Adat schools praiseworthy but can’t stop cultural loss
Published on: Sunday, March 26, 2023
By: Raymond Tombung
Text Size:
The launching by the Sunduan Nabalu (Sabah Customary Practitioners Association) of its fifth school to study customs (adat) on the 22nd this month in Telipok is laudible. It’s another strong testimony of the Momoguns to preserve their cultural heritage in the hope of perpetuating their identity as a people.
And hats off too to Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, who officiated the rousing and well-attended launching in his capacity as the deputy chief minister and the Huguan Siou Lundu Mirongod as well as the deputy president of the KDCA. His fight for culture over the decades had him establishing the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF) and taking top leadership of the Borneo Dayak Forum.
However, regardless of the outer spirit-rousing pomp, one could wonder if the adat-only mission of Sunduan Nabalu is enough to achieve our collective vision for cultural preservation. In this time of speedy sociocultural changes due to influence of the America-centric world culture, massive elements of our cultural heritage, not only adat, are disappearing fast.
We have been in a dilemma for decades now in choosing between preserving our culture vs becoming world citizens. One Momogun datuk had once asked the challenging question: “Do we want to continue as traditional Momoguns or to be world citizens?” In one KDCA seminar the same datuk questioned a working paper’s presenter advocating the revival of “momolianism” (the traditional life with animism as the religion) asking, “I am a Christian so how am I going back to animism?”
The recent gathering of priestesses in Penampang to bless the relocation of the sigah statue is a testimony to the persistence of this dilemma. The irony of the sigah event and other rituals in official native-related functions, including the animistic investitures or ‘coronations’ of Momogun leaders, as well as the Mamahui Pogun in Tuaran, the sacrifices of chickens and buffaloes on Mt. Kinabalu, include the participation of Christians and people of other religions. The attendants have no qualms about the spiritual conflict, even as rinaits (chantings) to call to the traditional spirits are performed, augmented with the sacrifices of animals.
This ironic situation is all due to some Momoguns’ inability to fully disentangle themselves from the animistic spirit of the past despite having new religions. In Tuaran today Christians mourn the almost complete passing of the tantagas, the traditional priestesses, perceiving the loss as a tragic casualty of something beautiful, a collapse of a cultural icon that have been part of the fond memories and pillar of our identity since time immemorial. Leaders habitually speak of preserving culture to show their cultural patriotism but not much on finding ways to counter cultural loss, like what Sunduan Nabalu is doing.
But there is not enough effort to look deeper into the ‘problem’ of cultural loss, language death, the rapid erasure of identity and the setting aside of adat caused mostly by religious conversions and modernisation. Rather, there is a persistent tendency to take it easy, to assume all things will continue as they are. Hence there is no awareness and panic for the need to exert efforts to counter the ‘negative’ cultural trend. The decades of discussions and seminars trying to find solutions appear to have been largely fruitless. Perhaps, deep inside, we have come to quietly surrender to the reality of the difficulty of reversing cultural losses, hence the helpless surrender and neglect.
Curiously, in contrast and ironic to all this persistent adherence and performance of adat and animistic rituals, the Momoguns have no problem abandoning the lifestyles of the past in the pursuit of educational and economic success. In fact only a small segment of us are concerned with performing animistic rituals at certain ceremonies, or in full life dedication to cultural work. The vast majority of our people are in a sustained struggle to achieve success.
The more fluid cross-cultural intermixing of peoples has long brought intermarriage to gradually erase our identity, merging us with others racially and religiously. Intermarriages between different Momogun tribes in the past ended with the family speaking one of the two tribal languages of the parents; today we have taken the easy solution by automatically leaping to the Malay language or English, further bringing about our language’s demise. The advent of high technology is becoming more and more obvious the greatest equalising factor deleting all boundaries of differences between peoples. Our geographical mobility is seeing us crossing borders to all lands and continents and lo and behold, we have created the Momogun diaspora.
The Sunduan Nabalu must have realised that in the distant future social mores and values will have changed so much that we will no longer be Momoguns but will be encompassed within the world culture which is now, as a great unstoppable dragon, swallowing all minor linguistic groups like us. A news story a few days ago reported that four tribal languages in Sarawak (the Seru, Pegu, Bliun and Lelak) having gone extinct. How many tribal languages have disappeared for good in Sabah? Is the Buludupi language still alive?
As such the study and codification of adat of the many tribal communities is no doubt a commendable move. But preserving and reviving adat is not enough. Sunduan Nabalu should also include in its agenda the preservation of our languages because our mother tongues are the very foundation of our identity. Teachers of local mother tongues will have lucrative and stable future because even now traditional languages are already having shortage of teachers.
But what will adat graduates do? Why would they teach adat if soon the old adat will be completely supplanted by the lifestyles of world culture? When this happens even the Native Court will no longer have any reason to exist!
- The views expressed here are the views of the writer Raymond Tombung and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express.
- If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
ADVERTISEMENT
