Our main objective of visiting the longhouse is to learn more about the community; to listen to their stories; WHY they continue weaving as well as their challenges as weavers now, to be compared with before. Majority of the weavers in Rumah Gare are about 50 years old and above and therefore there’s a threat that the culture will die as most of the youngsters from Rumah Gare don’t weave and have even left the longhouse to work in the city because they don’t see how weaving can generate stable income for them.

I’ve been to longhouses before but they were all quite accessible from big cities. This time around it was quite an interesting experience as it feels like life was at a pause while we were there – with no phone connection, internet or TV to connect us with the outside world and no electricity (we got used to sweating all day long!). We were disconnected from distractions so connecting ourselves with people and the nature were how we spent most of our time there.

The journey started from KL – Sibu – Kapit – Nanga Kain – Rumah Gare. With a flight, car, boat, walk, boat and boat ride we were finally at Rumah Gare.

KL – Sibu: 3 hours by flight
Sibu – Kapit: about 3 – 3.5 hours by express boat
(overnight in Kapit for 1 night)
Kapit – Nanga Kain (the river mouth along Rejang River): 1 – 1.5 hours
Nanga Kain – Rumah Gare: 1 hour by longtail boat

The total travelling hours door to door; from KL to the longhouse was about 9 hours excluding the 1 night we have to spend in Kapit before heading to Rumah Gare.

Being city kids having to travel to rural places like this was quite a new experience for all of us. However having said this all of us enjoyed it very much – it was such a great and memorable ‘adventure’ to be comfortable being uncomfortable and it wasn’t long before we get used to living in the longhouse;

– learning basic Bahasa Iban as most people at the longhouse can only speak Bahasa Iban
– chopping down bamboo to cook chicken
– digging for tapioca
– slaughtering chickens and plucking their feathers to cook our meals
– plucking coconuts for afternoon tea
– for some, drinking tuak until they almost get drunk
– taking showers at the river
– fishing (for fish and snails)
– live without electricity
– be involved and learn about the weaving processes (this was the toughest of all, everything was done manually!)

After spending a week there to learn about the weavers, their motivation and the hard work that goes into making a Pua, we now understand why it’s sold quite expensively and believe that this is the story that people need to know and we’ve committed ourselves to do this.

Now being back in the city makes me miss bits and pieces of being in the longhouse, I’m definitely going to visit it again.

For those who are interested to find out more about Pua Kumbu, there’s an exhibition going on now (6 may – 30 June) at the University Malaya Gallery.