Author Archives: RevathySelvaduraiFisher

module 1 post 5

Module 1 post 5

www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk/research/games-evaluation.aspx

I was directed to this site while researching an app being developed to retain the Penan Oroo’ sign language used in the jungle. It is a website that evaluates the use of gaming for teaching. It also has links to publications, and projects being developed along with an online community of users/developers.

Module 2 post 5

Module 2 post 5- interactions and inter-relationships around text- Peter Martin

This article looks at one science lesson (a micro-ethnographic study)in a Bruneian classroom and observes the reading/learning practices in a classroom made up of  purely Indigenous students. The study looks at how indigenous students cross literacy boundaries inherent in learning in two foreign languages (English and Malay) while having no access to their own mother tongue in a learning environment.

module 2 post 3

Module 2 –post 3 https://picnicwiththepenan.wordpress.com/

Keywords: Penan, jungle, tourism, logging, self- reliance

Although this site may seem like a strange choice as it could be viewed as exoticising Penan culture, it struck me as the only site I have been in so far that actually spoke of the Penan as not being helpless. The article talks about the jungle trekking lead by Penan guides who take you through their territory and educate the traveler on the jungle but also on the effects of the logging industry and globalization. I chose it because it gave me hope.

module 2 post 2

Module 2 post 2 Endangered languages in Borneo a survey among Iban and Murut in Temburong, BruneiPDF

endangered languages in Borneo1

This article looks at a 2008 survey of two indigenous tribes in Temburong District in Brunei  and analyzes the changes the language has undergone by comparing the youth and the elderly. This article discusses endangered languages in Brunei specific to the District of Temburong.

module 2 post 1

Module 2 post 1

Keywords: Penan,  Dusun, Murut, History,Indegnous, links, issues

http://www.minorityrights.org/3904/brunei-darussalam/dusun-murut-kedayan-iban-tutong-penan.html

This site provides a brief history of the Indegenous tribes of Brunei as well as a short history of their interactions with one another and the government. The government language policy and legislation puts great stress on tribal people such as the Penan to give up their spiritual way of life and convert to Islam through incentives such as housing and fresh water.

 

 

Module 1 post 1-5

Module 1 week 1

http://borneoproject.org/

The aim of the Borneo project is to bring literacy to Penan children through story books in their own language taught by Penan teachers or local teachers with Penan knowledge. It has focused its efforts on 3 primary schools. The project focuses on revitalizing Indigenous education programs throughout Borneo.

Module 1 week 2- Language and Education: The experience of the Penan in Brunei

Language-and-education-The-experience-of-the-Penan-in-Brunei_2010_International-Journal-of-Educational-Development

The Penan tribe is an endangered tribe in Brunei with the lowest status amongst the tribal groups. They are traditionally nomadic people who have been relegated to a single village in Sukang in Southern Brunei where they inhabit a row of long houses. The Penan language receives no official support in Brunei or Malaysia (Borneo), and the languages of learning are Bhasa Malayu (BM) and English.

Brunei’s emersion education system begins in primary with the use of BM and later in upper primary (year 4) begins to move towards an integration of English until by grade 6 almost all subjects are taught in English. Penan children continue to perform poorly in school because of the lack of Penan presence in the education system, the frequent teacher absence, and heavy reliance of individual conformity and convergent thinking. The key aim of education in Brunei is national socialization in order to homogenize the population through one language and one religion.

In their daily lives The Penan children of the Sukang village speak up to 5 languages (Iban, Dusun, Penan, Bhasa Malayu and English). However, the enforced usage of the Non- dominant Language is denying Penan children of a home language, identity and self-respect.

Module 1 week 3- The act of complaining in Brunei- Then and Now

The-act-of-complaining-in-Brunei-Then-and-now_2010_Journal-of-Pragmatics

This article investigates complaints written in to the English newspapers in Brunei over a 17 year period. Although this may at first appear to have no connection to my broader topic of the Penan tribe, it reveals the use of language in South East Asia where direct complaints are seen as threatening and challenging to the hierarchy. This is particularly relevant in a Muslim state with an absolute Monarch. In a language(such as Penan or Malay) where complaints are indirect and often revealed in stories that run in a circular manner, the act of complaining can only be carried out in a second language such as English.  My readings so far reveal that the Penan  in Brunei have been unsuccessful in adopting the use of English for the greater part, and they may therefore, have essentially been robbed of the chance to complain

Module 1 week 4- The Penan still struggling to save our jungle

In this 17 minute video, the ugly side of the bullying nature of politics is revealed. I am not sure of the quality of the video but the environmental message remains the same about the clearing of primary forest, erosion and muddying of rivers. It also brings to light the plight of many indigenous communities and their inability to fight Multi -National corporations and governments in order to maintain their ancestral lands.