Camaraderie doesn’t happen by accident; developing a strong sense of trust, accountability, and togetherness around team goals requires intentional effort.
– Don Yaeger, American author and public speaker
Most longhouses in the Melupa basin, a Krian tributary in Saratok, are still practising ‘beduruk’ or mutual assist in many deeds, especially farming.
These longhouses comprise three Mendas community dwellings, two Empelai, Nanga Assam, Tanjung Sikup, Munggu Embawang, Sungai Belung and Kedap. Except for part of Tanjung Sikup, the rest are modern and built out of concrete. All are enjoying 24-hour electricity.
In Tanjung Sikup, Sungai Belung and Munggu Embawang most of them are farming families and adhere to the observance of hill paddy farming seasons. Starting with the clearance of sites starting from June, the farmers usually decide to go ‘beduruk’. This would usually involve about 10 or more farming households.
This mutual assist runs from the start of the farming deed of jungle clearing till harvest, thereby covering the clearing of sites, planting, weeding and harvesting seasons. Out of necessity too, the mutual assist is also conducted to carry the paddy from the farms to the longhouse at the end of the harvest, normally in April annually.
Getting to the fore since the beginning of time, this act of mutual work party among farmers has become an inspiration to and lifeline to both smallholders and big-time farmers – inspiring them to get their work done faster and ridding them of the reluctance and laze to move on as the large number of people involved ensures easier and speedy completion.
For example, a group of 10 families in the ‘beduruk’ can get the dibbling (nugal) deed done just in one day for one share of the mutual assist. This is possible on a good weather the whole day and is done speedily with everybody working equally hard and getting inspired by each other’s presence as compared to the boredom of working alone or just husband and wife team.
The same goes to weeding and harvesting season where the length of time to get the work done is much shortened due to the big number of participants in the act. Weeding is usually done by hand and predominantly the work of women. It is most tedious task of all the labour stage of the farming cycle.
Most farmers have started using herbicide that they have unconditionally welcomed. And the bigger number of people involved has lifted the misery of a prolonged weeding.
Harvesting takes place after the rainy season, usually in February and March. The common practice is to take only the heads along with 5 to 6 cm of straw using a special hand knife called ketap. A ketap consists of a thin metal blade with a base of about 6 cm curved in from each end to a cutting edge of 5 cm in length. And as in weeding, harvesting usually involves the women but there are cases of ‘beduruk’ for harvesting too that involves both genders.
Thus far the act of mutual assist has become a unifying factor for the Iban farming community. Every family is vitally important in this egalitarian practice that fulfils communal requirement of togetherness in mutually benefiting each other that also adds to the merriment of doing tedious work as compared to the boredom of solitary toil under the hot sun in ‘non-beduruk’ farming activities.
In beduruk the hosting family provides the food usually cooked centrally where the spirit of cohesion with each other is also portrayed. The cooked food (for lunch) is usually simple but yet complete and nourishing. What matters most is that the food testifies to the communal harmony and oneness.
Apart from beduruk, the longhouse folk are also keen in ‘bedua’, namely sharing equally items such as fruits, vegetables and jungle products. Local fruits such as keranji, jack fruit, durian, mangosteen, langsat and others are usually grown in communal orchard.
So, naturally their owners are relatives, thereby making ‘bedua’ a compulsion and not an option. But there may be cases where the owners would extend invitation to others to join the plucking or harvest of the fruits, especially during seasons of abundance.
In cases whereby an organised group hunting trip returns with games catch, the hunters involved are given equal shares. Even the dogs and guns have their shares too.
At times the longhouse committee gets a share of the meat that will be cooked at a central place and taken together with rice contributed by individual households. This is another aspect of ‘bedua’ that also contributes to social fusion among longhouse folk.
Both ‘beduruk’ and ‘bedua’ are part and parcel of the Iban community’s efforts to bond and harmonise. Most of the times the longhouse folk would find they are not an option but more of a necessity.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
