During a recent dinner gathering among some Sarawakians and 'Orang Malaya" (The name for Malaysians from Peninsular Malaysia among Sarawakians), the talk was on the forthcoming Gawai Dayak celebration in the Land of the Hornbill.

A Chinese friend asked a Sarawak lady of mixed parentage if she was a Dayak. She said no, she was not a Dayak, for her late father was a Melanau, and her mother is an Iban. That reply puzzled and confused everyone.

I had to clear the air. When the Ibans talk among themselves, they often refer to the Bidayuhs as "Dayaks". In their sense of ethnic identity, they are "Ibans", which in their language means "Man". In that ethnocentric context, the term "Dayak" refers to the Other and carries some degree of derogatory connotation.