Large nili were held at the main coastal domains, alternating between the three rivers. Numerous animals were sacrificed and buildings constructed for guests since debates sometimes lasted several weeks. ^[17] The felled trees on which the nili batai elders sat to deliberate were ritually felled in the forest. The logs were brought in procession by the participants and ceremonially placed on the ground. The representatives sat on them from base to tips according to the seniority of their office. The assembly started with the Tapea, ^[18] a greeting chanted by the Herald. This greeting chant set out the order of precedence that applied for the specific meeting. Having called Tapele ’ai Lanite, ‘the Earth and the Heaven’, as witnesses, the herald welcomed the representatives of each river, chanting the full name of each domain, its position in the organisation and the title of its dignitary. The high-ranking dignitaries of the host coastal domain were greeted first, followed by the upstream coastal and highland domains of the same river. The same procedure (from coast to mountain) was repeated for each river batai.

Nili ela were primarily assemblies where conflicts between domains were brought for arbitration. Matters such as land disputes, murder or inter-domain feuds and corresponding compensation claims were discussed at length. The parties in conflict were assisted or pressured to reach an agreement, which was witnessed by the representatives of the whole region. The nili of one river was the point of convergence for highland and coastal groups to meet, interact and debate. A core group arbitrated these large conciliatory coastal meetings, which contributed to preserve some form of regional cohesion. Nili provided an arena in which wise and respected men could reassess the precedence of their domains and their own prestige.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the same model (probably modified over centuries) was replicated roughly in each of the three rivers’ batai. The core group of the nili ela consisted of seven main positions per river batai. Each position was held by a specific domain and represented by its dignitary. The dignitaries changed (titles were usually hereditary) but the positions remained in the same domain, which had received that function in ancestral time. ^[19] A domain could hold two positions, or two domains could hold one position jointly.

The seven positions were the following:

1 and 2. The Inama or Inama Latu (‘Lord Mother Father’) was the most senior position. ^[20] In each of the rivers’ batai, that position was held jointly by a large coastal settlement, as formal vassal of Ternate, and by a low hill settlement, supposedly representative of the highland domains: for example, Lisabata (coastal) and Nuniali (mountain) in the Sapalewa River Batai or Piru (coastal) and Eti (mountain) in the Eti Batai.

3. The duty of the Sarimetene (‘Black Machete’) was to present the cases to be arbitrated by the assembly. In each river, this position was held by the representative of the domain in charge of that duty.

4. The position of Anakota, the implementer of the decisions or sanctions of the assembly in each region, was filled by high dignitaries from one or two domains per river, who were called Anakota Mawena. ^[21]

5. The coastal domains designated in Alune as Inama Sariwei (Sari, Sali or Sael Uwei: ‘the base/handle of the machete’) held the positions of senior judges. Wemale used the metaphor of pole and flag to refer to the same position: Bandera Ehuwei (‘the staff/pole of the flag’). ^[22] These coastal dignitaries sat on the base of the felled trees used as benches by the council of arbitrators.

6. The position of Inama Saribubui (Sali or Sael Bubui: ‘the tip, blade of the machete’) was held by highland domains. ^[23] Their representatives sat (in a junior position) on the tip end of the felled trunk of their river. The highland Inama Saribubui were the counterpart arbitrators of the coastal Inama Sariwei. The first one was the ‘handle’ and the later the ‘blade’ of the machete, which was the symbol of the arbitration.

7. The domains holding the position of Kapitan were in charge of summoning the members of their river batai to the assembly and their representatives were the envoys in charge of that duty. The role of interpreter and herald (alamanane) was also part of that duty. ^[24]

Most but not all domains belonged to this alliance. ^[25] When greeted and seated in front of the whole assembly, the domains were positioned in their Batai in an order of precedence from coast to mountain. ‘The nili of one batai forms a tree,’ explained a mountain elder. ‘It gathers the riverine domains of one valley as the people and the land of one resting tree.’ This tree lies with its ‘base’ (uwei), the ‘core’ of the tree, at the coastal centre, its branches (sanai) and tips (bubui) extend over the region and encompass the coastal and highland domains of the league. Figure 1, for example, depicts the tree-like pattern of alliance of Nili Sapalewa Batai, circa 1903.

In each batai, the representative of a powerful coastal Muslim domain and his highland counterpart held the senior position (Inama Latu). Regarded as female and male (ina ama, ‘mother father’), this dual position was given ultimate precedence as the Niliwei the ‘core’, ‘base’, ‘source of continuity’, of the nili. Other positions/duties were shared between coastal and highland domains. Seniority was accorded to larger and stronger domains, the seating position of these dignitaries reflecting this precedence. The most respected men of the region, and the resting trees on which they sat, together epitomised the batai as a political entity.

The league of the Three Rivers Batai held assemblies at a regional level. Yet, it had no strong centralised authority and was not bound by a single treaty. Domains were held together by their affiliation in a political organisation of elders and representatives, the nili, and in a men’s brotherhood, the kakehan.^[26] The first provided a forum for arbitration (a court of justice); the second gathered them in a ritual brotherhood. ^[27]

In each river batai, the domains were centred on a coastal ‘core’, their niliwei. It also situated them in an order of precedence that was oriented roughly from coast to mountain, from core/base uwei, to branches (sanai) and tip (bubui) and from elder/first (a mena) to younger/after (a muli). ^[28] However, in the ritual matters of the kakehan, this precedence was reversed. Highland domains were Black Patasiwa and considered as the elders (a mena) and the coastal domains were the younger, White Patasiwa, who followed behind (a muli).

At the end of the 19th century, the necessity of relinquishing what was no longer a lucrative trade in spices gave rise to new colonial policies in the Central Moluccas. The first aim of the Dutch was to achieve full administrative control of the region, and the second to evaluate its economic potential for European free trading entrepreneurs. Accordingly, the exploration of the remote regions and their ‘pacification’ became a priority. ^[29] The Colonial civil, military and religious administrators at the beginning of the 20th century attributed headhunting and the resistance against colonisation in West Seram to the kakehan and to the nili ela, to which almost all the coastal and mountain domains belonged. In 1914, after all attempts to transform these organisations into administrative instruments of the colonial bureaucracy had failed, the kakehan was banned, the saniri ela was officially abolished and their assemblies prohibited. ^[30] The traditional leaders of political and religious organisations who were an obstacle to the colonial control of the region were converted or evicted; those who resisted were arrested or exiled and replaced by approved candidates. Smaller assemblies continued to be held secretly in the highlands until the 1950s but the modern subdistrict division, carved out of the ’Wele Telu, further diffused all batai unity.