Author: Valentine Tawie Salok

My wish to lie low during last Gawai was granted; albeit in a negative way. On my way back to Kota Samarahan from work around 11.30pm on Gawai eve and 30 minutes before ‘ai pengayu’ (drink of longevity) toast I banged into the back of a new Axia thanks and

Gawai Dayak is here again. Many of my friends are mostly homebound; and so are my family members too. I choose to stay put in the city and try to lie low. My last time homebound to Saratok for the festive season was in 2015 but there was no celebration

Once a teacher is always a teacher, as its scouting equivalent would say the same for a scout. I was both a teacher and scout, and later a scout leader. But only scouting dispensed me with state level prominence, though I did reasonably well in the teaching/education fraternity. At heart

Since 1971, I have been involved in quite a number of painting and photography exhibitions in the country and abroad. The first one, namely in our 1971 batik painting exhibition in The British Council, Kuching was a group show comprising eight Saratok Secondary School students. Leading the exhibition list was

Three times in the past my canvases were among scores of others given prominence in the National Art Gallery (NAG) in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the paintings were by established artists who were among the ‘Who is Who’ in the Malaysian Art Scene. Only mine and a few others fell

As promised, I’m back with ulu tales especially those pertaining to my familiar territory, the upper Melupa river basin. Being brought up by farming and rubber tapping parents, I was out of parental cobweb at an early age of eight and since then, had been roaming freely in the width

Kids in the ulu (remote hinterland) of the late 50s through to the 60s had to be contented with their surroundings as their playground and sources of entertainments. In the absence of toys, gadgets, cinemas and other entertainments the urban centres could offer to their counterparts then, rural kids then

In 1989 while serving as Julau Scout District Commissioner I was had the privilege to join a special camp. The big group of campers comprised Rela members of the district. It was planned to be for spending a night’s rendezvous at the famous Fort Brooke built in 1935, Nanga Meluan

A Chinese movie in the late 60s/early 70s entitled ‘Have Swords Will Travel’ starring David Chiang and Ti Lung provides me with some inspiration with the title of this article though there are scores of other titles that could possibly fit in. Oh..the Chinese movies, especially those of flying swordsmen etcetera