The land of Papua is more than just a beautiful place with a huge biodiversity. It is also home to an assortment of magnificent cultures. Some of them are mainly from the influence of local tribes and cultures. At some point, the seemly simple or futile culture has a huge meaning in it. Just like the Wutukala dance, a fishing ritual you can witness on Sorong West Papua.
About The Dance
As a province that has a huge natural and cultural biodiversity, it can be said that dance is one of the local traditions. It also properly mentioned that the Moy people of Sorong and the surrounding areas are those who practice the Wutukala dance. Not only that, the well-known traditional dances are part of the fishing ritual by locals.
However, as time goes the dance is not only limited to a fishing ritual and tradition. The Moy people will perform in various traditional ceremonial events, including the formal ones. It is also worth mentioning that the locals still preserve the meaning and tradition. However, there are also some changes costumes, ceremonial, shows, to some motions.
The Historical Aspect Of The Dance
While the dance is always part of the fishing tradition and rites, it does have historical specific meanings. Each movement and detail portrays the fishing activities of the local Moy tribe on the coastal area of Sorong, West Papua. As a coastal region, the people are mostly living as a fisherman. The profession was dated back to the ancient community.
Historically, the ancient Moy people used spears as a way to fish. It was seen clearly on the dance movements that resemble the throwing motions. Not only that, but the community also used a Tuba root as a mild poison to ease up the spearfishing practices. With the idea to commemorate and remember such history, people will show the dance before the fishing practices.
The Meaning And Its Functions
Being a beautiful ritual for Moy Tribe, the dance holds a huge meaning of appreciation. It is also a nice depiction of how the locals want to show their gratitude for all of the blessings. Even more, the thankfulness of innovation and development are also part of the local intention with the dance. Most likely it will be one of the ways fishermen show gratefulness for all of its blessing.
Performances
Wutukala west Papua dance is a traditional performance done by men and women dancers. It is performed with 5-6 couples that dance wearing a traditional costume and some other accessories such as spears and Noken. The man will bring spears to pictures the ancient fish practices. Meanwhile, Noken or fish bags are used by female dancers.
Surprisingly, the dance has a lot of cheerful and unique dance movements in its performance. Thus, it creates the fishing ritual fun to see during the visit. To show the proper fishing technique used by the farmers, both female and male dancers will do the movement that accompanies one to another.
The male will perform a movement that appears like throwing the spears. Meanwhile, the female dancer will show the details as if catching the fish. In this case, the movement is added with some other fun elements thus creating better and more attractive performance. In many cases, the varying movement and fancy details make it a great dance to witness.
Dancers costumes
Like many other traditional dances, the West Papua Wutukala dance also wears local traditional clothing. There is nothing too fancy, just local clothing made out of natural fabrics such as roots and leaves. In this case, the males will likely wear a traditional skirt made out of dried roots and leaves. At the same time, they will go bare chest.
The unique points go to the body paints. The body paints made a unique motif across the male dancer’s body. It can span across the face to the chest and stomach. However, there are also times that the dancer has no body paint at all. Each design, color, and motif of the paint also resemble meanings. That is why it is not a random drawing.
Another costume point is the head accessories made out of bird feathers. The same goes for the necklace. On the other hand, the female dancer will wear clothes for the body and has a similar design for its skirts and accessories. One thing is for sure, west Papua has now gotten more modern. Which helps traditional clothing appear more modest and appropriate.
Wutukala is one of the many cultural aspects you can find in the land of Papua. It is more than just dances that have a huge and deep meaning for locals. However, Wutukala has been one of the traditions that means to appreciate the help of fishermen from time to time. It is also a nice touch of local expression on valuing every blessing.
