Ngormati as the Ritual Grammar of Ecospirituality: A Contextual Ecotheological Perspective from the Akit People of Indonesia

This article examines Ngormati, a lived ecospirituality of the Akit people in Indonesia, expressed through silence, offerings, and ritual attentiveness that bind land, sea, spirit, and ancestral presence. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Teluk Setimbul, Riau Islands, including extended immersion, in depth conversations, focus group discussions, and participation in sacred rituals, the study interprets Ngormati as a vernacular spirituality rooted in sacred rhythm, ethical restraint, and ecological intimacy. The findings show how ritual gestures such as the preparation of Kepala Jamu and Talam Dua Muka, prayers at sacred springs, and everyday practices of reverence operate as theological responses to ecological disruption. These practices reconfigure wounded ecologies into sacred space, sustain communal resilience through ritual memory, and transmit ecological ethics across generations. Framed by ecospirituality, contextual ecotheology, and Indigenous and Local Knowledge, the study argues that Ngormati functions as a contextual locus theologicus where ecological reverence and theological imagination converge. In this light, Ngormati offers a pedagogy of care and kinship that addresses ecological degradation and spiritual dislocation, and contributes to wider theological conversations on spiritual formation, environmental healing, and the renewal of sacred belonging in an age of planetary crisis.