Tadau Kaamatan: Symbol of unity for all Malaysians

TUARAN: It was sunny on the morning of May 31, that marked Sabah’s Kadazandusun community’s celebration of their harvest festival or ‘Pesta Kaamatan’.

An octogenarian was sitting leisurely at the stairway of her wooden house in Kampung Mantob, Kiulu while listening attentively to a Kadazandusun song entitled ‘Tadau Kaamatan’ over Radio Vfm Kota Kinabalu.

The woman, Mundahoi Sompong, who is now 83 years old, was a distance away from the KDCA building in Penampang, the heart of this year’s Pesta Kaamatan celebration.

For more than two decades, age had forced this woman to skip witnessing events in the celebration that included its highlight, the Unduk Ngadau (beauty pageant).

“I yearn to view the traditional events of Pesta Kaamatan (at KDCA) but I no longer can walk a long distance. Anyhow Pesta Kaamatan celebration is over,” she told Bernama here.

Mundahoi’s face that appeared glum, suddenly lit up when told that there would be another Pesta Kaamatan celebration, this time on a bigger scale which is at the national level to be staged this coming Sunday, June 7.

“Atukoi haro po di kagu karamaian tagayo” (Is there another grand Pesta Kaamatan festivity?)”, Mundahoi queried in the Kadazandusun lingo.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to officiate at the opening of the national-level Pesta Kaamatan, also known as the Malaysian Tadau Kaamatan Open House 2009. The Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture and Sabah government are jointly organising this event to be held at Padang Merdeka, Kota Kinabalu.

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