HISTORY OF MY PEOPLE

The Orang Ulu consists of few tribes namely the Kenyah, Kayan, Klemantan, Kelabit, the Lun Bawang, Penan as well as a few minor tribes in the interior of the largest state in Malaysia, Sarawak. Orang Ulu, means the “up-river dwellers” mainly living in central of the Borneo Island. The Penan, Kayan and Kenyah, live in the middle and upper reaches of and the Kelabit and Lun Bawang live in the highlands.

CURRENT/ PAST ISSUE: IN RELATION TO LANDS, RESOURCES, RIGHTS ETC

For Orang Ulu peoples, the land and forests are their most important resource. Land is the cornerstone of the Orang Ulu society. Land provides them with food and other materials to satisfy their basic needs. It has deep significance in the spiritual life of the people since it holds their ancestral graves and provides a link between present and past generations. This reverence for land dictates that it cannot be bought or sold. This principle is enshrined in adat, meaning “law,” which has legal, moral and religious aspects. Under adat, the concept of private ownership of land does not exist. Customary land tenure provides and entitles anyone who cultivates land with rights to use it.

Under the Sarawak Land Code, this customary right to land practiced by the natives is recognized and enshrined as a basic principle. Customary rights to tenure under Part II Section 5(2) of the Land Code can be created by any of the following six methods:

(1) the felling of virgin jungle and the occupation of the land thereby cleared;

(2) the planting of land with fruit trees;

(3) the occupation or cultivation of the land;

(4) the use of land for a burial ground or shrine;

(5) the use of land of any class for rights of way; or

(6) any other lawful method.

The major threat to Orang Ulu land and way of life comes from large-scale economic development in the form of timber logging and hydro-electric dams. Sarawak is the largest state in the Malaysian federation, containing 38% of the land area, and is also the state richest in natural resources. Tropical rainforest covers 75% of the state and its exploitation produces profits for logging contractors and revenue for the state. Between 1963 and 1985 about 30% of Sarawak’s total forest area was logged by companies, who frequently pay chiefs to allow them to log on traditional lands.

Opposition to logging has come from many communities, including the Kenyah, Kayan and Iban peoples in the Fourth division, but most notably from the hunting and gathering Penan people, who from March 1987 have erected blockades across strategic roads and rivers in the forests. Another threat comes from hydro-electric projects. The Batang Ai Dam, completed in 1985, led to the flooding of 21,000 acres of land and the resettlement of 3,000 Iban who, as a result, were forced to give up shifting cultivation for settled farming. During the construction of the dam some 1,500 Iban were employed but after its completion most were retrenched and no other employment prospects are available. An even greater threat is that of the Bakun Hydro Project in the Seventh division which is planned to be South-East Asia’s largest dam and will generate power mainly for the Malay peninsula. Perhaps 5,000 Orang Ulu will be displaced, mainly from the Kenyah and Kayan groups. The most recent threat to the Orang Ulu people too is the construction of another dam on Baram river. The proposed Baram Dam is to be placed on hold following strong opposition from the Orang Ulu natives of Kayan, Kenyah and Penan communities – about 20,000 of whom face displacement as a result of the project.

-Kelly Anyi, UBC student