Akar Nusa
Dawn on the Bario plateau. Mist lies in the paddy fields and a farmer walks out to check the water. Rice is the centre of Kelabit life, and this field is why the family stays.
The story
The Kelabit live in the highlands of northeast Sarawak and across the border in North Kalimantan, with a few in Brunei. The Bario plateau lies slightly over 1,200 metres above sea level. The name Kelabit comes from pa Labid, "the people of the Labid river", where pa means river.
The community is small. About 6,600 Kelabit were counted in 2013, mostly in Sarawak. Only about 1,200 reportedly live in the homeland, because many have moved to towns over the last twenty years.
Each village was traditionally a single longhouse, up to 75 metres long, with no partitions. Society had three ranks: nobility, ordinary members and descendants of slaves. Nobles showed prestige through Chinese porcelain jars, beads, gongs and pearl objects. Before Christianity came, the Kelabit raised megaliths and dug ditches to honour notable people.
Rice is the centre of life. An adult is called lun merar, "big person", and adulthood means having a spouse to grow rice with, children and enough rice to feed them and their grandchildren. Rice is grown in wet and dry paddies, with maize, tapioca and pineapple beside it. Salt-making was valuable in trade.
The highlands have a place in wartime history. In 1945 Tom Harrisson led Operation Semut I, which parachuted into the area, and the Kelabit were supplied with weapons by the Australian military. After the war, missionaries of the Borneo Evangelical Mission arrived, and the Kelabit are now mostly Christian.
The Kelabit and the Lun Bawang are related, and they share the rice dish Nuba Laya, built around Bario rice.
Where you can still see it today
- Bario highlands, reached from Miri by a long road of over 11 hours or by small plane.
- Bario Food and Culture Festival (Irau Nukenen Bario), held in July in 2019.
- Kelabit dishes such as Nubak Layak (mashed rice in leaf), Manuk Pansuh (chicken cooked in bamboo) and beef with bamboo shoots.
- Pottery, blacksmithing and wood carving, traditional crafts.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
We found no mother-line or father-line study of the Kelabit alone. The only fair DNA picture is a broad one: Sarawak natives are believed to have come from neighbouring islands of Southeast Asia, and Austronesian languages are shared across Borneo. A Malaysian we have tested may see a region estimate pointing to Borneo and the islands.
With a small community, a DNA study needs care and consent. DNA does not decide which people you belong to, your religion or any legal status. Family and community do.
