The Bidayuh Heritage Gallery planned for DBNA’s Kuching headquarters is about 10 to 15 per cent complete, but physical exhibition work has not started.
The Dayak Bidayuh National Association says the work so far centres on documentation and identifying artefacts. Its end-2027 completion target is therefore a development timetable, not a sign that a new visitor gallery is already open.
DBNA outlined the progress after a weaving programme at its headquarters on October 9. It plans to call for exhibition-work tenders in November, with the chosen contractor expected to start around May 2027. Exhibition work could then take about six months. Those dates remain the association’s planned sequence rather than completed milestones.
A technical committee is gathering input from different Bidayuh communities, and DBNA is working with the Sarawak Museum Department on museum standards. Artefact owners may rent or sell items to the gallery. The collection is expected to keep growing after an initial display phase.
The proposed sections cover food, traditions, beliefs and traditional knowledge. Workshop space, including for weaving, and a handicraft sales corner are also planned, linking the gallery to the people who practise and make the heritage it will display.