Paper Short Abstract:

This study looks into the concept of the Unggak, the spirit of storytelling in the Teduray oral tradition. It embodies a philosophy founded on the ongoing conversation between the past and the present, empowering their collective memory and language that define their identity and positionality.

Paper Abstract:

This paper looks into the concept of "Unggak", the spirit of storytelling or spoken word, found in the Teduray and Lambangian oral tradition, specifically in the chanting of their ethno-epic, the Beninarew. More than a performance, epic singing functions as a ritual-- a dialogue between the ancestors and the community through the mediation of the meninarew (the epic chanter). The Unggak guides the meninarew to utter the right words, communicate their ancestors' divine messages, and most importantly, speak the truth about the meaning of their existence. The Unggak, therefore, embodies the entire philosophy that underlies the Teduray oral tradition. It is a philosophy founded on the ongoing conversation between the past and the present, thereby empowering tadëman (collective memory), kësëbërë (indigenous language), and fëgurët (indigenous oral tradition) that continue to define their identity and positionality as “gefe” –steward of the land.

A close reading of excerpts from their oral tradition, such as the linggeng and siyasid which are integral in their epic chanting, demonstrates the profound impact of the Unggak in sustaining human-non-human relationships. I would like to end with some reflections on how to adopt indigenous knowledge to unwrite the epistemic violence against the non-Western as the “ontological other”; hence a humble contribution to the ongoing critique of the dominant paradigm toward a more engaged and transformative scholarship.