Last May, just before the school term ended, the Unit of Spirituality + Moral (SPIRAL) had our very first Kaamatan-Gawai Unity and Cultural Gathering 2024.
This was done to mark the joyous occasion of both Gawai and Kaamatan by organizing a special day to celebrate our diversity and culture. Prior to this, we had one for Chinese New Year in February 2024.
While our SPIRAL SMK Matang Jaya does focus largely on religion (particularly Christianity and Buddism), we also make it a point to celebrate our Sarawakian diversity, culture and unity through brief gatherings like this one.
During these sessions, we usually open with it with a prayer followed by a song, before touching on culture, diversity and unity, to give students more detail on different cultures and religion in Sarawak.
My hope is that these small points (though less than 20 minutes), will give students better understanding about their own culture or religion, as well as others, so that they can mutually accept and then respect each other.
For this particular session, there was another song before the closing prayers. This was the first large scale gathering as students were allowed to use traditional costumes as well.
This is a short video from our unity and cultural gathering for Kaamatan and Gawai (I omitted the talk part because I didn’t really record the sharing seesions).
Nonetheless, since it is our first ever Kaamatan-Gawai Unity and Cultural Gathering 2024 for SPIRAL, do pardon me for wanting to highlight it.
p/s: Usually Kaamatan is rarely mentioned in Sarawak, but I think its about time we also ensure students know about it as well. After all, our strength lies in how strong we can accept, respect and celebrate our diversity.
Kotobian Tadau Tagazo Do Kaamatan and Slamat Onu Gawea!
Ohhh ha!!
