The Forest Closed for Mourning

The first level, mourning

If there is one practice most often named at Wasur village, it is sasi. And two narrators explain it from different points of entry, so that taken together it becomes clear that sasi works on three levels at once.

Alexander Kaize explained the first level plainly. When someone dies, whether father, mother, younger sibling, or elder sibling, the place that person used to frequent in life is closed. The one who goes to close it is family, usually an uncle.

Entering that place is forbidden. And that prohibition applies to the family as well. "The family cannot enter either," he said. "That is sasi. So it is not allowed."

The reason lies in the traces of the dead person's life. Throughout life that person was always in that tract. There he sought food, sought fish, hunted, even slept in the forest. So that is the place placed under sasi. About a year later the same family will come to open it again.

Dominggus Bakap explained the same side with emphasis on remembrance. The living family remembers the one who has gone, and because they honour what that person did, the place always visited in life is closed for a time until an appointed limit.

The second level, the recovery of the land

Here Dominggus Bakap gave the fullest explanation.

A tract may be closed for a time, one year or two years, and the chief reason is conservation. If every year people keep taking the natural resources within it, then in time what is inside will diminish, both flora and fauna. So that the breeding of flora and fauna in that place may return, the place must be closed for a set period.

The right to close it belongs to its owner, and that owner falls within the category of clan. So the duty of that clan is to convey to the families of the other clans that the place is for a time forbidden to enter.

What if someone breaks it

The narrator raised that question himself, and answered it himself in a clear sequence.

If someone enters, deliberately or not, and it becomes known that something was taken or damaged, then that clan must go back and report to the customary institution. Since the process began customarily, its settlement must return to custom.

The customary institution then summons the person concerned. The offending party is called to sit together, and the chief purpose, the narrator said firmly, is to seek a solution. Only afterwards does the institution weigh a sanction, and that weighing rests on the chronology of what happened in the customary territory that was breached.

The third level, the boundary between clans

Alexander Kaize mentioned this use almost as an aside, though its meaning is large.

Sasi is also set when one clan crosses the land boundary of another. He gave an example with his own clan. If the Samkakai clan enters Kaize territory, then he is the one who goes and ties a marker there. Not allowed. Then they sit and talk first. If it is settled and that party acknowledges that the place does indeed belong to the Kaize clan, then the marker is pulled out.

Simple to set, large to open

The form of the sasi itself is simple. It is a binding of yellow palm frond or of grass, set as a sign that entering that place is forbidden. Asked whether there is dancing or ceremony before setting a sasi, Alexander Kaize answered briefly. There is none. It is simply set, with only a small observance.

What is large is the opening. To open a sasi a ritual must be made again, stones must be heated again, and the other relatives are invited. Only after that may people enter the tract and seek food freely again.

That customary feast itself, Alexander Kaize said, carries many meanings at once. There is the heating of stones. In the afternoon there is dancing, together with the pulling out of the sasi wood. And within it there are also the piercing of ears and the holding of the child.

Naming the land before working it

There is another ritual bound up with opening land, told by Marthen Ndiken of the Kanum people.

The first thing done is the naming. Place names are spoken one by one, from there to here, circling as far as the main road. Speaking the place names is a part that may not be skipped.

Then betel leaf, areca nut, lime, and tobacco are taken up and named. A pig is speared. A hole is made in the ground, and the areca nut and tobacco are placed inside it and covered over.

Its meaning was explained simply. It is a word of thanks to the ancestors and forebears who have gone before, who are below the ground. Along with that thanks a request is also made, that the work may go forward, that those who work may come to no harm, and that the equipment in use may be watched over.