By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 10: The Orang Ulu community will host this year’s State-level Gawai Dayak celebration, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
With the Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department Datuk Gerawat Gala appointed as the organising committee chairman, Uggah said it would be an opportunity for the Orang Ulu community to showcase their culture and traditions.
The community was appointed based on a rotation basis at a meeting chaired by Uggah here today.
Uggah, who is the chairman of the State-level Gawai Dayak 2025 celebration, said Gerawat is set to form his working committee and would propose the dates for the various programmes in conjunction with the celebration.
Touching on last year’s celebration organised by the Bidayuh community, Uggah described it as “a great success”.
“We saw a lot of improvements over the earlier celebrations. I would like to thank everyone involved, including those from the public and private sectors, for their hard work and contributions.
“The spirit of working together among the Bidayuh, Iban, and the Orang Ulu communities had been inspiring. It proved that we could achieve a lot with our unity and the ability to work together.
“I hope this spirit will continue to manifest itself in all that we do together in the years ahead and not just confined to the Gawai Dayak celebration.
“We must sit down, discuss, consult each other and contribute the best that we can so that we can move forward to achieve more progress,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee, who was last year’s working committee chairman, said there were five core programmes which were successfully implemented.
The five programmes included the Gawai Dayak Bazaar, a carnival, a cultural parade, the State-level Gawai Dayak dinner, and the publication of a coffee table book.
Deputy Minister of Transport Dato Henry Jinep, who was the chairman of the Gawai Bazaar programme, said that RM2.4 million in sales were recorded in the previous edition with the participation of 174 stalls selling food and handicrafts, among others.
On the cultural parade, Opar assemblyman Billy Sujang, the organising chairman, said that 11 contingents participated in it, including the Kadazan-Dusun contingent. — DayakDaily
