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!

All photos are taken from Google Images.

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

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.

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.

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.

“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).

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.

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.

• 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.

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'.