Akar Nusa
On a river that is also a border, two cousins wave across the water. One carries a Malaysian identity card, the other an Indonesian one. They speak the same language and share the same grandmother.
The story
Borneo is one island shared by three countries: Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Most of its native peoples were there long before those countries existed, and their families often live on more than one side.
"Dayak" is a loose umbrella word for over 200 native groups on Borneo. About 4.21 million people are counted, roughly 2.19 million in Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan), 1.99 million in Malaysia and 38,540 in Brunei. In Malaysia the word is mostly used for the Iban and Bidayuh of Sarawak, though it covers far more.
Look at the examples. The Lun Bawang live in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and North Kalimantan, about 50,550 in all. The Murut live in Sabah, in Lawas in Sarawak, on Labuan, in North Kalimantan and in Brunei's Temburong district. The Iban trace their homeland to the Kapuas basin in West Kalimantan. About 702,579 live in Sarawak, 19,978 in West Kalimantan and about 17,000 in Brunei. The Kenyah and Kayan trace their origin to the Apo Kayan highlands and the Kayan River in Kalimantan, with communities now in Sarawak too.
Related peoples form clusters. The Kenyah, Kayan and Bahau belong to the Apo Kayan cluster. The Kelabit and Lun Bawang belong to the Apo Duat cluster. The Bidayuh, too, live on both sides, in southwest Sarawak and northern West Kalimantan.
Longhouses are the shared architecture of these peoples. A traditional Dayak longhouse can stretch more than 200 metres.
The numbers show the scale. Natives of Borneo make up about 9 percent of Malaysia's people. Sabah has more than 40 ethnic groups and Sarawak has some 40, according to a 2022 review.
Where you can still see it today
- Longhouses in Sarawak and Kalimantan.
- Festivals such as Gawai Dayak and Kaamatan, where related peoples visit each other.
- Shared languages that run across borders, such as Lun Bawang.
- Family names and stories told by elders about relatives on the other side.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
A 2022 review says Borneo's native peoples speak Austronesian languages. It says Sabah natives are close to Taiwanese and Philippine native peoples, and that the Iban are closer to Indonesia than to mainland Southeast Asia. The mother line B4 is common among Austronesian peoples, so a Malaysian we have tested with a B4 line may share that wide regional history.
What DNA cannot do is draw lines that match borders. We found few studies that compare peoples across the Malaysian and Indonesian sides, so a region estimate here is a broad picture. It cannot say which Borneo people you come from. DNA does not decide race, religion or any legal status.
