Ensuring young Orang Sungai remember roots

Kota Kinabalu: Persatuan Bangsa Sungai Sabah (Sabas) Baru will be organising for the first-time a large scale 'Damas Festival' featuring traditional culture and customs of the "Orang Sungai" in Kinabatangan, September.Its President Datuk Wahid Norbinsah said Head of State Tun Juhar Mahiruddin would grace the two-day celebrations on Sept 5 and 6.

"Sabas Baru has a new main committee and we have outlined several activities to be carried out.

"One of them is to organise the 'Damas Festival' which means small boat that was normally used by Orang Sungai for communication purposes. It is also the symbol of our cultural body to be held either at Sukau or Bukit Garam early September.

"Usually, this festivity is celebrated on a small scale but this time, we decided to showcase the tradition, customs and culture of Orang Sungai as well as aiming to educate our young generations among the 'Orang Sungai' not to forget their roots," he said.

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Wahid, who is also among the founders of Sabas, said this to reporters after leading the committee of Sabas Baru to pay a courtesy call on Juhar at Istana Negeri, Wednesday.

They extended an invitation to Juhar to officiate the 'Damas Festival'.

Wahid said they hope the festivity would be included in the activities for the upcoming Merdeka Day celebrations in Sabah and local authorities in Sandakan would assist them to ensure the festivity is carried out smoothly apart from getting cooperation from the Sabah Cultural Board.

In the festivity, he said it will feature the culture of Orang Sungai such as ritual of wedding ceremonies, traditional cooking of Orang Sungai community, handicrafts and Orang Sungai singing competition.

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Wahid said Sabas was established in 1979 but in 2010, it was deregistered and the association was revived in 2013 and named as Persatuan Bangsa Sungai Sabah (Sabas) Baru and held its first annual general meeting last month.

Presently, he said Sabas is a cultural body that has 100 members and it aims to recruit more members among the ethnic group so that its traditions and customs are preserved.

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