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Assalamualaikum. Hello there. Selamat Sejahtera.

I am Nur Jannah Farhanna Binti Suhaimi of LG2431A. Welcome to my portfolio! I am honoured to have you here.

I invite you to this curated space of wonder to learn from our friends in the hidden parts of this country. Hopefully, we can learn something from this curation and extend the efforts to help them in any cause.

Here I have compiled my findings on the socioeconomic activities of 5 ethnic tribes in Malaysia. They are;

1. Penan

2. Temoq

3. Senoi

4. Seletar

5. Kristang

Ready? Let's go!

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1. Goldman, M. (2022, February 25). Borneo’s tribe of eco-warriors. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20150526-the-tribe-saving-borneos-forests

2. Project, J. (n.d.). Temoq in Malaysia. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15335/MY&usg=AOvVaw36oeYLdXDExDdlcu53n8AU&hl=en-GB

3. Adventure Alternative. (2024, October 18). Borneo Penan Tribe | Adventure Alternative. https://www.adventurealternative.com/borneo/penan-tribe/

4. Loong, G. L. Y. (2025, April 27). The Senoi: From jungle warriors to guardians of a vanishing world. NST Online. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sunday-vibes/2025/04/1208040/senoi-jungle-warriors-guardians-vanishing-world#:~:text=Forced relocation would sever that,at garylit33@gmail.com.&usg=AOvVaw11HHJ9dXeXaH9GjQHJwAfP&hl=en-GB

5. Academy of Language Studies. (n.d.). Kristang / Nur Jannah Farhanna Suhaimi and Sumarni Maulan - UITM Institutional Repository. https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/81987/

6. Baxter, A. N. (2005). Kristang (Malacca Creole Portuguese)–a long-time survivor seriously endangered. Estudios de sociolingüística, 6(1), 9-37. https://utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.1558/sols.v6i1.1

7. Edo, J. (2018). The Senoi of Perak. KATHA- The Official Journal of the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, 1(1), 71–76. Retrieved from https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/KATHA/article/view/10658

8. Alissa Yong. (2017, June 10). The Penan Tribe [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCfkCHnEFus

9. Bruno Manser Fonds BMF. (2023b, August 13). The Penan World Tour: 30 years on [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosZWos4g1c

10. Walkabout Asia. (2019, June 9). The Semai people [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DRaCOUSDnM

11. OGS. (2019, October 16). Orang Seletar: The people who were here before Singapore was Singapore [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3LM2_zkzdc

12. CNA. (2022, June 24). Johor’s Orang Seletar under threat from climate change [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpPRa_oLnjM

13. Nordin Hock. (2023, March 29). Suku Temboq, tersisih dari senarai sub etnik Orang Asli, kenapa? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osK4-TBihGI

14. The Orang Seletar: Rowing across changing tides. (n.d.). https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-18/issue-1/apr-to-jun-2022/orang-seletar-changing-tides/

15. Mindfulness Creative Work. (2018, September 1). Melaka Kristang, aside from the popular culture [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxxirDLzqZM

16. BenarNews. (2019, June 3). Malaysian Creole community fights to preserve Kristang language [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13w7IAslx1g

17. hunter-gatherer noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com. (n.d.). https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/hunter-gatherer?q=hunter-gatherer

All photos are taken from Google Images.

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The Penan tribe is one of the earliest citizens of the Borneo rainforests as they come from a long line of nomadic hunter-gatherers. They inhabit the sacred rainforests in Sarawak starting from the upper Baram River. The Penan tribe heavily rely on jungle resources for shelter, food, and economic activities. As they are a part of the 19 Orang Asli subgroups in Malaysia, they speak an austroasiatic language called the Penan language. As mentioned earlier, the Penan people are hunter-gatherers. This means that they hunt wild game like boars or monkeys and forage forest vegetables. One iconic plant from Sarawak, the Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) is a staple food and the biggest source of income for the Penan tribe. The iconic plant also provides materials for shelter and traditional crafts.

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Map of the Baram river where most of the Penan people live. 

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This is where the Penan tribe live. Some of them are living a semi-nomadic life. They live in villages but forage for food and process the Sago palm to sell.

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Oxford Dictionary defines hunter-gatherers as a group of people who do not live in the same place but move around and live by hunting, fishing and gathering plants. Nomads, on the other hand, are people who do not have a permanent home because they move from one place to another.

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https://youtu.be/hCfkCHnEFus?si=6au68VaUJuayDUj3

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Hunter-gatherer

Fishing

Hunting wild game

Harvest Sago palm, process the starch and sell to export companies

Advocates for their rightful land, the Sarawak rainforests.

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https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20150526-the-tribe-saving-borneos-forests

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https://www.adventurealternative.com/borneo/penan-tribe/

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Borneo Penan Tribe | Adventure Alternative

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Borneo Penan Tribe live in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and offer jungle treks for tourists

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Let's listen to the voices of the Penan Headmen and their time at the UN.

https://youtu.be/eosZWos4g1c?si=MdBjciPM5vvKrWj-

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If in the past, the Penan tribe were nomads ‘to the core’, now approximately 10,000 to 12,000 are truly nomadic. The vast majority of them live in villages. Deforestation is annihilating Penan’s forest home, with logging companies, palm oil plantations, hydroelectric dam projects, and government corruption playing a role in it.

Excessive deforestation has threatened the livelihood of the Penan people. They not only lose their homes but their source of income and staple food. From blockades in the early 1980s and present-day court proceedings, their efforts to tell the world to stop cutting down trees have yet to side with them. The loss of their land will soon wipe out our Penan friends without action to safeguard them.

The Penan used to be respected nomadic hunter-gatherers, now they are eco-warriors fighting for their rights to breathe fresh air and simply have liberty in their majestic ancestry home, the rainforests of Sarawak.

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1. Author's Introduction

2. Penan

3. Temoq

4. Senoi

5. Seletar

6. Kristang

7. Reflection

8. References

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The Temoq people are a part of the Semelai subgroup in Malaysia. They have lived closely for a long time near the Bera Lake and some in Muadzam Shah, Pahang. The Joshua Project (2025) described the Temoq people as wild and uncultured. This is because the Temoq people do not cook their meat–from the animals they hunted. Another interesting fact is that the Temoq people share similarities with the Semelai tribe. They share the same language (Proto-Malay) and beliefs—a connection to the forest and its powers. Today, the Temoq people inhabit the Jeram River valley in Temerloh, Pahang.

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A picture of Lake Bera in Pahang by Utusan Online.

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Legend has it that a ferocious tiger went rampant in a Semelai village and killed everyone in the village except for two young girls. They hid on a branch of an enormous tree for days, fearing the tiger would harm them. Fortunately for them, a few of the Temoq men who lived nearby were out hunting when they stumbled upon the unsightly tragedy. The Temoq people possessed impeccable hunting skills.

Before continuing their hunt, the Temoq men called out for survivors and the two girls responded to them from on top of the tree. After knowing what had happened to the villagers, the hunters vowed to kill the tiger in hopes it wouldn't attack other villages. The hunters instructed the girls to hide up in the tree again and to make noise to attract the tiger. Once the tiger entered the village, the Temoq hunters killed it. They took the Semelai girls to their village to nurse their injuries and, naturally, they got married. That’s how the inter-group marriage between the Temoq and Semelai people happened.

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In this video, the narrator shares legends and explanations on the Temoq tribe of Pahang.

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Suku Temboq, tersisih dari senarai sub etnik Orang Asli, kenapa?

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Hunter-gatherers

Blowpipe hunting

Agriculture

The Temoq tribe are hunter-gatherers like the Penan although they are not nomads. Some of them even have small rice plots on the hillside. They have a special weapon used for hunting that is the blowpipe. With their skills with the blowpipe, the Temoq people are much more land-oriented in their meat procurement (Joshua Project, 2025). Other weapons include knives, spear and axe heads.

Another similarity that the Temoq shares with the Penan is the loss of forest due to excessive logging and land development. It has become devastatingly challenging for them to source food because they depend on wild tubers, fruit, game and fish for their basic needs. Therefore, they have shifted from hunting to agriculture. The Temoq people incorporate shifting cultivation in their agriculture practice and also collect jungle produce. Apart from that, they also grow a wide variety of crops and rear chicken and goat as food sources.

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The Forest Department of Sarawak defines shifting cultivation as the practice of cultivating a parcel of land for a brief time before leaving it fallow for a number of years while the shifting cultivator works on another area

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Welcome to Ujong Pasir

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The Senoi is made up of six Orang Asli sub-groups that include the Semai, Temiar, Jah Hut, Semoq Beri, and Mah Meri. The Senoi scattered through Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, and Selangor. However, the only sub-groups found in Perak are the Semai and Temiar tribe. Edo (2005) wrote that the Temiar settlement starts from central Perak and grows up to the northeastern part of the state.

“Senoi” derives from the word sen-oi (Semai) and seng-oi (Temiar) which means people. Reports also indicate a close relationship between the Senoi language and the Mon-Khmer language, placing it within the Austro-Asiatic language family (Edo, 2005).

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The Seletar people are nomadic sea people of Johor and Singapore. They have roamed the Tebrau Strait, starting from the northern part of Singapore until the southern side of peninsular Malaysia (Katrinnada, 2022). Since they were nomads, the live on pau kajang - a multifunctional boat that serves as transportation and home. The Pau kajang had a thatched roof made from screw pin leaves that shielded them from the sun and rain. The Seletar people personalised their thatched roofs to tell each other apart (Katrinnada, 2022). Sometimes,  the Seletar families would anchor their boats along the coastlines and set up temporary villages, called bente, where their community could gather.

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When the Portuguese arrived in Melaka in 1511, their 130–year reign gave birth to a unique community that beats slowly to this day. The intercultural marriage between the Portuguese and local women during that era added a new group to the growing population during the fall of the Melakan Sultanate. In addition, this unique mix also gave birth to a new language that is now, unfortunately, endangered; Papia Kristang. Now, the Kristang people can be found under the hot sun of the Portuguese Settlement in Ujong Pasir, Melaka.

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The Senoi people inherited neolithic cultures that consist of hunting and gathering and swidden farming (Edo, 2005). In swidden farming, or shifting cultivation, people clear land by cutting or burning, then cultivate it. Since the Semai tribe is larger than the Temiar tribe, researchers have divided the Semai people into two groups. The highland and lowland Semai. The highland Semai were more adapted to hunting and gathering, fishing, and swidden farming. The lowland Semai, however, were involved in the labour force and small-scale trading of jungle produce. Currently, the Semai people are exposed to the modern economy.

The Temiar tribe was also involved in hunter, gathering, and swidden agriculture. They were also engaging in free trade activity, becoming the main suppliers for jungle produce like honey, bird’s nest, raisin, rattan, and horn.

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Orang Seletar: The People Who Were Here Before Singapore Was Singapore

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Melaka Kristang, aside from the popular culture

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Semai children in Bertam by Kiran Kreer.

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Today, just like most Orang Asli sub-groups, they face the loss of their land due to logging, dam construction, and rapid development. Loong (2025) wrote that a new hydroelectric dam has been proposed over Kampong Senta and Pos Gedung that will submerge the land that carries centuries of history and cultural identity. This will also result in forced relocation that may sever the bond amongst the Senoi.

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Education is the only way forward. - Bah Jelan, 2025.

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Verifying you are human. This may take a few seconds.

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Fishing

Tourist guide

Small businesses.

Having lived near the sea, it is only natural that they are active in fishing. Every June, the Kristang celebrate Festa San Pedro (St Peter's Festival )to celebrate the blessings of San Pedro for the fishermen and a bountiful catch for them. Their boats will be decorated with flowers and flags and they will parade with their boats along the village.

Today, many young generation have left the settlement in search of new opportunities outside. Not many people are fishing anymore due climate change and rapid development. However, with Melaka being a historical city and a vital tourist attraction, a there are locals who stay to become tour guides in the settlement. There are also locals who open up seafood restaurant in the settlement to attract other local and foreign tourists and boost the economy of the community.

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I present to you, Papia Kristang.

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Malaysian Creole Community Fights to Preserve Kristang Language

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San Pedro festival, a celebration of identity, culture and fishing heritage

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The recent San Pedro festival in Melaka was a vibrant celebration honouring the Portuguese-Eurasian (Kristang) community.

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Entrance of the Portuguese Settlement

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Hunter-gatherers

Fishing

Foraging

Mussel farming

Orang Seletar forage for their daily needs. They utilise their intimate knowledge of the sea and mangrove swamps passed down to them by generation to source food and share within the community. They would gather tubers, wild yams, and fruits. Not to mention that the Orang Seletar can dig up crabs from the grounds and hunt for wild boar with assistance from their dogs. Any leftover catch will be traded for cloth, rice or sago. In addition, Orang Seletar sourced raw materials like meranti and seraya to build their pau kajang.

Around the Malayan Emergency in 1948, the British government urged the Seletar people to relocate to villages to control movement in the strait. Some Seletar people built homes in Kuala Redan in Johor and another settlement is in Bakar Batu that was established in the 1950s (Katrinnada,2022). Since then, the Seletar people slowly lost liberty to live their nomadic lives as Malaya and Singapore became separate countries and have specific laws covering their waters. Some of them relocated in Johor, Malaysia while others in Singapore. Just like most indigenous groups, the silent theft of their lands by the government under the guise of modernisation resulted in the loss of their way of life, ancestral home and traditional source of income. Now, the Seletar people in Malaysia are still fighting for their small bits of land by the sea while carrying out fishing activities to survive from day to day.

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Johor's Orang Seletar under threat from climate change

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The Seletar speak Kon Seletar. Watch the videos to hear the language.

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The Orang Seletar: Rowing Across Changing Tides

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Singapore was once a home to the seafaring Orang Seletar who now reside in Johor Bahru. Ilya Katrinnada takes them…

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Here we can see the Seletar sell their catch at a local market.

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Sementara pada hujung minggu iaitu Jumaat, Sabtu dan Ahad kesemua peniaga akan membuka gerai masing-masing kerana kedatangan pelanggan lebih ramai.Ujarnya, pelanggan bukan sahaja terdiri daripada masyarakat tempatan, malah turut dikunjungi warga negara Singapura untuk mendapatkan hidupan laut segar.

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After days of reading, writing and researching I have come to the conclusion that the Malaysia I know is a product of centuries of care, respect and honour of the many people that came before and my ancestors. They indigenous groups that I studied have existed long before modern civilisation and have benefited from our seas, mangroves, and forests without exploiting them.

The loss of their home in the name of modernisation for 'the betterment of the people' does not live up to it's purpose because these indigenous are repeatedly being let down, exposed to danger and marginalised. Why are they being push aside if the rapid development are for 'the people'? Aren't they a part of the people too?

Amongst the many ways to help these ethnic groups are by supporting their cause. Buy Orang Asli products, visit the settlements and join events organised by the Orang Asli. We need to rally together to go against unwanted development. It would a challenging and long fight since we will be facing men in grey suits who are above the law but unified nation have tasted justice so will we. It is important to come together and support each other since it has always been 'Kita Jaga Kita'.