Today, Christianity is a key feature of the political identity of the Kadazan-Dusun community, who are indigenous to the East Malaysian state of Sabah. The origins of this can be traced to the arrival of the Mill Hill missionaries in 1881. These missionaries established Catholicism in the districts of Papar and Penampang, which were proximate to the urban centre of Jesselton. This proximity to Jesselton allowed the Kadazan Catholics of Penampang and Papar access to administrative, media, and political networks, resulting in the crafting of a Kadazan political consciousness that was tied to the Catholic faith and courted by the literate Kadazan intelligentsia in the 1950s and 1960s.
The bulk of Kadazan-Dusun communities in Sabah were, however, agriculturalists. Ancestral beliefs and rituals related to the planting and harvest of rice were thus massaged into the way that Catholicism was spread and practiced among Kadazan-Dusuns. The political crest of this was the first official Kaamatan [Harvest Festival] celebration in Sabah in 1960, which was organised by the Kadazan intelligentsia and coincided with the Feast of Corpus Christi and held at St Michael’s church in Penampang.
This paper aims to trace how the Kadazan intelligentsia mediated the agricultural influences of Catholic practice among Kadazan communities in Sabah alongside the emergence of a Kadazan political consciousness. It aims to understand how this Kadazan intelligentsia tied the practice and spread of Catholicism to rice production, and spread this consciousness throughout the rest of rural Sabah through mass media such as the radio and newspapers, and political campaigns, enabled through their proximity to urban political spaces.
Christianity plays a central role in the political identity of the Kadazan-Dusun community in Sabah, Malaysia, tracing back to the arrival of Mill Hill missionaries in 1881. These missionaries established Catholicism in Papar and Penampang, near the urban center of Jesselton, granting Kadazan Catholics access to administrative, media, and political networks. This facilitated the rise of a Kadazan political consciousness intertwined with Catholicism, particularly among the literate Kadazan intelligentsia in the 1950s and 1960s.
Given the agricultural roots of most Kadazan-Dusun communities, ancestral rice-related rituals were integrated into Catholic practice. A key moment was the first official Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) in 1960, aligned with Corpus Christi and held at St. Michael’s Church in Penampang. This paper examines how the Kadazan intelligentsia shaped Catholic practice within agricultural traditions and used mass media and political platforms to spread this religious-political consciousness throughout rural Sabah.