KOTA KINABALU, Nov 24 ― The younger Kadazan Dusun Murut and Rungus (KDMR) generation has a low level of knowledge and understanding of their tradition, including traditional attire.

KDCA Tadau Koonduan (Women’s Day) organising chairman for this year, Dr Rosalyn Gelunu, said that this worrying findings made during a recent workshop on local wisdom would not help to sustain the people’s tradition and culture.

"Efforts to improve awareness on the importance of knowledge and understanding towards our ethnic culture must be made immediately. The set of minds that perceives culture and merely a celebration must be altered,” she stressed.

Rosalyn added that it must be inculcated and planted in the mind that the nation’s culture is the core of life, the nation’s image and self-identity, like the flow of blood.

"Generations capable of becoming experts in each ethnic culture must be created because our identity is for us to decide, because we are the owners, guardians and heirs. Not the outsiders,” she said at the Women’s Council KDCA Sodop Tadau Koonduan 2023 held at The Putra Ballroom recently.

The theme of the event was "The Sustainability of the local women’s wisdom”.

Rosalyn further shared that six programmes were organised in conjunction with the celebration and the main one was a traditional attire workshop focused at ensuring the sustainability of the traditional attire, improve awareness on culture by understanding history and the essence of the traditional attire, preserve cultural consistency, raise involvement of the people to sustain culture and customs, and promote cultural education and researches.

"The most important is to increase involvement of women in cultural activities to help defend the local wisdom and strengthen gender equality,” she said.

She added that 90 people took part in the three-day and two-night workshop.

Among the recommendations were for follow-up programmes to be held such as organising traditional attire contests among the respective ethnics as this platform will enable them to help in efforts to bring dignity to their respective traditional attire; for the creation of a special traditional attire gallery for all ethnicities where all attires will be attached with the complete information including information graphics; a special allocation for the creation of at least a pair of traditional attire per ethnic for the purpose of providing a comprehensive traditional attires gallery of all ethnicities in Sabah; and the production of a guideline to determine the specific characteristics of traditional attires.

Meanwhile, KDCA Women’s Council chairperson Tindarama Joanna Kitingan said KDCA now has 900 life members and growing with 200 that can positively contribute to its vision and goals.

"One of them is the Huguan Siou Vision to have a museum of all the traditional costumes,” she said.

She added that the Women Council had started this in 2018, by setting up an Unduk Ngadau gallery that collects, documents and preserves the authentic traditional costumes worn by the Unduk Ngadau and extended to collect both men’s and women’s traditional costumes.

"This is a growing collection that will become the main reference for traditional costumes. From this the Women Council has made the effort to publish the first volume of the Evolution of Sabah Ethnic Traditional Costume in 2022 under the Malaysian Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry,” she said.

She also said that under this year’s theme, they showcased the ‘Odu Got talent’ (Grandma’s got talent) to give elderly women a platform to showcase their local wisdom and knowledge which they are handing down to their grandchildren.

Joanna added that elderly women participating were from Pitas, Kota Belud, Kuala Penyu and Penampang.

"This is our tribute to elderly women because it’s them that we got our local wisdom. It is also the Bobohizans that we got to know about the sacrifice of Sumindu and her daughter who become the Huminodun,” she said.

The winners of the Odu got talent were Mongulozi Morginzun, a grandmother of 17 from Kampung Narandang Pitas followed by Dingkim Iki, 65, from Kg Gonsurai Kota Belud and Bernadette Akang, 65, from Kg Bundu Kuala Penyu. ― Borneo Post