Art and Aesthetic in the Papan Turai Gawai Batu

The Papan Turai Gawai Batu is a cultural material owned by the Iban community in Sarawak for the purpose of documenting memories in the oral history of the indigenous culture. The existence of the Papan Turai Gawai Batu in this study belongs to a Lemambang from Baram named Imban Kutak, whom he used to remember the verses of incantations in the ritual and ceremony of Gawai Batu. This research is qualitative in nature and employs the explanatory research method to explore, analyze, and understand the art of the Papan Turai Gawai Batu. Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic interpretation model (1955) theory was used to analyze the data, and the findings indicate that the Papan Turai Gawai Batu holds significant value, especially for the Lemambang who serve as guides in ceremonies and rituals in the longhouses. Therefore, through this study, it is hoped to have a progressive impact on the civilization of indigenous communities in the Malay Archipelago in general, and the Iban community in particular.