KOTA KINABALU: The delegates of the 23rd Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) who spent few hours at the Mari-Mari Cultural Village, a tourist destination about 15km from here yesterday were impressed with the various Sabah ethnic culture and traditions.
During the pre-conference tour to the cultural village, the delegates, were among others, showcased with various traditional dances like ‘magunatip’ dance of the Murut as well as dance from the Lundayeh.
Some of the delegates also took part in the dance as well as tested their skill in the use of traditional hunting equipment previously used by Sabah ethnic groups like blow pipe.
Some of the delegates also visited traditional house of the Bajau, Murut, Rungus, Dusun and Lundayeh which were built in the village.
They were also served with traditional food like ‘bambangan’ as well as well as various types of ‘ulam’.
“This is my first time to Sabah, Malaysia. It is wonderful. People are very friendly. The food is very good,” said Dr Kendal Major, the Speaker of Parliament of Bahamas.
Kendal said there were some similarities between Sabah and Bahamas when it came to the tourism industry because his country’s gross domestic product (GDP) also depended on tourism industry like Sabah.
“The food here is quite different … but I like it,” he said.
On the traditional performance, Kendal said the performance was quite similar to the indigenous people cultural performance called ‘Junkamoo’ back home in Bahamas in terms of musical rhythm, dance steps and the musical instruments used.
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