Iban Wellness

Iban Wellness? Is there such a thing a Iban Wellness?

From my humble beginnings, at an Iban longhouse, I must say we were indeed aware of what it was like to be well, and what we must do to be well. And when we got sick, we had to do something about it.

I will share with you some tips from our large repertoire of Iban oral traditions regarding health, food, and practices which enable us to be well.

In order to make our body fit and healthy, we have several traditional ways.

1. Massage - Like any other groups of indigenous people, we Ibans also have a very advance system of body massage methods. Of course our system will have its local variation. From my longhouse, several women have inherited their methods from their grandmothers and then mothers. That would be the usual way of passing knowledge from one person to another. However, because a healer with massage knowledge has to be gifted in the knowledge or ilmu, not every one in the family is given the gift. Only a specially selected one will be given the knowledge. Usually this will come in the form of a dream. And soon, the person "gifted" will soon start practising his/her skill. The massage given is usually very good and the payment is usually in the form of a pin, a knife or perhaps other sharp tokens. Very little money exchanged hands in the olden days. But today, it is not uncommon to give a money packet of thanks.

2. Hair Pulling - The Ibans in the longhouse are skillful in pulling hair to help release head tension or head ache. I am used to this kind of treatment whenever I have a head ache. I do not need any Panadol actually. This method releases the built up wind in the head muscles and soon, any tension is goone. Not every one in the village can do this. Some do not even want to do it, if they know how.

3. After birth rites are very important in the long house. This is because the young mother needs to heal her tired body and to grow back into normal strength in order to do all her duties again as a padi farmer or a rubber tapper. Usually after birth rites comprise two important practices. Food is very important. The family will prescribe what she can eat or what she cannot eat. But ginger will be the main ingredient of her post natal diet. Other foods like pork, fish, vegetables will be provided in small amounts and as little oilas possible is used in the food preparation. Usually during this period of so called confinement, the young mother is not allowed too much vegetables. The other important ingredient in her life is the sitting with her back by the fireside. A fire would be lit using drift wood collected by her husband. The fire place would be specially built for her and she would heat up her back. Apparently this heating system, apparently like sauna without the steam, would cause blood to circulate well. This has a two prong advantage. The blood circulation system is well activated and the uterus will shrink very quickly. Thus a lot of Iban women in the past who practised this all seemed to have a very flat stomach no matter how many children they had borne.

4. The Ibans in my longhouse have their own secret herbs and medicines. They would go to the jungle and collect leaves and berries. When they use these medicine many of their patients seem to get well. This knowledge is getting rarer now with the coming of modern medicine.

5. Many older Ibans in our longhouse enjoy a steam bath once in a while. Our grandfather is an expert in gathering the right leaves for this. A huge pot of water would be boiled and the leaves would be put into the boiling pot. Steam would then be created. The patient would then be asked to step into a column made of matting which surrounds the patient and he would enjoy a steam bath. After staying in the column for about an hour, and when the steam is all gone, the pateint seems to be well and all his illnesses will be gone.

I hope you like my sharing with you about Iban Wellness. This is just a tip of the iceberg of our indigenous knowledge on wellness.