Akar Nusa
Early morning at a river landing in Sarawak. A longboat pulls away with a Chinese trader, an Iban grandmother and a Melanau schoolteacher aboard, speaking three languages and one shared Malay.
The story
Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia, with 12.5 million hectares. It is called the Land of the Hornbills. Official statistics count 27 ethnic groups and 45 languages and dialects. Scholars who count sub-groups get nearer to 40. Neither number is wrong.
People have been here for a very long time. Foragers lived near the Niah Caves about 40,000 years ago. By the 8th to 13th centuries, Chinese ceramics found at Santubong show a busy seaport. Brunei held influence along the coast in the 16th century. From 1841 to 1946 the Brooke family governed Sarawak. It became a British colony in 1946 and joined Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
The biggest river, the Rajang (563 km), gave shape to everything. People settled where the river took them. Among the Iban, a river region was a unit of society: longhouses along one stream formed a community and shared a river territory. Clifford Sather's study shows that rivers could even set the lines of friendship and conflict, above ethnic and religious ties.
The 2020 census figures quoted by Wikipedia give a sense of the mix: Iban about 28.6 percent, Malay 23.5, Chinese 22.6, Bidayuh 8.2, Melanau 5.1 and other native peoples 6.4. The Orang Ulu ("upriver people") is a wide name covering Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, Penan and others.
Where you can still see it today
- Sarawak Museum in Kuching, founded in 1860 and open to the public since 1891.
- Longhouses along the Rajang, Skrang, Saribas and other rivers.
- Gawai Dayak, the harvest festival, on 1 June.
- River towns such as Sibu, a Foochow town, and Kapit and Belaga upriver.
- Languages: Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau, Kelabit, Penan and many Chinese varieties are all still used daily.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
Scientists think the native peoples of Sarawak most likely came from neighbouring islands of Southeast Asia. The Bisaya may be linked to the Visayan peoples of the Philippines. For some groups, such as the Kenyah and Punan Bah, origins are still unclear. In one study of the Iban, common mother lines were B4a and Y2, lines also found among Austronesian peoples.
A region estimate shows broad ancestry only. It cannot tell you which Sarawak people you belong to, or any religion or legal status. Those are matters of family, community and law.
