“Sandinganeng”

We Are Friends

Every area has local wisdom that makes the area unique and more attractive. Local wisdom covers typical food, wise sentences, cultural relics, moral messages, ethics and much more.

We can also find local wisdom in one of the immigrant etnic group in the village of Puao. Puao is one village of the Central Wasile distric in East Halmahera Regency. This village has 635 population with area of ​​474.90 square. This village is inhabited by indigenous tribe namely Tobelo and migrant tribes such as Sangihe, Buton, Makassar, Java and Manado. The majority of the people who live in this village is Protestant Christians and some Muslims. The daily lives of the people here are working as fishermen and farmers.

Most people do both farmers and fishermen depending on the season. The Sangihe ethnic group is one of the migrant (1973) from North Sulawesi from Sangihe island we called (Sangir) who can be said to be successful to make personal approch to the indigenous and they could have some land to build houses and land for plantations. During the changing time they built villages  and in 2007 the village became Silalayang village.

The Silalayang village is a part of Puao villages of which the people are majority from Sangihe. They married with native ethnic group or fellow Sangihe. Since 1973, every year they started to come for work or simply migrated to the mainland of Halmahera, because the their main job is fishing as fishermen.

It was interesting when they entered the special Halmahera area in Puao Village, they brought the slogan of "sandinganeng" which means "we are friends", "group", or “friend". The motto makes the Puao native people opened and accepted them kindly. Sangdinganeng's motto also made the Sangihe ethnic group survived in the new area without feeling afraid and worried because they had been doing this slogan every single day in their life from the beginning.

We can see the real motto from the work ethic of the Sangihe ethnic group who migrated to the land of Halmahera. They are very hardworking people and always try to help people around them. We can find this when we are visiting the Halmahera region. In addition, the skill of making boats and fishing intelligence of the Sangihe ethnic group is no a doubt.

Until now the motto is still closely attached to Sangihe ethnic group in Silalayang village. The Motto is understood by never making a problem with the native people of the area. On the other hand, youth of the indigenous often make trouble in Silalayang village, but the Sangihe tribe does not respond to or grudge against them.

We can also see the sandinganeng motto in Silalayang village this time through the coming of many migrants from outside the region such as the Philippines, Manado, Java, Buton, Talaut, Makassar and some Tobelo ethnic group who also lived and settled in this village. Interestingly the Sangihe never made a fuss with them instead they lived in harmony. Sangihe until now still use the daily conversation of the Sangihe language (Sangir).

The Sangihe people who were previously migrants, now have become native residents of Halmahera and have contributed to ideas in supporting the progress of the village of Silalayang. The involvement of Sangihe and immigrants in Silalayang village can be seen from the selection of Silalayang Village Heads. Robles Makatika, a mixed birth of Sangihe and Manado which was chosen as the Head of Silalayang Village. He is a leader with good visionary and has role model for young people today at Central Wasile.

With the progress of the village today, in terms of village infrastructure development, starting from no village office, he built an office and got a good predicate as the cleanest and neatest office. Further, he built a market selling clothes, vegetables and fresh fish and also built a port for a berth for fisherman boats and sea taxi. In addition, the port is now one of the photo spots that must be visited when visiting Silalayang.

This village become a good example for all villages in Central Wasile District, as a new village that is growing most either for infrastructure or people economic growth. The motto of sandinganeng is not just a sentence but it is truly understood and  practiced in daily life until now. (ERI).