Akar Nusa
Dawn in a Penampang paddy field. A bobohizan, a senior priestess, speaks softly to the field. She is calling back any rice spirit that was frightened or left behind during the harvest.
The story
Kaamatan means "harvest". The word comes from tomot, the Kadazandusun word for harvest. The main days are 30 and 31 May, though events run through the whole month.
Tradition says the rice has a spirit, called Bambaazon (Bambarayon in the interior). Seven stalks of paddy, tied to a bamboo pole and planted in the field, stand for it. After harvest, bobohizan lead a ceremony called magavau. They call back the grains and the spirit that may have been lost in the field, so there will be no hunger next year.
The best-known story is of Huminodun. In a time of famine, the Creator's daughter gave her life to feed the people. Rice, coconut, tapioca, ginger, maize and yams are said to have grown from her. The spirit of the rice comes from her. The Unduk Ngadau pageant, held at the end of the festival in Penampang, honours her. Each district sends a young woman as Harvest Queen.
The festival became a public holiday through the work of community leaders. In 1956 a native chief, OKK Sedomon Gunsanad Kina, proposed it at a conference of district and native chiefs. It was gazetted as a public holiday on 9 May 1960, and the first big celebration was held in 1961.
Where you can still see it today
- Hongkod Koisaan, the Kadazandusun Cultural Association hall in Penampang, hosts the state celebration.
- Costume: black velvet or cotton, different in each district. Penampang women wear a sleeveless black blouse with a long skirt.
- Sound and dance: kulintangan gongs and the sumazau dance. Other districts show their own dances.
- Song: the sugandoi singing contest.
- The closing: seven paddy stalks are cut and a gong is struck seven times.
- Food and drink: village food stalls, and lihing (a traditional rice wine) for those who take it.
Kadazandusun, Murut, Rungus and other native communities take part. Everyone is welcome as a guest.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
Nothing. A festival is something people keep alive by teaching it, not something carried in genes. A Sabahan who has never seen a paddy field can still celebrate Kaamatan, and a person with Kadazandusun ancestry may keep other traditions. DNA cannot decide who belongs to this festival, or which faith or community a person follows.
What our family-lines results can show is deep time: Sabah natives share Austronesian roots with peoples across the seas, and rice farming is part of that wider story.
