PENAMPANG: The Tonduba Sitimba family reunion drew about 1,300 descendants from all over Malaysia, Germany, Canada, Australia and England.
The historical and joyful occasion was held at the Hongkod Koisaan KDCA, Penampang on June 30, filled with galores like the sumazau, stage performances by the respective great grandchildren of Tonduba Sitimba, the local who was a well-known figure in Kepayan in the early 1900’s.
The Tonduba children consisted of 11 siblings, namely, Gilingon (died at an early age), Jiambit, Guntingan, Tokiu, Malambut, Libanan, Mary, Agnes, Diasip, Dousip and Elik.
The 10 siblings (all deceased) have a combined 1,500 children and great grandchildren.
Many could not attend the reunion due to time and health constraints.
According to the reunion’s organising chairman, Boy @ Johnny Stanis Guntingan (the third generation from the patriarch), it took him four and half a years to research the family roots because of the large number of descendants involved to be interviewed.
“The descendants are dispersed over several continents, but thanks to modern technology like the Facebook, I was able to get in touch with those overseas.
“I must thank Bibiana Binsuil, who is married to a German, Siegfred Brosch, for broaching the subject of the reunion. She said using the Facebook could immensely help in communicating with relatives,” he told The Borneo Post before the event.
Bibiana has lived in Hannover, Germany for more than 40 years, and speaks fluent German, English, Kadazan and Malay.
“I can never forget Malaysia and I communicate with my cousins through the Facebook in Sabah and elsewhere just to get the ‘good feel factor’,” she said at the function, adding the sea of faces (at the party) were so ‘foreign’, yet connected to her.
She also makes periodical return visits to Sabah.
Another clan member, Rose Stephen, who migrated to Canada 20 years ago, said the gathering gave her hope and confidence to be reunited with her mother, Catherine Guntingan, with whom she had not seen for 40 years.
“I came back to Sabah for the purposes of attending the reunion and to look for my mother. I came to know from my half-brother Ismail Hassan, of the devastating news that my mom had passed away 10 years ago in Tawau,” said Rose who went to Tawau to see her mother’s and stepfather’s graves. Ismail came to know that Rose was looking for her mother in The Borneo Post which carried a report on it June 8.
Stephen Jimbangan, a member of the Jiambit family, said most of the younger faces in the party were unknown to him.
“But through this occasion, I have managed to know quite a number of them,” the mechanical engineer said.
The main significant of the event was the launching of the first edition of The Tonduba Family Tree book printed in hard and soft covers.
The books which sold like hot cakes, entails the exact relation and structure of the family of the Tonduba clans, and a great tool for the incoming generations to know “who and who” among the vast family members.