By DAVID DEBA
After Lord of the Utopia left for the West and the Biak-Numfor people failed to meet him, they chose to wait for his return to them and other Papuans. After eight generations since his departure, he would then fulfill his promises of Koreri, of the Utopia: material abundance and eternal life for all.
Koreri Movements
Those who believed in him and his promises waited for his return through Koreri movements. According to Dr. F.C. Kamma, a Koreri movement was the concentration of a small or large group of Koreri believers in their lord and the Utopia he would fulfill. They gathered to wait for his return and the “new age” he would reveal. To welcome his return and the heaven-like condition he would bring along with him, the Koreri followers made necessary preparations by dancing and singing for several nights at certain meeting-place centers. Such a movement was started by members of a clan; however, as soon as the preparations and the centers were known by more believers, members of other clans and even other communities joined the movement.
A Koreri movement started when a messenger called konoor stepped up. He gave witnesses to the believers that he saw the appearance of Lord of the Utopia through a dream or vision. The mythical hero told him he would return and proclaim the Utopia. “A time of abundance will dawn; ‘goods’ and food will become everyone’s ownership.”
One of the important meeting-point centers of the Koreri movements in Biak during the Second World War when the Japanese Army occupied this island was Manswam in South Biak. The Koreri believers, however, no longer wanted their Utopia; instead, they wanted freedom from the Japanese. To send a strong message about their desire to the Japanese, they rose in rebellion against their occupiers on October 10, 1943. The Japanese Army that seemed not to have understood the reasons behind the Koreri movements attacked the Koreri believers by land and sea through their battle ship. The Koreri soldiers armed with machetes and spears fought one to one against the Japanese soldiers who were armed with guns and bayonets. The rebellion caused heavy casualties on both sides and eventually the Koreri army retreated to the hills, carrying along with them and waving the Koreri flag. Between 600 and 2.000 Koreri soldiers were killed on the beach of Manswam. The three Koreri army leaders who were also brothers to one another, Yan Ronsumbre, Zadrach Ronsumbre, and Kaleb Ronsumbre, were taken prisoners by the Japanese military and beheaded in Korido, Biak.
Advent Nights
Originally, the word “advent” means the arrival of something important or awaited. If preceded by a capital A not at the beginning of a sentence, the word “Advent” means the coming of Jesus Christ.
“Advent nights” is probably not a Christian tradition in which the Christians await for several nights the return of Jesus. What they do celebrate is the four-week period leading up to Christmas, beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day.
Kamma used the term “advent nights” when he discussed the Koreri movements. Except at the beginning of a sentence, he did not use the word “Advent” to refer to the coming of Lord of the Utopia; instead, he used the word “advent” to refer to his return. The return of this mythical hero is an inseparable part of the myth about him. If he returns to Irrian, the oldest name of the present-day island of New Guinea, he will reveal the secrets of life previously rejected by the Irrians of the dim past to the present-day Papuans. These secrets include abundant material wealth and eternal life. The arrival of the lord and the Utopia he promised was then awaited during several nights. Therefore, the advent nights in Koreri movements are the nights of waiting for the return of Lord of the Utopia.
While waiting for the return of the lord, his believers sang and danced. Their songs followed certain sequences and reflected mounting tensions. These songs were often accompanied by dances and traditional drum beats.
When were the advent nights held? After a messenger of the lord made a proclamation to villages that Lord of the Utopia was returning. Those who believed in his announcement responded to it by gathering at the village of the konoor.
However, not everybody needed to come there. Those who did not come there could hold another meeting to await the return of the lord. Various clan members then gathered at the most spacious house of their clans. In spite of this, the gathering was not as big as that at the konoor’s village.
What did those who had gathered at the messenger’s village do? They brought their friends along so that, according to their clans, they would appear on the dancing site. It was the most spacious site in the middle of the village or another spacious space already prepared. Sometimes, the beach sand was also used if there was enough space during low tide.
Then, the advent nights started. In this gathering, the Koreri followers started the event with wor, a song accompanied by a dance, on the first day. The time for dancing and singing was before the sunset.
On the next day, the dance and songs started around three in the afternoon. It was the time they anticipated the “start of a long night”, the night that lasted until dawn.
Advent nights on Insumbabi
The advent nights on Insumbabi, a small island near Biak, started with community singing that involved men and women. The singing was usually in the form of calls and responses or narrations. The songs they sang were composed by Angganitha Menufaur, a charismatic woman who was a relative of Lord of the Utopia and a main figure of the Koreri movements on Supiori, another island near Biak.
Kamma who witnessed such movements and the community singing during the advent nights was impressed by their call-and-response or narrative songs. He wrote: “The mixed singing of the men and women contains something moving through the heavy adult male voices that sound low tones, from which the higher female or male tenor voices sound as if they released themselves from the dark, close embrace of the heavy male voices and rumbles of the tifa [native drums]. There is something about the struggles of a canoe crossing sea waves and strong wind blows. Especially when hundreds of people get involved, their songs are moving.”
Participants in the advent nights on Imsumbabi admitted that when they joined the singing, they felt as if they had been at a mystical world at another time dimension. One Biak’s informant wrote about this experience: “Due to the songs that appealed very much to the feelings of the people, there were eventually spirits that moved their tongues to speak in different languages.” His explanation suggests glossolalia (speaking in tongues), a part of that mystical world.
Mourning songs
Before daybreak, the participants in the advent nights sang mourning songs also called songs of the Morning Star. The songs included all songs about the respected positions and quality of their ancestors, such as their deeds, goods, songs, journeys, and victories. The singers said they “cry out” the mourning songs. Actually, this is normal singing but with a slow tempo, with sound variations that are moving, and that sometimes do remind us of an atmosphere of mourning, of crying.
The Morning Star Mourning Song, for example, is a ballad, a narrative song, sung at daybreak. Here is a free translation of its lyrics: Great Lord, /ah, may You not be dangerous, / so that I can welcome the dawn of Morning Star, / descend on the piece of wood thrown, / thrown at that woman. /He threw it as a man, /the Morning Star reached for it, /he threw it at the woman’s breast, /the Morning Star lost.
The Great Lord in the lyrics refers to Lord of the Utopia. The piece of wood thrown at the woman is the fruit thrown at her breast in the main text of the myth about Lord of the Utopia.
When singing mourning songs, each clan called upon their deceased family members or relatives to resurrect. In such a way, no one was left behind in the Koreri order.
Thousands of Wor (Dance and Song) Participants
Several songs accompanied by dances called wor awaiting the return of Lord of the Utopia and the new world order he would bring about involved thousands of participants. This occurred, for example, on Rani, an island near Biak. Thousands of singing voices accompanied by the sounds of hundreds of tifas during the advent nights gave enormous impacts, both to the participants and listeners. A participant described the impacts through a typically vivid analogy: “Had Rani been a ship, during those nights, we would have danced it into the ground.”
Row Songs
The Biak-Numfor islanders in the past were known not only as fisher people. They were also famous as intrepid seafarers. Using their large, dugout canoes with outriggers projecting from both sides, up-to forty adult men rowed the canoes or sailed the wide seas for trade, warfare, and colonization even to Malacca in Southeast Asia. These islanders also developed a folklore about the sea life, such as their traditional row songs.
The songs resembled Western rounds. The Biak-Numfor row songs, however, were sung following the tempo of the oars that propelled the canoe; the tempo could be between 78 and 82 beats per minute. If a half of the crew started a row song for some time, the other half interrupted the song by starting from the beginning. When the first group finished the first round of the song, it sang the song again from the beginning; the second group that finished its first round repeated its interruption. In such a way, both singing parties gave listeners the impression of chasing one another through the song. This cycle of singing went on and on until one of the groups stopped singing.
The Biak-Numfor row songs are very lively. Frequently, the C-D-E-G-A pentatonic scale underlies these songs.
A row song about the new Koreri
“Kururye!” is a typical Biak-Numfor row song about a spiritual voyage to the new Koreri or Utopia: the biblical heaven. The new Utopia also suggests the new ideal reality for the Biak-Numfor Christians as the new people.
The lyrics of the song have two strata of meanings. At the factual or physical stratum, the lyrics were sung when the sail of a canoe was blown by a tailwind in such a way that the canoe glided “sweetly” or gently on the sea. In such a situation, the oarsman who steered the canoe expressed his pleasure in a falsetto-like voice by uttering a unique exclamation: “Kururu!” or “Kururuye!” At the deeper, ideal or metaphysical stratum, the row song connotes a spiritual voyage to the spiritual harbor longed for by the Biak-Numfor Christians: the calm and shaded harbor of the biblical heaven, of the new Koreri, the timeless Utopia.
The Biak-Numfor people who became Christians used the word “Koreri” to refer to the biblical heaven. The old meaning of this word has, therefore, been enriched and renewed by the Christian teaching of heaven. The Koreri Harbor as a result has gotten a new meaning: the Heavenly Harbor.
Here are the complete lyrics in the Biak-Numfor language and their slightly free translation in English:
Biak-Numfor language
Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) Wai bedi nema i marandar payamyum kaku raryo: Wabe ruar yo? (repeated) Yabe yayun, yabe, kururu, sewar, sewaro Sau Koreri, sau bebrin, bebrin kaku. Kururuye! (repeated)
English
Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) This canoe is gliding sweetly. Whereto will you sail? (repeated) I will sail. I want, kururu, to search for, search for the Heavenly Harbor, the very calm, very calm harbor. Kururuye! (repeated)
Copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Published with permission from the author.
After Lord of the Utopia left for the West and the Biak-Numfor people failed to meet him, they chose to wait for his return to them and other Papuans. After eight generations since his departure, he would then fulfill his promises of Koreri, of the Utopia: material abundance and eternal life for all.
Koreri Movements
Those who believed in him and his promises waited for his return through Koreri movements. According to Dr. F.C. Kamma, a Koreri movement was the concentration of a small or large group of Koreri believers in their lord and the Utopia he would fulfill. They gathered to wait for his return and the “new age” he would reveal. To welcome his return and the heaven-like condition he would bring along with him, the Koreri followers made necessary preparations by dancing and singing for several nights at certain meeting-place centers. Such a movement was started by members of a clan; however, as soon as the preparations and the centers were known by more believers, members of other clans and even other communities joined the movement.
A Koreri movement started when a messenger called konoor stepped up. He gave witnesses to the believers that he saw the appearance of Lord of the Utopia through a dream or vision. The mythical hero told him he would return and proclaim the Utopia. “A time of abundance will dawn; ‘goods’ and food will become everyone’s ownership.”
One of the important meeting-point centers of the Koreri movements in Biak during the Second World War when the Japanese Army occupied this island was Manswam in South Biak. The Koreri believers, however, no longer wanted their Utopia; instead, they wanted freedom from the Japanese. To send a strong message about their desire to the Japanese, they rose in rebellion against their occupiers on October 10, 1943. The Japanese Army that seemed not to have understood the reasons behind the Koreri movements attacked the Koreri believers by land and sea through their battle ship. The Koreri soldiers armed with machetes and spears fought one to one against the Japanese soldiers who were armed with guns and bayonets. The rebellion caused heavy casualties on both sides and eventually the Koreri army retreated to the hills, carrying along with them and waving the Koreri flag. Between 600 and 2.000 Koreri soldiers were killed on the beach of Manswam. The three Koreri army leaders who were also brothers to one another, Yan Ronsumbre, Zadrach Ronsumbre, and Kaleb Ronsumbre, were taken prisoners by the Japanese military and beheaded in Korido, Biak.
Advent Nights
Originally, the word “advent” means the arrival of something important or awaited. If preceded by a capital A not at the beginning of a sentence, the word “Advent” means the coming of Jesus Christ.
“Advent nights” is probably not a Christian tradition in which the Christians await for several nights the return of Jesus. What they do celebrate is the four-week period leading up to Christmas, beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day.
Kamma used the term “advent nights” when he discussed the Koreri movements. Except at the beginning of a sentence, he did not use the word “Advent” to refer to the coming of Lord of the Utopia; instead, he used the word “advent” to refer to his return. The return of this mythical hero is an inseparable part of the myth about him. If he returns to Irrian, the oldest name of the present-day island of New Guinea, he will reveal the secrets of life previously rejected by the Irrians of the dim past to the present-day Papuans. These secrets include abundant material wealth and eternal life. The arrival of the lord and the Utopia he promised was then awaited during several nights. Therefore, the advent nights in Koreri movements are the nights of waiting for the return of Lord of the Utopia.
While waiting for the return of the lord, his believers sang and danced. Their songs followed certain sequences and reflected mounting tensions. These songs were often accompanied by dances and traditional drum beats.
When were the advent nights held? After a messenger of the lord made a proclamation to villages that Lord of the Utopia was returning. Those who believed in his announcement responded to it by gathering at the village of the konoor.
However, not everybody needed to come there. Those who did not come there could hold another meeting to await the return of the lord. Various clan members then gathered at the most spacious house of their clans. In spite of this, the gathering was not as big as that at the konoor’s village.
What did those who had gathered at the messenger’s village do? They brought their friends along so that, according to their clans, they would appear on the dancing site. It was the most spacious site in the middle of the village or another spacious space already prepared. Sometimes, the beach sand was also used if there was enough space during low tide.
Then, the advent nights started. In this gathering, the Koreri followers started the event with wor, a song accompanied by a dance, on the first day. The time for dancing and singing was before the sunset.
On the next day, the dance and songs started around three in the afternoon. It was the time they anticipated the “start of a long night”, the night that lasted until dawn.
Advent nights on Insumbabi
The advent nights on Insumbabi, a small island near Biak, started with community singing that involved men and women. The singing was usually in the form of calls and responses or narrations. The songs they sang were composed by Angganitha Menufaur, a charismatic woman who was a relative of Lord of the Utopia and a main figure of the Koreri movements on Supiori, another island near Biak.
Kamma who witnessed such movements and the community singing during the advent nights was impressed by their call-and-response or narrative songs. He wrote: “The mixed singing of the men and women contains something moving through the heavy adult male voices that sound low tones, from which the higher female or male tenor voices sound as if they released themselves from the dark, close embrace of the heavy male voices and rumbles of the tifa [native drums]. There is something about the struggles of a canoe crossing sea waves and strong wind blows. Especially when hundreds of people get involved, their songs are moving.”
Participants in the advent nights on Imsumbabi admitted that when they joined the singing, they felt as if they had been at a mystical world at another time dimension. One Biak’s informant wrote about this experience: “Due to the songs that appealed very much to the feelings of the people, there were eventually spirits that moved their tongues to speak in different languages.” His explanation suggests glossolalia (speaking in tongues), a part of that mystical world.
Mourning songs
Before daybreak, the participants in the advent nights sang mourning songs also called songs of the Morning Star. The songs included all songs about the respected positions and quality of their ancestors, such as their deeds, goods, songs, journeys, and victories. The singers said they “cry out” the mourning songs. Actually, this is normal singing but with a slow tempo, with sound variations that are moving, and that sometimes do remind us of an atmosphere of mourning, of crying.
The Morning Star Mourning Song, for example, is a ballad, a narrative song, sung at daybreak. Here is a free translation of its lyrics: Great Lord, /ah, may You not be dangerous, / so that I can welcome the dawn of Morning Star, / descend on the piece of wood thrown, / thrown at that woman. /He threw it as a man, /the Morning Star reached for it, /he threw it at the woman’s breast, /the Morning Star lost.
The Great Lord in the lyrics refers to Lord of the Utopia. The piece of wood thrown at the woman is the fruit thrown at her breast in the main text of the myth about Lord of the Utopia.
When singing mourning songs, each clan called upon their deceased family members or relatives to resurrect. In such a way, no one was left behind in the Koreri order.
Thousands of Wor (Dance and Song) Participants
Several songs accompanied by dances called wor awaiting the return of Lord of the Utopia and the new world order he would bring about involved thousands of participants. This occurred, for example, on Rani, an island near Biak. Thousands of singing voices accompanied by the sounds of hundreds of tifas during the advent nights gave enormous impacts, both to the participants and listeners. A participant described the impacts through a typically vivid analogy: “Had Rani been a ship, during those nights, we would have danced it into the ground.”
Row Songs
The Biak-Numfor islanders in the past were known not only as fisher people. They were also famous as intrepid seafarers. Using their large, dugout canoes with outriggers projecting from both sides, up-to forty adult men rowed the canoes or sailed the wide seas for trade, warfare, and colonization even to Malacca in Southeast Asia. These islanders also developed a folklore about the sea life, such as their traditional row songs.
The songs resembled Western rounds. The Biak-Numfor row songs, however, were sung following the tempo of the oars that propelled the canoe; the tempo could be between 78 and 82 beats per minute. If a half of the crew started a row song for some time, the other half interrupted the song by starting from the beginning. When the first group finished the first round of the song, it sang the song again from the beginning; the second group that finished its first round repeated its interruption. In such a way, both singing parties gave listeners the impression of chasing one another through the song. This cycle of singing went on and on until one of the groups stopped singing.
The Biak-Numfor row songs are very lively. Frequently, the C-D-E-G-A pentatonic scale underlies these songs.
A row song about the new Koreri
“Kururye!” is a typical Biak-Numfor row song about a spiritual voyage to the new Koreri or Utopia: the biblical heaven. The new Utopia also suggests the new ideal reality for the Biak-Numfor Christians as the new people.
The lyrics of the song have two strata of meanings. At the factual or physical stratum, the lyrics were sung when the sail of a canoe was blown by a tailwind in such a way that the canoe glided “sweetly” or gently on the sea. In such a situation, the oarsman who steered the canoe expressed his pleasure in a falsetto-like voice by uttering a unique exclamation: “Kururu!” or “Kururuye!” At the deeper, ideal or metaphysical stratum, the row song connotes a spiritual voyage to the spiritual harbor longed for by the Biak-Numfor Christians: the calm and shaded harbor of the biblical heaven, of the new Koreri, the timeless Utopia.
The Biak-Numfor people who became Christians used the word “Koreri” to refer to the biblical heaven. The old meaning of this word has, therefore, been enriched and renewed by the Christian teaching of heaven. The Koreri Harbor as a result has gotten a new meaning: the Heavenly Harbor.
Here are the complete lyrics in the Biak-Numfor language and their slightly free translation in English:
Biak-Numfor language
Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) Wai bedi nema i marandar payamyum kaku raryo: Wabe ruar yo? (repeated) Yabe yayun, yabe, kururu, sewar, sewaro Sau Koreri, sau bebrin, bebrin kaku. Kururuye! (repeated)
English
Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) This canoe is gliding sweetly. Whereto will you sail? (repeated) I will sail. I want, kururu, to search for, search for the Heavenly Harbor, the very calm, very calm harbor. Kururuye! (repeated)
Copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Published with permission from the author.
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