Kota Kinabalu: Kaamatan International Week Organising Chairman Andrew Ambrose backed calls for reflection during the harvest festival season, but says change requires honest dialogue on the contradictions facing Sabah’s Indigenous communities.
“The festival must go beyond ceremony to address structural issues affecting the Kadazandusun and other Indigenous peoples of Borneo,” Andrew said in a statement.
Advertisement
.gif)
“It is not enough to say Sabah is rich but its people remain poor. We must ask why Indigenous knowledge is not yet fully recognised in education, agriculture, tourism, conservation and economic planning,” he said.
He was commenting on Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation Chairman Daniel John Jambun who said the Kaamatan must go beyond cultural ceremonies, pageantry and festivities to one of reflection.
Andrew noted several tensions at the heart of Sabah’s Indigenous experience, including the gap between land abundance and rural poverty, between natural wealth and uneven development and between local custodianship and external economic control.
“This year’s Kaamatan International Week carries the theme ‘One Borneo. One People. One Humanity’ framed to reflect the shared histories and development challenges of ethnic communities across Borneo, including the Kadazandusun, Murut, Rungus, Lundayeh, Bajau, Suluk, Orang Sungai, Iranun, Bisaya, Brunei, Tidong and Dayak peoples,” he said.
“Since 2023, the event has incorporated the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, using it as a platform to address culture as a matter of policy and economic planning rather than performance alone.
“A biodiversity component has also been observed since 2022, reflecting our position that Indigenous culture and natural ecosystems are inseparable.
“One initiative to emerge from the platform is Jungle Food Labs, which promotes Indigenous food systems as viable knowledge frameworks with applications in nutrition, rural enterprise, conservation and cultural tourism,” he said.
Andrew said Kaamatan must honour its spiritual roots, including the legend of Huminodun, while equipping younger generations to participate in policy, international forums and global markets.
“The true dignity of Kaamatan lies not only in remembering sacrifice, but in ensuring that sacrifice produces renewal,” he said, while inviting civil society leaders, Indigenous organisations, government agencies, scholars, youth groups and international partners to use the week as a forum for both cultural reflection and practical solution-building.
