Finding one's roots.....................

I cannot help wanting to share this piece of information with whoever cares to read my blog. This piece of information is taken from Jumau's blog. I did not ask her permission in copying this to my blog but let it be known that whatever praises & all, that my readers give,go to Jumau for filling me in with the 'missing links',telling me the 'unknown' earliest to earlier chapters of my paternal grandparents' lives and my aunties' as well. I only heard bits and pieces of their lives but never heard of the whole chunk,so to speak, as Apak mostly mentioned & related the times he was raised by his uncle & auntie,Apai & Indai Thomas in Lambir,life with Apai Minah,Apai Lamah and a few others;life during the Japanese Occupation. I remember when Apai Thomas was sick and he died,Apak cried and often told us that he was eternally grateful to Apai Thomas for raising him up. Anyway,I could go on & on...but I'll let you read the following story first:

Now I tell you about my Aki Lakam aka Stanislaus Belayong ak Ju
Apart from my dad, the other man in my childhood years who touched my life was my maternal grandpa, whom we affectionately called Aki Lakam. How the name came about I do not know, cos his real name is Belayong ak Ju. The Stanislaus part was given while he was at death's door - yes, he was baptised as he was dying. Aki Lakam had a rugged, craggy face, he was tall, fair-skinned and altogether a very attractive man. He had bungai terong tattoos on his neck, shoulders and upper back. Other tattoos covered many parts of his body.He had pierced, elongated earlobes that I used to poke and pull.Aki Lakam came from Sg Sut, Kapit. Now his longhouse is headed by TR Isa. According to my mom, Aki Lakam was a fearless headhunter and to this day his "trophies" are still hanging at his longhouse. As was the custom of the Ibans in those days, young men went on a "bejalai", that legendary journey to seek fame and fortune. They travelled far and wide and their wandering took them many years away from home. Some never came back, rather they got married and settled in their new "menua". When they came back, it was customary to bring the tajau, bronze items, cannons, whatever items of value in those days, cos those purchases were testimonies to their success in ngiga nama ngiga reta. Aki Lakam was no different. His wandering took him to Anap, Tatau, a district in present day Bintulu. He met and married my grandma Sudan aka Brigitte Sudan ak Batok and their first-born, Dian aka Edward Jeli, was born in Tatau. My grandma Sudan was a descendant of Aki Berasap, another headhunter (I wonder whether they chose each other for compatibility considering they shared the same bloody background). After Aki Berasap's death, his descendants feared that his munsuh would take revenge and ngayau (headhunt)them. Thus Ini Sudan's eldest brother, Pasang, brought the clan to pindah to Niah. They first settled at Sungai Keriuk, and if you are familiar with Niah, Sungai Keriuk is situated near Ngu's supermarket. We still have relatives living there now. Aki Pasang chose Niah as it was reputed to be fertile - it was indeed and still is - going by the abundant harvests of today - padi, sawit, pisang, buah, sayur..My mom, Jeburi or nama glamour Cecilia Jeburi aka indai Bulau and my aunt, Janggau or dua bali nama Perpetua Janggau aka indai Joe, were born in Niah. My mom was born in 1930, so she is 77 years old now. Times were hard, according to my mom. Their abode was a dampa. They had hardly settled down before the Japanese came and occupied Sarawak. Misfortune came to the family - Ini Sudan caught leprosy, a much dreaded and misunderstood disease in those days. Well if you read the bible, 2,000 years ago lepers were treated as outcasts, uncleaned, and such prejudice was apparrently still prevalent in the 1940's. Consequently, Ini Sudan was sent to the leper colony in Kuching. Two young girls were left motherless - by then, moved by poverty, Dian had gone on a bejalai to eke a living. Mom said Aki Lakam tried as best he could to look after her and indai Lutong (that's what we call my aunt). Once, indai Lutong caught chicken pox and the sores were terrible. A cousin of ini Sudan, ini Mayang (I still remember the late ini Mayang, we used to visit her when I was small, her longhouse was at Sg Kara, about 3 km away from our longhouse), helped my mom to take care of indai Lutong. They stripped her and laid her on banana leaves. Soon indai Lutong was healed. However one misfortune led to another - this time they faced famine, lapar pungkang. The brutal Japanese regime did not allow for much entepreneurial endeavours common to those days - the cultivation of padi and other subsistence crops. My mom said they survived on sago, cassava, and whatever edibles they could laid their hands on.Concerned for the plight of two motherless young girls, ini Sudan's brothers (Pasang, Narang) and her cousin, ini Mayang, persuaded Aki Lakam to take another wife. Ini Sudan was more or less "written off" - nobody knew how she was, nobody knew whether she was dead or alive,nobody knew how to get in touch with her and even if they knew, nobody got the means to do so. Most importantly, a leper was an untouchable and ini Sudan no longer belonged to the community. According to mom, Aki Lakam was not keen but pujuk punya pujuk, he finally married a woman whom his in-laws found for him. It was customary (and I believe still is, among some Iban communities)for the groom to visit the bride's longhouse a few days after tying the knot, in what is termed as "nganjung bini nemuai". Aki Lakam had to leave my mom and indai Lutong behind to send his bride to nemuai. As aki Lakam and his bride were leaving in a boat, Mom said indai Lutong started to cry and my mom had to carry her, piggy-back. They walked along the river bank to follow the couple and aki Lakam was rowing the boat slowly, in tears, equally in pain at leaving his daughters. Perhaps the sight of his crying girls, or the lack of chemistry between him and his bride or his still deep love for ini Sudan or a combination of all these influenced his decision a few days later - he divorced his bride. Apai and anak-anak rejoiced, according to mom, and they somehow managed to get by.After the end of the Jap occupation, Dian with his industriousness and pioneering spirit, somehow got ini Sudan home. By then she was healed, though deformed - well it was mostly her hands and feet. Laki and bini were reunited and soon my mom got married to my dad. My eldest sister was born in 1947 - tho in her birth cert, her birth year was stated as 1950. Indai Lutong also got married to a Shell employee, Simon Maja ak Guyang and they lived in Lutong. Dian got married to indai Piasau, a maiden from Ng Geremai Kanowit. My mom bore 5 kids, indai Lutong, 5, and Dian, 4.Now back to Aki Lakam. He and ini Sudan decided to di ibun indai Lutong. So they went to live in Lutong. At the same time they also built a bilik next to ours in the longhouse. Then the Pasang clan had moved to a place beside the Niah River, now about a kilometre away from the resthouse at the Niah National Park, Pengkalan Lobang. Aki Pasang became our Tuai Rumah and our longhouse was about 40 doors.While ini Sudan could adapt to and liked the new life, aki Lakam did not like to live in the city. So he came back to live with us in Niah and only came to visit ini Sudan and indai Lutong once in a while. Sometimes ini Sudan also came to Niah but for a short stay. Aki Lakam farmed, he built a langkau at his umai and hordes of his Batang Rajang relatives on their bejalai stint came to dwell with us. They were Jugah, Lugat, Maran,and others I do not remember. Most bore magnificient tattoos - bungai terong on their forearms, necks, legs.. It was my favourite past time to admire their tattoos. I would sit on their laps and traced the tattoos and they all loved it. Our batang rajang kaban inevitably went to Dian for help and help he did - they got jobs in Brunei, nyadi jerman etc..etc.. . Oh, and by the way, aki Lakam named me Jumau - he said its a Batang Rajang name. He named my eldest sister Kunchi, my second sister Kerepau and my brother, Lugat. So now in our melancholic moments, we still call each other by our Batang Rajang names.As he was getting older, both my mom and indai Lutong persuaded aki Lakam not to farm anymore. So he stopped farming, and instead he took a new interest which later on turned into a passion - he took fishing.That's how and when we started to connect - aki Lakam and I. But that's another chapter which I will write later. Now its time to pack, the three stooges are going to Miri tomorrow morning. Sebugey will miss the free breakfast I promised her cos she's off gallivanting to Kuching numpang senang with her husband.