Tukang Rantek PresentsNutu Gawai Zon Kuari (Kpg Pichin)Gawai Closing 2022

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Tabi basa & greetings everyone,

Gawai is Harvest Festival for Dayak, and it is celebrated annually on 1 June 2022. But when there is Gawai, there is its closing. In Iban, it is called Ngiling Bidai. In Bidayuh, it is simply called Nutu Gawai, or formally called Mparing Sawa. By itself, it is an elaborate celebrate with lots of ceremony in between. For the sake of this simple celebration at Ntangan / Zon level, it is sufficient for us to celebrate it in a simple way as agreed per discussion with fellow Bi-Kuari (Kuari folks).

It started with our traditional dance, Langgi Pingadap by Kuari youths, followed by prayer. After the speeches by our Zon President, the newly-appointed Mr Luje, my own bachelor uncle (Bujang Tuai), the event starts off with dinner.

We also pulled of surprise birthday celebration for Kuari Chief. His birthday was few days ago, but we combined it along with this celebration to make it more special, and the fact that he was appointed not so long ago as the leader.

However it rains. Kinda spoil the fun because the venue was not totally prepared for a heavy downpour like what we experienced. It raining cats and dogs. But that’s ok though, because there is no way we are going to call-off the dinner. The show must go on.

There was a beer-chugging events last night, and the winner is Mr Colin @ Babeh Ayem. The winner for female category is Asau Joji, with a blitz 8 second record for 1 tin. That is extremely fast. I joined the male category, and lots of us struggle with beer’s outflow due to gas expansion. I can’t imagine how she managed to pull that off. What a skill!

Brother Christian Levi with his Cameroon’s traditional attire, a gift from the community there.

King and Queen of the night is Mr Sangkitang, host of the night and Pn Rosina.

King & Queen of the Night – Mdm Rosina & Mr Sangkitang with Deputy Zon Kuari, Mr Sonny (Left)

The rest of the pictures here are the flow of the event. There was lot of prize-giving, thanks to the new gift-exchange event. It was part of the way to make an event more lively.

The event was rocking on until 5am. That’s how Gawai is normally. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Have a good week ahead!

Your Tukang Rantek,
Claudius Weson
Follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn: claudiusweson.

Note:
1. Claudius is a freelance photographer based in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
2. “Tukang Rantek” means “photographer” in Bidayuh Serian language.

EVENT PICTURE GALLERY

Here’s the additional pictures for the event. It was arranged in chronological order. Enjoy!

Gawai at Kpg Pichin (KaSiDi Zone) (ft. Carrie Geres & Mike Rantai)

2 months ago

Tabi basa & greetings everyone! Today I’d like to share about the recent Gawai at KaSiDi Zone of Kpg Pichin, where KaSiDi stands for Karang, Siluang & Dimbong, named after each distinct zone at the eastern part of Piching, going out to Kpg Tebakang Dayak. While Orang Ulus used their “long” to name their settlement, Ibans used the term “Rumah”, Bidayuhs stick to the term “kampung” although historically, it is usually named after the river. In this case, Kpg Pichin was named after Piching River. The correct pronunciation is Piching, not Pichin.

That’s the funny thing about Bidayuh villages. The spelling is different than its pronunciation. For those who know, they’ll just go by with it, though it often first timers at Bidayuh village. One of the more popular example is Kpg Taee. It is not one syllable, but two. The first part is pronounced as “Ta'”, with an apostrophe, and the second part is “ee”, “ee”as “ey” in “key”. So, it’s Ta’ee. But to make life simpler, it is spelled as Taee. Those who cares to know about it will learn more from the locals.

Being born in 89, I witnessed a lot of changes in the ways we celebrate Gawai. When I was younnger, in the late 90s, we’re still doing a lot of fun stuff during Gawai. Listing it down, it includes chasing ducks game, sports, climbing an oiled pole, shooting money placed on a very tall tree (main caran), inter-zone sport event (Sukan Ntangan). Back then, it was lively. Too bad I was not able to capture it in cameras. My first phonr camera was bought back in 2007, only because I need to use ot for Matriculation.

Entertainment also became more diversified. Previously, it was only bands. Now, we have more choices, including karaoke set. But sadly, the Kaleng Gawai & Dayung Timengen is not a common theme for Piching. I know we have a number of pretty girls and handsome boys, but whether they are interested to join such competition is not known. Your guess is as good as mine.

For this event, it was organised to celebrate Gawai for KaSiDi’s zone. At the same evening also, Paddu & Binyok’s zone also organised their own Gawai. Seems like everyone is doing Gawai for their own this year because there is no kampung-level Gawai celebration as per steer from the JKK. Ironically, if they want to avoid COVID-19 exposure, it seems to backfire because now we actually have much more Gawai. Oh well. I just leave it at that.

This Gawai was officiated by Dato’ Sri Richard Riot, who also organised his own Gawai on 1st June 2022.

This Gawai also joined by local Bidayuh artists including the legendary Bidayuh singer, Mike Rantai and new generation singer, Carrie Geres. Her brothers, Lester and Bernie Geres also can be seen as well as her other half.

Manning the emcee chair is Mr Anthony Siong, who managed to make the night lively as he knows everyone there.

Upon my arrival there, our village chief, Mr Rioi invited me to sit at the VIP table. I was honored. But everytime I return to the table after joget, my chair is stolen by someone with “influence” for no particular reason for a few times. Tired of that shit, I decided to just walk around and do what I do best, to take photographs and mix around the more sporting peoples, especially Lester & Bernie Geres. We had a good chat that night, and thanks to Lester & Bernie for the ride back home. We rock the night until 4.15am in the morning, and ended all of it with This Love by Maroon 5. It was a great night.

Here’s are some of the photos of that great night.

You can also follow me at Twitter, claudiusweson.

That’s all for now. Until next time!

Regards,
“Tukang Rantek” Claudius
Follow me on Twitter: claudiusweson

Bidayuh Serian’s paddy house, called “bari”. Not to be confused with “Baruk” (Bidayuh Bau) / “Balû'” (Bidayuh Serian) meaning assembly hall.

Gawai at Kpg Pichin

2 months ago

Tabi basa & greetings everyone! Today’s post is about Gawai celebration at Kpg Pichin. Before COVID-19 hits us, it was used to be celebrated in a much grander scale, with much better attendance. Our church, St Trinitas Kpg Pichin (Holy Trinity Church), was never enough to accommodate the ever-growing congregations. We never fail to spot people standing outside the church when it comes to Gawai mass every year.

For 2022 edition, the celebration was still solemn, but people starts to flock to church for annual Gawai mass. The celebrant was Brother Christian Levi, aka Tuki’, one of my childhood friend. It is good to see someone you grew up with, had his fair share of lost identity, finally had a good grip of life and is en route to achieve greatness in the field of his choice, i.e. to be a priest.

His voice is full of masculine energy, very unlike who he once was. Then we took photos outside the church, along with few friends that I have met. Including the Marly & Meeva. These two ladies took picture with me when I was still using my armsling. Looking at this photo, I kind of miss my M9-P + Summilux 50mm combo. Perhaps I will get my M in the future. As of now, I am using SL system, which is much better in terms of usability. But Leica M is an icon.

After the church mass was ended, I rushed back home to edit the pictures of 31st May 2022, after the “Biradang” event at Kpg Sejijag Plaman, Serian, where I followed my sister & her husband. You can read it here: “Biradang” at Kpg Sejijag.

Usually people will take it slow at the early days of 1st June because most of them would have stayed up on the 31st May to wait for midnight and light up the sky. Nowadays, people seems to be able to acquire fireworks easily. Long time ago, only the rich and YBs can afford it.

While waiting for the Dato’ Sri Richard Riot’s open house nearby at 4pm, I visited my grandma’s house, and my aunty’s house and did few photoshoots in between.

When it’s time for Open House, I brought my camera there and capture the moments. There was a random Chinese photographer who was eyeing my camera. Only when I sat down to take a rest, he approached me and have a look at my camera. He was seen using a Fujifilm X-T3 and lens 16-55 f/2.8, which is a good all-rounder lens considering it has an equivalent 24-70mm focal length in full frame.

There was a few official photographer and videographers on duty, but I didn’t recognise any of them. They seems to be too focused with their task at hand, as they should. They don’t interact much with the peoples around. On the other hand, I will talk a lot especially to the event-goers because I will definitely need to write something about it in my blog. Blogging is good, much better than Facebook post as I have 100% creative control. Those who likes to read my stories are most welcomed to subscribe to my blog.

Once the official event was done, I head back home, had a rest and returned back at around 10pm. I didn’t bring my Leica back that time, but I was lucky to be able to play with MacLister’s Leica M Typ 240. I skipped this one and went straight for M10.

There was too much fun at the hall that I didn’t regret didn’t bring my camera as it would be distracting. Once in a while, you need to wind down and enjoy, as well as having fun.

My uncle posed with M-240. Not mine though.

While waiting for my Uncle, I dropped by at my relative’s house and took the pics of my relative and their friends. I kind of miss this moments – of being so young again. Now, my friends are almost all married, settled down and won’t stay up later than 10pm. Forget about my female classmates from Piching, they are glued to their family.

That’s all about the post for 1st June. It is quite an eventful day for me, but the best is yet to come. As I write this blog, I realised that I like to share my journey in this manner. Though photography is not my full time career, it is an outlet for me to channel my creative side and to keep my technical career balanced.

p.s. I am aware that different people has a different approach, so it is totally up to the individual. If you happy with what you see here and wish to hire me, feel free to contact me via WhatsApp +60148677585.

You can also follow me at Twitter, claudiusweson.

That’s all for now. Until next time!

Regards,
“Tukang Rantek” Claudius
Follow me on Twitter: claudiusweson

…and it’s blackout. But the show must go on.

It’s still blackout, but I increased the brightness in post.

Happy Retirement Cikgu Jekop & Cikgu Ageok

2 months ago

Tabi basa & greetings! Finally, after an eventful Gawai celebration, then followed by the passing of my uncle, I managed to settle down and edit the picture captured during the recent farewell of my teachers – Cikgu Jekop Simo & Cikgu Ageok Dikun. They were my Maths & Bahasa Malaysia teachers respectively, teaching my batch back in 1996 until 2001 when we’re still in Primary School at SK St Dominic Pichin. Back then, it was still “SRB” (sekolah rendah bantuan). It was only 2 decades later, the school seems to be way more advanced that what it was back in my time.

For the retirement event, which took place on 28 May 2022, I went there a bit late because I was still resting since I just came from Miri after 15 hours drive. When I arrived there, it was already speech time by Cikgu Ayot, popular name for Cikgu Ageok at Piching.

These two teachers were the one that I respect because of their no nonsense style of teaching, especially Cikgu Jekop a.k.a. Jakop in Piching.

I can’t forget his fondness in using red ink, Parker 51 (I think) because he likes to use “pen kasing” (peeing pen, a nickname for fountain pen). It was a such a pain for the person who doesn’t perform in his class because he likes to punish them, but that is for their own good. He doesn’t punish out of hate, but because he wants his student to put extra effort, which for their own good anyway.

Those where the days. Teachers are focused on teaching. Now, I understand that there is a lot of restrictions imposes, plenty of don’ts and tons of administrative works. Only those with noble intention will last becoming a teacher.

Back to the event, the event itself was rather straightforward. As I walk around taking photos, there will be some group of kids asking me to take their photos. Some even called me “Tukang Rantek”. I am truly honoured. Good kids.

The pictures for the events can be seen at the bottom part of this post. Feel free to share it around.

p.s. I am aware that different people has a different approach, so it is totally up to the individual. If you happy with what you see here and wish to hire me, feel free to contact me via WhatsApp +60148677585.

You can also follow me at Twitter, claudiusweson.

That’s all for now. Until next time!

Regards,
“Tukang Rantek” Claudius
Follow me on Twitter: claudiusweson