Kaamatan 2010 (Harvest Festival 2010)

The public holidays on 30th and 31st May celebrates the Kadazan-Dusun Harvest Festival Kaamatan. Kadazan-Dusun is a general term denoting the majority of various ethnic tribes in Sabah. The Ibans in Sarawak have their festival on the 1st and 2nd June called Gawai Dayak.

For those of us in Kota Kinabalu, the easiest venue to visit is the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association site in Penampang. The program for the first day, today, included the official opening ceremony (of course with all the usual speeches from the dignitaries), the obligatory sumazau by the dignitaries (and the foreign guests who could be persuaded to participate), the performance by the Bamboo Band, the special appearance by the Miss Harvest Festival 2010 (Unduk Ngadau) contestants, songs and dances contests and other activities. Tomorrow will mainly be occupied by the finals of the Unduk Ngadau contest.

The front of the KDCA Building had a straw couple (scarecrows?).

If you turn left, you see the "commercialised" sponsors tents!


Inside the hall, the program continued.


Some local lasses in their traditional wear.


The Bamboo Band from Keningau playing traditional kadazan songs. All their musical instruments were made of bamboo, even the saxophone.

Then the appearance of the Miss Harvest Festival 2010 (Unduk Ngadau) contestants.


Miss Sandakan! Taken at full zoom 28x, handheld, 1/60th sec, and ISO 800. The Image stabilisation helped, but also breathing out slowly when pressing the shutter. I forgot to bring the tripod!

The full list of the contestants, courtesy of the Digi (Malaysian Celco) poster.


I didn't know there was a contestant - Miss Tanjung Aru! She's Ms Crystal Eve Huminodun William Majimbon. I am from Tanjung Aru.


Miss Kota Kinabalu was Ms Lydia John Alai. The poster was taken with RAW setting, which allowed 3016 x 4018 pixels; so the enlargement crop of the individual photos were possible.


If you want to find out who wins, then be there tomorrow morning (finals starts at 11am).

Actually, there were much more interesting things outside! Here is a family (?) getting ready to perform, perhaps in the traditional singing or dancing contest.


The boy was holding a "traditional" electric guitar!


A traditional house (Papar).


A traditional Murut house. But the contraption made of horizontal logs underneath the house told me there was something different with this house.


There was a platform inside the house which "bounces" up and down. The platforms rested on top of the horizontal logs, which flexes up and down.


A close-up of the logs underneath the platform.


Participants entering the arena.


Yet other participants.


Ah, I recognised these ones; they were muruts in their traditional tree bark shirts.


More colourful traditional dresses.


The Bamboo Band was playing "Its Now or Never"! Did Elvis run away from America and came here?


Traditional beat from the Gongs of Kota Belud.


This was NOT traditional, I am sure!

The Heritage Village - Sabah Fest 2010

Sabah Fest 2010 is happening this month of May. From 1 May to today 9 May; the first 2 days had handicraft and food showcases with concerts and dances in the evenings, then from 3 May to 9 May, you could visit the Heritage Village at The Sabah State Museum; where you could visit the various ethnic houses, see the natives in their traditional costumes, and watch their dances.

If they build a pair of big wooden gates (instead of those small metal ones), this would be comparable to the one in Jurassic Park!

The entrance to The Heritage Village (Entry Fee RM10 - very reasonable).

The ubiquitous sumazau. This is the dance of the Kadazans, the most urbanised of the native races of Sabah.

The Rungus Longhouse. The Rungus are mainly in the Kudat Peninsula (Northern part of Sabah).

Rungus women with brass coils around their arms and legs. They sometimes have brass coils around their necks giving them a somewhat space alien look.

Each ethnic race has a type of metal gong set to provide the percussion rythmn for their traditional dance.

A nice couple (Murut), in the shaded doorway of one of the houses, was posing for a photographer. I was some 20 feet away. The program mode set the shutter speed at 1/6 th second, which was too slow to cope with their slight movements.

The man was wearing the Murut male traditional costume made of tree-bark.

I re-shot them using shutter priority (1/160 th second). The shot was under-exposed as they were in the shaded doorway of the house. But the magic of RAW and Photoshop Elements gave me a much sharper image (though a little grainy). But at least I got the shot fast (shoot first in RAW and process later).

The Murut male headgear made of tree bark with the feathers of the male Great Argus Pheasant bird. The feathers have "eye-like" features.

Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar Lutea)?

A suspension bridge, there's a real one in Tamparuli.

You could try The Blowpipe.

Or some traditional games; what do they call these? Short stilts? or non-bouncing pogo sticks?

A nice texture in light and shade.