A Gentle Egalitarianism

Traditional Penan society is nomadic and survives by hunting and gathering. Only a handful of such societies remain on earth. The nomadic hunting-gathering lifestyle represents the original human condition, and was the way our own ancestors lived for millions of years.

Until a few decades ago, thousands of Penan wandered through the forests of Borneo's interior. Today, only a small number of them continue to practice this ancient lifestyle. Yet while most Penan now have permanent homes by the riversides, they continue to make long journeys into the forest to collect food, medicine, and other jungle products. The physical and spiritual well-being of all Penan, whether nomadic or settled, depends on the survival of the forest.



The Penan, like other nomadic hunter-gatherers, enjoy an egalitarian society. There are no social classes or hierarchies. There is no wealth or poverty, and all food is shared. Each band has a headman who acts as a spokesperson but wields no power. Although certain tasks are reserved for men and others for women, there is no obvious sexual inequality, and neither sex exercises coercion over the other. Both men and women are gentle and soft-spoken. Outsiders who observe them are invariably struck by the complete absence of violence among the Penan.

Sarawak: People and History

Little is known about the first inhabitants of Borneo. Human bones some 50,000 years old have been found in Sarawak, but these almost certainly did not belong to the ancestors of the present inhabitants. The indigenous peoples of Borneo speak languages belonging to the Austronesian family. The original Austronesians, perhaps originating in mainland Asia, became a maritime people who, several thousand years ago, began to expand across the Pacific and Indian oceans. Over time they founded hundreds of nations, and today their descendants can be found on Taiwan and in Malaysia, in the Phillipines and New Zealand, on Madagascar and Hawaii, and on countless islands in between.

Some three hundred years ago the territory that is now Sarawak came under the dominion of the Sultan of Brunei. Brunei was one of several Malay sultanates that had been established on the coast of Borneo in the preceding centuries. Although these small states contolled maritime trade and much of the coast, effective authority did not extend far inland.



When James Brooke, an English trader and adventurer, arrived in Brunei in the 1840's, the state was in decline. Rebellion had broken out against the Sultanate. Brooke allied himself with the Sultan, using his gunboat to suppress the revolt. In exchange, the Sultan ceded to him a portion of his territory. Brooke become king, or "Rajah", of Sarawak, and over the following decades, as Brunei continued to decline, Sarawak annexed most of the Sultanate's remaining territory. Brooke founded a dynasty that lasted until 1941. During this time, Sarawak was an independent country ruled by a white monarchy. Although the Rajahs were British citizens, Sarawak did not formally become a British colonial possession until after World War II.

When Britain granted independence to Malaysia in 1963, Sarawak (along with Sabah) were included in the new nation. With an area of 124,000 square kilometres, Sarawak constitutes 38% of the national territory. But while Malaysia has a population of 18 million, Sarawak is home to only 1.5 million people.

The people of Sarawak fall into 26 distinct ethnic groups or nations, each with its own language. Most of these peoples are collectively referred to as "Dayaks". Among these are the Iban, Bidayuh, Kenyah, Kayan, Kedayan, Murut, Punan, Bisayah, Kelabit, Berawan and Penan. Most of these Dayak peoples came to Borneo thousands of years ago. Malays and Chinese, who arrived more recently, constitute a large percentage of the coastal and urban population.

Most of the people of Sarawak are sedentary farmers who live in communal longhouses and practice swidden rice agriculture (shifting cultivation). Of the thousands of people who still led a nomadic existence at the end of the nineteenth century, fewer than two hundred Eastern Penan continue to live as wanderers. They are one of the world's few surviving societies of nomads.

Nomads of the Dawn

Born of the forest and dependent on it for every aspect of their material lives, the Penan long ago embarked on a journey that knew no end. Fearful of the heat of the sun, ignorant of the seas, insulated from the heavens by the branches of the canopy, their entire cognitive and spiritual world became based on the forest. Distance and time became measured not in hours or miles but rather in the quality of the experience itself. With good hunting a trip is short, though it might be measured by a European in weeks. A long arduous walk is one that exposes the Penan to the sun. The length of a journey is determined in the moment, by the discovery of wild fruits, a stand of sago, the chance to kill a wild pig. The passage of time is measured by the activities of insects, the sweat bees that emerge two hours before dusk, the black cicadas that electrify the forest at precisely six in the evening. If there is a pattern to the Penan migration, it is determined by the growth cycle of the sago palm. It is a journey that may take twenty years to complete, an itinerary first described by the ancestors at a time when the earth was young and still wet with the innocence of birth.

Wé Salau

"Now all my contemporaries are dead, and I am the only one of them who is still here today to tell you of what life was like in the past. If you want to know the story of our origins here, I can tell you everything. Everything I say is the truth. I do not lie. I will not deceive you. I am not boasting. Everything I tell you is true. My name is Wé Salau. There is no one older than myself. There is no one else who knows the things that I know."

Wé Salau, an old headman