Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Origin of Salako

I'm trying to look for any article about Salako. But none really shows any study yet on Salako. I've posted a blog a few month back about Salako which I posted at the Associate Contents or AC. This is what I wrote:
Brief History of Salako

Salako settlement is in Lundu, about 100km from Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak state. Before 1970, Salako did not belong to the Bidayuh Community in view of their different in dialect, culture, and custom differences. After 1970, due to political reason, the Salako have been classified under the Bidayuh groups. In August 2001, the Salako and Lara community have set up their own association to safe guard their culture and custom, under the Salako-Lara Association.

The Salako are divided in two groups, namely The Salako Gajing and the The Salako Sangkuku. According to the written historical facts, which is mainly gained by oral and story like interpretation, Salako is a tribe which migrated from Kalimantan, Indonesia to Sarawak, Malaysia in the early 1800. The different between this two Salako groups is by their slang in their salako dialect.

The Salako Gajing groups originally came from Gajing Mountain, at the source of Salako River, near Singkawang in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, moved to Tembang Berchangal, to avoid making enemies because of their head-hunting activities. These groups then migrated directly to Bagak in Lundu in 1820, partly due to an outbreak of cholera epidemic. After 30 years in Bagak, the population multiplied and 1850 onwards this groups moved to make new settlement to Pasir Ulu, Sedemak, Sebigo, and Titiakar.

The Salako Sangkuku groups originated from Sengkuku, at the Salako River, in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. These groups moved to Tembang Banyor, Ulu Paloh, in Sambas, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, due to fears of reprisals from the Chinese settlement in Singkawang over the disputed gold mining area in the 18th century. Beside that, the taxation policy by the Sultanate of Sambas also partly played an important role for these groups to migrate to Sarawak in the mid-18th century. These groups moved to settled in Pueh in 1875, and from then on moved and settled in Siru Dayak, Sebat Dayak, Tembaga Dayak, and Sg. Merah.

Salako is one a sub-tribe of the Bidayuh Community in Sarawak, Malaysia. Bidayuh, under the "Dayaks" are considered the original inhabitants of Borneo. The "Dayaks" is the collective name for around 405 ethno linguistic-groups of the Borneo Island. ( Kalimantan Review: English version;volume II/Nov. 1999). During the White Rajah and Colonial Era, the Bidayuh was known as "Land Dayak". In 6 August 2002, the passing of the Interpretation Bill 2002 (Amendment), the Bidayuh Community will no longer be referred as "Land Dayak".

Today, as I goes around searching for more, I stumble upon this web page which is written by Nancy Lee Peluso, published by Cambridge University Press. Sorry if I, in a sense of writing, I'm plagiarizing, but I'm hungry to know more about Salako. When I read simple article, it make me feel this article have the starting point for what I'm looking for. It's clearly mention the Selakau river, and one of the village mention also exist in Lundu, where my tribe reside in Sarawak, Malaysia.

As Nancy Lee Peluso (Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol.38, No.3, 1996) said: " Setipa mountain rises behind Bagak Sahwa, on the south side of the paved trunk road between the city of Singkawang and the town of Bengkayang. On the other side of the road, a wide strip of irrigated rice fields meanders along a river that stretches north to meet the Selakau river. Bagak, a hamlet of more than 100 single-family houses, is laid out on a lazy perpendicular to the trunk road, aiming towards Setipa’s peak."

Any interested Salako academician, I think its a high time for us ourselves to be involved if we really want to know more of our original identity.

1 comment:

Gold Arawana said...

Taruskan menulis hal dirikh Salako boh Cikgu...menarik..