Of language and acceptance: the tale of one Iban in Johor

The music team of Calvary City Chuch in Kota Masai practise up to four times a week.

GAWING was nineteen years old when he first arrived in Johor back in 1993. The Iban/Christian boy certainly never expected – over a quarter of a century later – to still be living and working in Johor Baru.

Growing up in an isolated longhouse community in Sarawak (almost 250km from the state capital Kuching) and the eldest son of struggling black pepper farmers, he was the fortunate recipient of a scholarship to study civil engineering.