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“Ma’a Ta’a”, the Joy of Hendea Residents
Hendea People’s Joy of Life
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Ma’a ta’a is a tradition of the people of South Buton, Southeast Sulawesi Province, which means eating togehter in the language of the Cia-cia tribe. Time passes and ma’a ta’a is now better known as the name for South Buton people party, especially in Hendea Village. The event is simply a feast. Each house prepares food and cakes that are served to relatives, acquittances, and guests who come to visit. The peak of the communal feast is held in the baruga (galampa). The ma’a ta’a tradition is also a meeting place for residents who have relatives in areas outside of South Buton.
Ma’a ta’a is held once a year by the people of Hendea Village, Sampolawa District, South Buton Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province for generations and remains sustainable until now. Geographically, Hendea Village in South Buton Regency is located in a mountainous area that is suitable for agricultural land with a population of 2,017 people in 2019. Usually, ma’a ta’a is carried out after harvesting rice or other crops, as is customary in the rituals of an agrarian society.
Victor Turner views that rituals from an anthropological point of view is a form of social drama that displays symbolic roles. Through this social drama, various aspects of people’s lives are shown to be responded to together (The Forest of Symbols, Aspects Of Ndembu Ritual, 1987, pages 32-33). Specifically, in the ritual of transition or the rites of passages, there is an inner processing stage that causes humans to be able to get out of various conflicts due to the changes that humans face in their lives (page 94).
The traditional feast of ma’a ta’a or mata’a (having fun) is carried out as gratitude because the east and west harvest seasons have been successfully completed. This traditional party has been carried out for generations since hundreds of years ago, which began with the permission and policy of the Sultan of Buton at that time. The food and drinks served in this traditional ritual are a form of gratitude to the Almighty (Cia-cia Tribe holds Mata’a Traditional Party, 2010, kompas.com).
Several Stages of Ritual
The peak of the ma’a ta’a tradition was held for three days with various stages of implementation. The first stage is to oano
Ma’a ta’a ritual for the Cia Cia tribe.
Rejoicing in culinary wonders;
ma’a ta’a or deliberation to determine the best appropriate days for the feast, led by traditional stakeholders and attended by the community in galampa (baruga). In this stage, after an agreement in the customary deliberation, the ma’a ta’a event is decided twelve days later (quoted from the desakultur.kemdikbud.go.id page, accessed in August 2021).
The next stage is nduano ganda or (beating a drum). The instrument used in this event is a drum called lakanterega, a traditional musical instrument made of wood and goat skin with 50 cm diameter. The drum percussion section is held at night in the traditional house (galampa) which has to be attended by traditional leaders (mancuana popa’ano) and male community leaders (sarano anamhane). The nduano ganda is a sign that the main event of ma’a ta’a will start four days later.
The third stage is tampoano api which means burning incense. This process is carried out by traditional elders in the baruga or galampa, by burning incense while reading prayers to the spirits of the ancestors who have fallen. People whose families have died also perform the ritual of burning incense and visiting the graves of their parents or other family members in the afternoon. After the pilgrimage process is complete, each family lineage gathers at the house of the eldest sister with a canister filled with food to read prayers and eat together. This ritual aims to make people remember the family members who have died.
After burning the incense, the next event is posambua. This is where traditional figures sit facing each other and then give each other food in the form of large diamonds (kauru), which is accompanied by a prayer. The traditional elders then exchange poems with sentences of advice or invitations to the whole community to share and appreciate, respect, and maintain the ties of friendship for the sake of strengthening the ties of brotherhood.
The awaited peak of ma’a ta’a then arrives. Karamea a’alono or a party that lasts for the whole day and night, starting from 08:00 am until 05:30 am the next morning. The ritual begins with Pipalikiano bicubitara, namely the collection of harvest products that are hung in each resident’s house, such as cassava, corn, peanuts, coconut, and other plants. Pipalikiano bicubitara is only done by youth (sarano anamhane). After that, all sarano anamhane is directed back to Galampa to do the bongka barata.
The implementation of the bongka barata event begins with circling the galampa courtyard three times by a traditional elder as the opening ceremony for the pangencei or mangaru, pilinda or linda dance, and manca or pencak silat. Linda and pencak silat dance activities continue to be carried out by all levels of society starting from children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly to the accompaniment of the lakterega drum until the next morning.
The last part of the ritual is kalepa, which is a way of serving food in a canister while praying all together led by custom leaders as a form of gratitude for the success of the harvest festival in a year. The implementation of this event is only attended
Old and young, everyone celebrates together. Ma’a ta’a involve all elements of society.
by parents (heads of families) in galampa which consisted of various professions. Reading this prayer aims to maintain the safety of farmers, traders, police, soldiers, and all residents when making a living, whether in the village or overseas. After reading the prayer and eating together, they shake hands with each other, marking the end of the ma’a ta’a traditional party.
Tightening the Family Ties
For the Cia-cia tribe, the ma’a ta’a ritual shows the importance of maintaining friendship to tighten their kinship ties, creating stronger unity. With great enthusiasm and prayers from the elders, without never giving up and with great hopes of returning to their hometown, all community activities return to normal. Farmers are back to wrestling with their crops, migrants are back to lift their anchors to endeavour across the ocean, police and soldiers are back on guard, and teachers are back to school. This ma’a ta’a culture has become the oldest heritage of the ancestors which is still maintained and preserved by the residents of Hendea Village.
Ma’a ta’a culture is an effective communication medium for the Cia-cia tribe to bridge communication between citizens across generations, especially in strengthening kinship. This culture is at the same time an effective medium used to convey messages from communicators to a wide audience as is the definition of media in Harfield Cangara’s view (Introduction to Communication Studies, 1998: page 119).
Media is also an extension of the human senses, citing Marshal Macluhan in Dedi Kurnia Syah Putra (Media and Politics, Finding the Relationship Between the Dimensions of Symbiotic Mutualism, Media and Politics, 2012: page 2). The definition of media is suitable to describe ma’a ta’a culture as a medium of communication to ancestors and between citizens. All senses are involved (Faishal Hilmy Maulida, M.
