argues that residents became “more acutely aware of their marginality through their interaction with other ethnic groups and with the macro-‐society” (2007:208), which in this case was represented by the ACWW visit.
32 “An association that gives women a voice at an International level through its links with United Nations Agencies” (http://www.acww.org.uk/about) 33 Princess
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From Aunty Rita’s statement, it could be interpreted that they have
successfully projected the impression that they are no longer a backward community. Thus Tengku Azizah comments that:
“I am so fortunate to have this memorable and historical trip to the outskirts and to this beautiful longhouse in a healthy and peaceful environment. I feel as if I am being glued here and can’t go home, she quipped, amusing all present” -‐ Tengku Azizah’s speech taken from Borneo Post
Additionally, the materials that my aunt obtained and bought are not only
a display of money earned by her husband abroad. Brickell suggests that my aunt’s bilek decoration with modern materials could be viewed as a ‘western success’ (2011:38). Given this fact, one can interpret Aunty Rita’s bilek as an “expression of connectedness, and modernizing discourse in which evidence of global connectedness is held to signify modern success and social status” (Brickell, 2011:38).
Therefore, through the ACWW visit, the Iban people had the opportunity
to challenge the visitors’ pre-‐conceived notion that Iban people are “primitive, exotic communities cut off from the modern world” (Yea, 2002:174). As Aunty Hala recalled, one of the visitors remarked on the modern structure of the longhouse. Further translocal flows of material and social remittances such as practices and knowledge offer the Iban a source of personal resistance to the state’s growing prejudice while dispelling the Iban portrayal as ‘backwardness’ to an international audience.
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These two types of identities that emerged from the discussion
demonstrate that Iban identities are always in conflict, whether with the modern or with the traditional as well as negotiated at every level whether local or global. There is a sense that most of the migrants invest a personal stance in both modernizing and securing their bilek. McKay suggests that “ translocal practice of sending gifts reproduces migrants’ domestic identities at home. By giving items for daily use, migrants remind their households of their long-‐distance affections and materially constitute their own household participation”. (McKay, 2007:273).
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Conclusion Finally therefore, it is necessary to return to my grandmother’s remark that prompted this enquiry of concerning where her home is. From my discussion, it is evident now that my grandmother is actually living translocally. From my research, it appears that translocality is not necessarily created by the movement of longhouse residents. Generally, my conclusions appear to be for the most part, counterintuitive. Firstly, the term of bejalai once referring to a form of Iban traditional mobility, has become flexible. The understanding of bejalai has not only shifted but becomes an umbrella term covering the different types of mobility that emerged during the discussion including describing female migration.
Secondly, translocal flows of migration, people, money, goods and ideas
have changed the longhouse both structurally and in its treatment of space. The notion that migration has become a threat to a community leading to fragmentation and relationships has have become sterile is problematic. Instead, what was revealed was that the social counterbalances to the physical absences of translocal movements such as texting and calling regularly, enables migrants to maintain strong links with those left behind while perhaps even ensuring their ‘virtual’ presence there. Also through translocal activities, residents who remain in the longhouse can experience other places through their imagination. Under the nation state, the notion of Iban identity is in constant conflict between modernization and trying to maintain the Iban ethnic identity. However, translocal practices appear to be useful as a tool in resisting stereotypical
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portrayal of the exotic Iban. Lastly, the longhouse is clearly a significant focus for the Iban identity for both static and mobile occupants, indicating that “place is actually retained more than eroded by migration flows” (Conradson and McKay, 2007:168).
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