Page 321 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

ancestors has always been passed down orally from generation to generation. The same
thing can be found among the peoples of Ambon, Papua, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
The cornerstone of this understanding is built on the strength of spirituality inherited in
Melanesia perspective.
The principle thing with respect to the oral tradition is spiritual life or spirituality. Oral
traditions and spirituality are inseparable entities; both are an integral part of local wisdom,
which is virtually always integrated to form the personality of the community. The two
cannot be separated from the particular context, which in addition to inspiring the identity
of individuals and communities, provide the basis for the creation of the dimension of
harmonization (Neonbasu, 2011a, Schulte-Nordholt, 1971, Van Baal, 1987, Vansina, 1965).
Local communities of Arfak Mountains (West Papua) always associate the presence
of custom homes with a central place to express patterns of belief in the Divine One in
relation to oral tradition within the framework of the celebration of ritual customs since
the time of their ancestors. Melanesian societies are born with the basic knowledge that
they live and work in the spirit world. The Mythology of Joerat (Asmat) Community, for
example, recognize three essential parts of life in the frame of ‘realm of the spirit’: (1)
the world of Ow Capinmi or the real world, (2) the world of Dampu Ow Capinmi, a transit
world of those who have died but they have not yet entered the world of eternal rest in
heaven, and (3) the world of safar the eternal resting place, heaven (Neonbasu, 2011a,
2013, Sayekti, 2013, Warami, 2013). On the sidelines of Melanesian community life, people
have a very strong stance to adhere to the so-called ‘secular beliefs’, such as the active role
of man in the frame of power (social community), which has always been associated with
human cultured strategy to build harmony.
Various humans’ works every day have always been associated with the involvement of
the Divine One. Everything that happened today is never separated from their relationship
with the Holy One because the Divine’s power is the bastion and foundation of human life.
As explained in one of the functions of oral tradition of the Societies of Maybrat, Imian
and Sawiat have a traditional beliefs of the concept of the almighty power named wiyon
// wolfe which literally means the rays of glory and holiness. It is this very phrase that has
become widely known by the local community as the terminus for referring to the Divine
or the Holy One. The words wiyon (beam) and wolfe (holy) is then associated with the word
‘glory’, and then used as an anthropological terminology of the Melanesian Society in West
Papua to uncover the absolute presence of the Divine One in all events experienced by
human beings (Sagrim, 2013).

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