Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan is, in reality, a cultural pageant – an annual State-sponsored cultural spectacle of the Kadazandusun community and not a beauty contest, argues Joanna Kitingan.
The proof? Just look at the judging criteria.
“Beauty counts only 40pc,” she said. A minority interest at best. The rest is transcendent.
Central to it all is the folkloric story of Huminodun who sacrificed her own supreme self for the survival of a famine-starved greater community.
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Probably, not everybody would think there is any truth to the legend but what’s wrong with telling such stories to teach something supreme – the spirit of sacrifice.
Every ancient culture has its own mythologies.
The Chinese have their numerous orally told “shen hua (literally meaning god-talk)” but recorded.
Even the good book has so many parables or untrue stories told by the greatest guru of all time to people who care about certain things transcendent.
Utter beauty
Untuk Ngadau Kaamatan is a cultural pageant which commemorates the spirit of Huminodun – a mythological character of utter beauty said to have given her life in exchange of a bountiful harvest for her community.
Being the Chairperson of Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan, we trust Joanna Kitingan’s version of Huminodun is authoritative.
A witness to story-telling was none other than Hosiani James Jaimis, 26, title winner of Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan 2018, during an exclusive interview with Daily Express some months ago, specially arranged by Datuk Irene Charuruks.
The legend derived from the bobohizans or high priestesses specialised in rituals to appease the spirits, Joanna noted.
“A creation story has it that Sundu (god) had two children, one sent to earth but instead of taking care of the people, he (son) became more like the evil one, became drunk and fought with the people.
“So god was angry and decided to punish the world with a famine but sent the daughter to look at what’s happening on earth. She saw that the people were dying, nothing was growing and everything seems to be dying.”
The only answer to the rot – a human sacrifice, the story goes.
A tale of supreme self-sacrifice
“The daughter said, ‘if it meant that I have to be sacrificed then it is the chief way to do it for the sake of the people’,” according to Joanna.
“So that is how it came about – she was sacrificed so before she died, blood and parts of the body become the rice, yam or whatever fruits that can be eaten but the most important thing is the rice,” she explained.
“First, she would be living in the rice, became spirit of the rice, as spirit for the first harvest of seven stalks which should be planted for the next harvest. That’s why they have thanksgiving, meaning in honour of and reverence to the spirit of the rice.
“That is the story of Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan in a nutshell, out of which we have also made a movie,” Joanna said.
She added: “Unduk Ngadau is like the blazing sun. That’s how they described the beauty of the daughter… like the morning sun, as bright and glorious as the morning sun.”
Mistaken beauty contest, miss the transcendent purpose
A lot of people who don’t understand this Kadazandusun mythology – “shen hua” – mistake this as a beauty contest and wonder how come the climax to an entire community’s prime festival ends in the selection of a beautiful young girl.
The young Unduk Nagdau title winner is meant to point the attention of the Kadazanduzun Murut community to the transcendent benevolent actions of an utterly beautiful mythological character Huminodun who sacrificed herself completely for the larger well being.
Knowingly or just ignorant of this deep culture, some imposive beauty pageant-bashing zealots risk violating the rights to a cultural heritage by talking bans.
So what is transcendent or supreme about the Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan?
Joanna pointed to the judging criteria.
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Beauty is but 40pc, cultural heritage transcends: Joanna
“The criteria is beauty 40pc – the first impression that the person is beautiful – but then over the last few years, it’s a cultural thing. It’s about maintaining cultural heritage. One of the most important identities of a cultural heritage is language, and so mother tongue is a must for them to know.
“They have to be able to speak the mother tongue because during Q&A, we will ask them some questions. For instance, tell us in your mother tongue what activities you did at the museum,” noted Joanna, in reference to programmes like pounding rice, making traditional dishes like the tuhau, hinava or playing the sompoton, beating the gong etc.
“They can speak Murut, Rungus, Lotud, Kadazan, Dusun or any variety of mother tongue. The thing is, we want to see how confident they are in speaking their mother tongue, not so much about the answer but for them to say it out of their heart with confidence,” Joanna said.
“It means they embody their language and to love their language and also to be proud that they have an identity that they have their own language,” Joanna stressed this over and over again during the interview.
Hosiani impressed judges
On this transcendent purpose, Joanna said Hosiani impressed her.
“She has seven siblings and the first three, the mother speak Dusun with them. But she’s number four, and they started to speak to her in Malay and jealous of her siblings who spoke fluent Dusun, she actually queried why they talked to her in Malay because she said wanted to speak Dusun.”
So if as Joanna insisted that mother tongue is compulsory, how did a non-starter Hosiani win.
Hosiani said few people did not know she worked very hard to regain a lost mother tongue by listening to as many Dusun songs as she could, then practised speaking with fluent Dusun friends in the kampong.
But Joanna said she was stunned at how articulate Hosiani was in Dusun at the finals.
“When I looked at the stage, all the girls were very tall, some could speak very well, so I thought the judges would have a hard time because from 46, they choose the top 15 who all had to answer in Kadazandusun, then short list that to top 7 who had a choice to answer questions in English and Bahasa also but everybody spoke in Malay except Hosiani,” Joanna noted.
Short, simple, precise answer in Dusun
“She answered in Dusun – Tambunan Dusun – so that distinguished her as the authentic one, different and her answer was very short, simple and sweet, very precise!” Joanna recalled her thrill.
“She was very good, top notch, yes, I am proud of it.”
Her fluent Dusun feat surprised her mother specially her elder brother who said to her later: “OK oh, I don’t expect you can speak Dusun very well in front of people,” Hosiani related.
“Then I told him I had to, it’s competition and to be different you have to be brave to speak in mother tongue in front of people. So I decided to do it and I did it,” Hosiani told Daily Express.
Joanna chipped in: “It’s very heartening to see these young people speak in mother tongue, be it Rungus, Murut or Lotud and it’s heartening to see these young people speak in mother tongue, more and more, go back and learn.”
“The objective for us in this is everybody is complaining losing our mother tongue but what are we doing about it?” asked Joanna who has been involved for 20 years as deputy Chairperson of Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan.
The most important platform
“My turn as Chairman came in 2011, I tried to do changes more towards preservation and maintaining cultural heritage,” she said.
“I feel this is a very important job. I take it as part of preserving my culture, not just a beauty contest. The most important thing is what have I done or contributed to the community in terms of overall cultural preservation.
“I think this is the most important platform because it is already there but I have to make use of it in a way that everybody benefits, especially the young.
“We want them to be proud of their identity and culture. Not only their costumes but also food like making tuhau,” Joanna said.
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Two main themes in Back to Basics
“We want to see the authenticity in the original traditional costumes in most of the districts and speak in mother tongue to make it a must and I can see that it is paying off. I can see interest of the young people beyond Unduk Ngadau.
“They must be able to talk about their traditional costumes and speak in their mother tongue. It is helping young people to feel proud of their identity,” Joanna said.
The quest for authenticity figures high as it forms the heart of preserving the cultural heritage.
Joanna says she pushes the idea of going back to the basics.
Authentic traditional costumes is marker of identity, too
So the Unduk Ngadau contestants wear authentic traditional costume of the district from which they come from.
“Before that, they wore maybe Kadazan Penampang or Kadazan Papar but the fact is, every district has its own traditional costumes. We want to promote the lesser ones.
“That’s why I emphasise to the girls they must interview their grandmothers because there must be something different from the other traditional costumes. I am glad every year now we see new ones, not in terms of created ones but the ones left in the cupboard for decades they find from interviewing their grandmothers.
“In fact, every community has their own history that they should be proud of but commercial interest will only look at the aesthetic beauty of traditional costumes that elderly people say they cannot recognise their costumes because of so much modifications.
“So, I said, let’s go back to the basics… how it was before but giving it a fresh look so that when you look at it, it is fresh look about an old thing – antiquity,” Joanna elaborated.
The most important platform to attract interest
“For me, I think we are blessed to have this State-recognised festival where we are able to promote our cultural heritage.
This is the most important platform where you enhance the interest of young people through the language, through the costumes and also dances and songs but it has to be an overall package to make us really good until today.
“I think all the more important to teach our young generation they have an identity to be proud of who they are, their food, their culture.”
Attitude counts
“I must also mention the five-day workshop accord 10pc for attitude such as discipline, helpfulness, voluntary spirit, punctuality etc.
“This is how we encourage the young people to love their culture and also to know their identity because having your own traditional costume is your own identity.
“So it’s not just about being beautiful, but intelligence, about preserving the culture, about embodying your culture, mother tongue etc.
So Hosiani typified all that and won?
“I think not only that because there were some who were tall and beautiful but there is an aura about her.”