Tracing Dusun ancestry

When an indigenous cultural troupe from Taiwan performed in the Sabah capital several years ago, many among the Kadazandusun community were startled. 

The reason, the dark-coloured costumes worn by the Taiwanese performers bore an uncanny resemblance to the traditional dresses of Sabah’s Kadazandusun, Murut and Rungus communities. 

The findings of Bruneian linguist Dr Yabit Alas lends further credence to the fact that Sabah’s Dusun communities could trace their ancestry all the way to Taiwan. 

“From a linguistic perspective, the ancestors of Sabah’s Dusun community migrated from Taiwan thousands of years ago,” Dr Yabit said in a lecture on the origins of the Dusun people last weekend. 

Their ancestors, whom he termed as Austranasians, spread to almost one third of the world, reaching places like Madagascar off Africa in the west, Easter Island off South America in the east, and as far south as New Zealand. 

It is for this reason that there are similarities in languages of indigenous communities in far flung localities including Java, Samoa, Fiji, Sabah and the Philippines. 

Citing an example, he said the word eye is mata in Bahasa Malaysia as it is in Tagalog - the national language of the Philippines, and in Samoan, Fijian as well. The Javanese call it moto. 

Likewise, sugar cane is tebu in Bahasa Malaysia, tobu in Tagalog, dovu and tolo in Fijian and Samoan respectively. 

“The ancient Malay word for house is balai, walai among Dusuns and vale in Fiji,” noted Dr Yabit, adding that ancient Malay essentially served as the basis for disparate types of languages that eventually evolved due to influence of other languages such as Chinese, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish. 

Dr Yabit said there was also anthropological evidence indicating migration southward from Taiwan thousands of years ago. 

“Ceramics dating back to some 6,000 years have been found in Taiwan followed by similar items dating back 4,000 years in northern Philippines, 3,000 years in central Philippines and 2,000 years in the southern parts,” he added. 

All these indicate that Sabah’s Dusuns had migrated southward from the Philippines to Borneo where their languages also evolved. 

Ironically, the term dusun is a Malay word meaning orchard which Dr Yabit said was likely given by Brunei Malays to indigenous people living in inland areas and cultivating orchards. 

The public lecture was jointly organised by Universiti Tun Abdul Razak's (Unitar) Sabah Regional Centre and Sabah Women’s Association (Pewasa). 

Among those at the event were state Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Masidi Manjum, Unitar Sabah Regional Centre head Prof Dr Morni Kambrie and Pewasa president Datuk Zaharah Ismail.