Keeping traditions alive: Members of the Dumpas community showcase traditional wedding attire during the Kaamatan Festival in Sandakan, Sabah.
TELUPID: The Dumpas were once a vibrant community in Sabah, a nomadic people who moved from place to place, bringing with them their own customs, such as burying their dead in coffins that are then stored in caves.
Once known as the Sugpan tribe, they changed their name to Dumpas in the belief that it would break their “connection” with a smallpox epidemic that hit them, and allow them to thrive.
They got over smallpox but time has been harder to beat. Over the years, their language, culture and identity have slowly disappeared.
The community is now down to about 5,000 people, concentrated mainly in seven villages in the Telupid district, a rural area in central Sabah.
The Dumpas have often been grouped as a sub-ethnic community under the Dusun umbrella. And now, they are struggling to retain their own identity.
The Dusun label does not fully reflect who they are, and the identity of the Dusun has come to overshadow the unique language and cultural traits of the Dumpas.
The Dumpas language is the clearest marker of that distinction, said Sabah Dumpas Association deputy president, Bidin Angau, 65.
“Since the establishment of the association in 2015, we have been working to be recognised as our own ethnic group.
“Our community is very small and not widely known, even within Sabah, never mind Peninsular Malaysia. If we continue to be seen only as a sub-ethnic group, it becomes harder for people to recognise who we really are,” he said.
“Our language is different. It may sound familiar to neighbouring communities, but it is not fully Dusun and not fully Sungai either.”
Concern over the gradual fading of the Dumpas language has driven what the community now sees as its most important effort – compiling a dictionary.
Working with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, the project began in 2021. Dumpas elders have compiled more than 5,000 words, and the dictionary is now in the final stages of editing.
“When it is completed, we want the Dumpas community to stand on equal footing with other ethnic groups, and to leave this dictionary as a legacy for future generations,” said Bidin.
The effort is led largely by elders in their 60s and 70s.
“Children no longer speak their mother tongue naturally,” said Baung Titing, 72, a native chief representative.
“If we do not strengthen our identity now, especially our language, it will fade.”
Association president Abdul Wahab Abd Gani hopes to publish the dictionary next year.
“I intend to distribute copies to libraries at universities, so researchers and students can study who the Dumpas are,” he said.
Dumpas identity is also expressed through what can be seen and touched, especially traditional attire with intricate embroidery – every bead sewn by hand.
Nasrah Titing, from the association’s cultural bureau said: “Before 2015, we were already bringing Dumpas culture out through traditional dance and attire whenever we were invited.”
For the community, the hope is simple – that the Dumpas will no longer exist only as a footnote.
