An interview report
Indonesia is a rich country: rich of islands, rich of cultures, rich of languages, and rich of ethnics. The islands views in Indonesia are fantastically wonderful in which some islands are quite small and border with another country. Talaud Islands are one of small islands which border with another country, Philippine. These islands, which its capital located in Melonguane, are approximately 271 miles from the capital city of North Sulawesi, Manado. Located between Sulawesi Island and Mindanao Island (Philippine), Talaud has three main big islands, which are Karakelang, Salibabu, and Kabaruan Islands. In the past, Talaud was a part of Sanger regency, but since July 2, 2002 the government decided to separate Talaud from Sanger. According to Jelinda, one of our participants, the reason of the separation between Sanger and Talaud due to the economic, politic, and social development which was unequal and centralized in Sanger.
This time, our group wants to report our interview with six Talaud people: Jelinda, Jufrian, Korsinus, Dewi, Kardia, and Haryati. Talaud itself actually is the name of the islands, the name of the indigenous people who live there, and it belongs to the name of one of the languages used to communicate in that place. The reason of choosing Talaud ethnic to be interviewed because we are interested in their cultures which have limited literature review and publication, either written or online.
Based on our interviews, all participants mentioned that the main and most famous tradition held in Talaud is Mane'e. Mane'e is an annual unique tradition to catch the fish in the ocean which is held in May, precisely in Intata Island. Uniquely, even though year by year it is always held in May, the precise date and time are uncertain. They said that when this event held will depend on the moon rotation. However, none of our participants know how to decide the date or the time. They said that people who know how to decide the time to hold Mane’e is tetua adat (the traditional chairman) and some older people. No young men know the way to decide the time. Mane’e is said to be a unique tradition because they will use palm leaves and old tree root to do the rituals and then they can use their bare hands to catch the fish directly. Other than Mane’e, Mangim Parut is also considered as the main tradition in Talaud. It is a tradition of giving speech in Talaud language which is used in some important occasions such as in marriage and death ceremony, and also to welcome the important guests who are visiting Talaud.
Talaud people have some values that they believe to be done and not be done. They believe that if they come to a new place, they have to be polite such as do not spit in any place and do not say any harsh word. If they are not polite, they may get into danger on the way home. Besides that, they also believe that they may not sew at night because it if they sew at night, they will not be blessed. Another thing believed by Talaud people is that after going to church, people are not allowed to drop in to other houses. They must go home first before they go to others because if they do not do this the blessing they received in church will be lost or left in others’ houses.
Talaud people hand down the names using patrilineal system which means that family names are the same with father’s name. However, one of our participants, Korsinus, said that family names can be handed down in matrilineal system if there is an agreement between the husband and the wife.
According to the participants, togetherness is the most important thing in their daily life. Other than that, religious and faith in God are also considered as the basic thing in the society. They usually will relate social activity to religious aspect, e.g. if they want to build a new building, they will do a ritual conducted by the tetua adat and in which they will ask for God’s and nature’s permission. When we compared their answers with some literature reviews from the internet, we found that what they said is similar. F. D. Latjandu, an indigenous of Talaud, said in his own blog that Talaud people have high life values that they always hold on. Their social cultures are relying on heart of heart, fraternity, mutual cooperation (gotong royong), religious life, and relying on “ana u wanua”. Ana u wanua is the son of tetua adat who will be the next leader. Commonly, tetua adat is an indigenous man of Talaud.
When we asked about what the requirements to be called as a Talaud person, all our participants said that there is no specific requirement to be called as a Talaud person. They said that we can be a Talaud person as long as we can get along well with the indigenous people there. It means that the ability to speak in Talaud language is not the requirement to be called as Talaud people.
Mostly, people who live in Talaud believe in God by having one certain religion. However, some of them still doing animism activity as their form of believing in spirits and some of them mix it with their religious. In some years ago, according to Jufri, there was a Talaud regent believed in God (has religion) and also in spirits. In addition, mostly when people in Talaud want to build a house, they will ask permission to the nature and also to God. The reason of asking permission from the nature is that because they view all things as living things. They will use Talaud language to do the ritual to ask the permission which in English can be said: “May God and the nature, and also the land allow us to build a new house here.” Generally, many Talaud people know the way to approach God by their parents.
Listening to our participants story about how Talaud people act in their daily life and relate it to Hofstede’s theory about national dimensions culture, we assume that Talaud people have low power distance, follow collectivism system, femininity, and they have low uncertainty avoidance. We assume that Talaud people have low power distance because social status between Talaud people is not really important. According to Kardia, if there is cooperation (kerja bakti) cleaning the environment, all people, doesn’t matter who they are in the society: whether they have high or low position, should be involved. It means that Talaud People have low power distance because they do not distinguish people by looking at their social status. Other than that, all the participants said that being on time is considered as important, but in fact many people in Talaud tend to be not on time in doing activities. Moreover, we assume that Talaud people follow femininity because, according to story informed by our participant, Talaud people tend to do much cliché if they want to state or express their ideas. Furthermore, as we said in the early part of this report that Talaud people follow togetherness as their life value, so that when they want to make decision, they prefer to ask others opinions before deciding.
Lastly, using Manado language and Talaud language, Talaud people have a famous well-known proverb that is Sansiotte Sampate-Pate which means sehati, sekata, seperjuangan. For sure, this proverb truly represents that Talaud people give most priority to fraternity and togetherness. (^_^)/
References:
http://beo-talaud.blogspot.com/2011/10/ambruknya-manajemen-sansiotte-sampate.html
http://manadopost.co.id/index.php?mib=berita.detail&id=108484
http://pemdatalaud.blogspot.com/2011/03/tourism-manee-in-talaud.html
http://northlandtalaud.blogspot.com/2009/07/manee-di-pulau-intata-kabupaten-talaud.html
http://www.jalanjalanyuk.com/manee-merentang-janur-melestarikan-budaya/
http://ev24.blogdetik.com/2012/02/02/budaya-talaud-manee/
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