These are some photos I took in Central Halmahera district on the land and by helicopter.
There are various tribes in North Maluku: Ternate, Tidore, Makian, Kayoa, Tobelo, Galela, Loloda etc. People in North Maluku or particularly in Halmahera mostly still hold on their traditional lifestyle, cooked using firewood, strong religious influence in daily life and always gathering with big family in a traditional ceremony.
Marriage and death are the most common events which attending with so many people and the family usually spends a lot of money. The grooms sometimes need to save plenty of money before purpose for a marriage. Some ceremonies and dances will be held during the event, for instance “cakalele dance” is for welcoming the guest or opening ceremony. In the past, this dance is for war purpose. Cakalele is both known in Maluku and North Maluku provinces.
Other dances such as: dana – dana, tide – tide, legu – legu, yasse are well known in Halmahera. I am one of the fanatic fans of these traditional dances, particularly yasse and tide – tide. Traditional dances can be found in marriage events in all North Maluku area. If you come to the party make sure you wear appropriate clothes (long pants/trousers & shirt), it is not polite to come with shorts, although local people is very friendly to welcome guests but it is important to respect local cultures.
In the wedding, the dance usually started leading by bride and groom. The man allowed to take a girl to the dance floor and the offering is performed by bend over to the girl who he wanted to dance with, but without force if the girl refuse he has to find another. One important tip: be careful if you dance with someone’s wife!. In traditional dance, you only allowed touching her fingers or hand but not her body. That’s all I know! For more detail please click here this is North Halmahera tourism web. So let’s dance!
There is a legend about Tanjung Ulie. Long time ago there was a very big man called Cekel lived in this area. He assumed as the ancestor of Sawai tribe and first occupant in this area. He was a part of Ternate sultanate leader in war. He went fishing in the bay. His fishing rod made from a large piece of timber and the fishing line from natural rope found in the forest, while the eye hook from a sturdy branch. As he was fishing using deer meat as bait, suddenly a very big fish ate the bait and got hooked. He felt so excited and started to shout “Ulili! Ulili! Ulili!”. Since then the bay where Cekel was fishing became known as Tanjung Ulie.
Tanjung Ulie is the place for work and holiday. It is about one and a half hour by car from Weda, the capital of Central Halmahera, and thirty minutes from the nearest villages: Lelilef Sawai or Gemaf. This place is a favorite place for local people. They sometimes have a family gathering and organize an outdoor worship in this area. Local people also go fishing and find oyster around this place.
After work I usually go for a walk around this area. It has an incredible scenery, beautiful turquoise water with the white and grey sand, natural green forest mixed with coconut plantation owned by local people and various kind of birds passing the road. I never seen so many birds in my home town and I am lucky to work in this place because a part of that I can spend time to explore more attractive places and immersed with the culture of Sawai people.
Jailolo is situated in West Halmahera, approximately 35 minutes by speedboat from Ternate IDR. 50.000 ($5), then to go to nearest hotel you could choose “bentor” a modified motorcycle taxi or just motorcycle taxi. I recommend you to choose “bentor” if you carry much stuff. I always travel to this place once for two months, because I have family in Sahu (it is a district in West Halmahera). Jailolo or Gilolo is one of sultanate kingdom in North Maluku. Now the sultanate’s tradition does not influence much in community life in West Halmahera.
I called Jailolo as agro-tourism destination due to its fruit season about November to March. From Ibu district until Sahu it is easy to find various kinds of local fruits in this season such as : durian, salak, rambutans, ect. Much of fruits sell in traditional markets in North Maluku province are from this area. If you come in Jailolo, Sahu or Ibu in this season don’t forget to try these local fruits.
Tidore is situated in North Maluku, this island was also produced spices (nutmeg and clove) in the past. It has a long history in colonial era and a witness of fierce battle between the Dutch and the Spanish. The sultanate kingdom of Tidore ruled most southern Halmahera and controlled Buru, Ambon and many islands off the coast of New Guinea in post colonial era. Now many people of Tidore spread from Halmahera to Papua. Its culture and language become one of the important heritage in Halmahera people and generally in North Maluku province. Tidore is a municipality, there are eight districts: Oba, South Oba, Central Oba, North Oba, Tidore, East Tidore, South Tidore and North Tidore. The four Obas located in Halmahera island, a larger island than Tidore.
When driving along Oba villages in Halmahera, we can easily find some schools on behalf of Tidore municipality, whereas Oba is in a larger island compare to Tidore. This is a unique naming method from government, probably names of public facilities depend on its government centre of administration in North Maluku not based on the original area, or probably because the influence of Tidore sultanate kingdom until now.
Tidore can be reach from many places from Ternate by speedboat approx. 20 minutes, if you flight from Manado to Kao you need to rent a car to Sofifi and continue by speedboat to Tidore. Tidore island has a magnificent scenery, when pass by speedboat people can see a dead volcanic, beautiful coral and beach. People can also enjoy the colonial heritage such as Tahua fort and a landing monument of Spanish sailor, Sebastiano De Elaco. The culture and the sultanate kingdom of Tidore is one of the treasure in North Maluku. I hope it is not only as a bed-time story for children about a courage of Sultan Nuku fought the colonial in North Maluku, but these cultural heritages need to be preserved by all parties, so the kindom will not lose its identity.
Nearly three years I have been working for my company. Our projects consist of two regencies in Central Halmahera and East Halmahera. We regularly carry-out monitoring in villages both Central and East Halmahera. The most fascinating is traveling to East Halmahera by helicopter (we usually called it chopper). I always a bit afraid, altough go on board is not my first experience. The trip took about 15 – 20 minutes from Central to East Halmahera, passing through Halmahera forest and you can see many rivers spread on valleys. 
The area where I ussually visit is in South Wasilei district. In general there are ten districts in East Halmahera: Maba Town, Maba, South Maba, Central Maba, North Maba, Wasilei, South Wasilei, Central Wasilei, East Wasilei and North Wasilei. The capital and central of government is located in Maba (approx. 5 hours drive by car). It is far away from local community who live in Wasilei area, they have to spend more than a hundred thousands rupiah just for one ID card organized in Maba. After new head of regency
ruled this area the public facility has been well developed. I loved the cultures in East Halmahera, it is a melting pot between immigrants from Java and Halmaherans. One of immigrant village is Binagara where our office located. This village also a gate to visit Aketajawe National Park, a friend of mine, Mr. Mahroji, managed ecotourism activities such as: forest trekking and bird-watching to see the paradise bird (Semiopthera wallacii), an endemic bird in Halmahera forest. If you like forest adventure in Halmahera please contact me, I will inform him. Most immigrant is hard-working people, they work as farmers and businessmen, some of them joined in civil servant or become a head of village. When visit Binagara you must try local farm products, Binagara watermelon and orange.
Local people in Central Halmahera is similar with other tribes in Halmahera Island, mostly still high dependant on forest, cultivated lands for crops and worked as fisherman. Many international researchers recently came in this area and were impressed with the fauna and flora in Halmahera forest. They also found new species of fresh water fish and some endemic plants. Ecotourism resort is established in Sawai Itepo, a village in Central Weda sub-district. Weda Resort provided ecotourism activities such as: snorkeling, diving and birds watching.
The most wanted job here is civil servants. It is more “guaranteed job” that what I have heard all around Halmahera, including my mother mentioned it. People in Central Halmahera also familiar with mining industry, there are many of these industries scattered from Gebe Island until North of Weda, some have exported nickel ore but now it is banned by Indonesian government. Company has to build the processing plant (smelter) in place.
During day off I visited villages, meet with locals or walk along company’s road. I can see a lot of different birds flying above me, reptile like “soa – soa Halmahera” (Hydrosaurus weberi) passed road and if you are lucky you might find snake “patola tanah” (Morelia Tracyae). The incredible scenery make I could not turn off my camera.
Halmahera in general is rich in natural resources: mining (gold, nickel, manganese, ect.,), farming & fishery, also tourism. My big question: are we ready to manage this? Education quality and teacher qualification become the common problems in this area, and I think not only in C.H, other part of Halmahera also have the same challenges. Students cannot get adequate education support, for instance in remote villages in Halmahera one Elementary school filled-up only three or four teachers, and more critical issue is the parents not awere of education for their children. There is one expression in Tobelo language that I always remember since I was a teenager “o hakola me ho oyomo, o hakola ua me ho oyomo” mean you do not need to go to school because there is plenty of food (from forest/farm). I hope the young people in this area realized about their responsibility to take part in developing their villages by enhance their capabilities through education. Do not feel bad if you were born in this area, feel worst if you do nothing while you are still young and have a lot of opportunities.
There is an endless adventure to explore Halmahera island. I spent most of my time since 2012 in Central Halmahera regency, due to my company’s location in this area. Weda is the capital town of Central Halmahera. It divided into eight sub-districts (Weda, Central Weda, North Weda, South Weda, Gebe Island, Patani, North Patani and West Patani). Most of this area is rich in nickel resources (ore deposit). Despite, I live not far away from this area in the Northern part of Halmahera (approx. 8,5 hours by car), I was afraid when first time came in Central Halmahera after sectarian-conflict history in entire parts of North Maluku province, particularly Halmahera area in 14 years ago. The conflict was the traumatic moment I ever had in my life and I think all people who had such experienced will feel in the same way. However I found people in here is friendly, in fact, few villages speaking Tobelo language.
Nearly two years working here, I feel so cozy with the people, the unique cultures of Sawai tribe and magnificent natural places surrounded by virgin forest. An interesting story of their strong relationship during sectarian-conflict two neighboring villages: Lelilef Woebulen and Lelilef Sawai were protected each other although they were in different groups of conflict. This area is so beautiful, like the beauty of an endemic bird of Halmahera, Wallace’s Standardwing (semioptera walacii), cannot be found in other places and always hides her beauty in the deep forest of Halmahera. (Continue to part 2).
GlendHuliselan 