The Dance That May Not Be Borrowed

Two dances at Baad village

If the songs that name places are known across all four groupings, dances work the other way about. A dance may not change hands.

Agustinus Ndiken named two dances at Baad village.

Gatzi

The first is Gatzi. This dance, he said, is general in use. It is performed at the opening of a sasi, at the release of customary land, and at the reception of important guests from the regency and the province.

He explained its use in sequence. When someone dies, a sasi is set. Only after that sasi is opened again is Gatzi played.

So too at the release of land from one clan to another party. There is a pig killing, and in the evening Gatzi is played first. It usually runs for two nights.

And Gatzi is used as well as an expression of thanks.

Gatzi Dance

Gatzi Dance video on YouTube — Petrus Kaize

Source: Youtube Petrus Kaize

Ettor

The second is Ettor. This dance is used for reception, including the reception of guests.

Yet unlike Gatzi, Ettor cannot be used freely in other villages. It belongs particularly to the people of Baad. In Merauke town it may still be used, he said, since that town falls within their territory.

Here the rule he stated at the opening of the interview takes its clearest form. A dance is not merely a performance. A dance is property, and that property is bound to a place.

What troubles him is not the dance

What troubles him is not the dance but the singing.

At Baad village, he said, many people cannot sing the Gatzi song. Only the elders can. The children are already drawn away by present conditions.

So when there is a Gatzi dance, it must be the elders who sing, while the others watch. In truth, he said, when the dance is being played all the children come down to join, and they can well move along with it, only that what they do is more swaying than singing.

A language its singers do not understand

There is one statement he made honestly that explains exactly why this singing is hard to pass on.

The language of the Gatzi song is not understood by those who sing it.

"We do not understand the language," he said. "It is simply there, and we can sing it."

He supposes that it is not everyday Malind but perhaps a refined form of Malind. Yet the song, he said, does exist.

What has spread and what has not

The Gatzi dance itself has already spread. He mentioned that Gatzi was performed at the reception of a governor, and that recordings of it now circulate widely on YouTube.

What has spread is the dance. What has not spread is the ability to sing it.

A proposal for work

His message to the young takes the form of a proposal for work rather than advice. In his view the dance must be sustained through a specific activity organised by the customary head, namely practice sessions for singing the Gatzi song.