Houses in the Jungle

An hour out of Kuching there is a Budiyah longhouse at Annah Rais.

A longhouse is the traditional, and very liveable, Bornean village construction. It's actually a series of pole houses connected by their porches. The effect is of a continuous hallway/atrium with rooms/houses opening to left and right.

With traditional societies it is easy to drop into stereotyping: either lazy savages or noble forest guardians. In reality the Budiyah are educated, productive members of society. They also have the option of living off the jungle which they are very proficient at.

However there are cracks showing in the bamboo decking. In the actual decking that's a feature but a problem for the  metaphorical floor under the Bidayuh. The first crack was revealed by Juicy, our Bidayuh guide. He commented that their jungle lore didn't help in the city so many Bidayuh turn to Catholicism in Kuching. You could tell by the expression on his face that, while it might work for the city Bidayuh, there was some thing wrong about it. That something more than what fruit to eat was being forgotten.

In Annah Rais, the community is built into the dwellings. Beyond the village, the community struggles to exist. Even when they return from the city they have lost something of the connection. Juicy showed us the house of a retired public servant who had returned: it stood alone, separated from all the others, not even raised off the ground. Obviously the owner loved his village but years in the city had changed his ideas of what home and community are.

The Bidayuh also have lots of land, enough to live off and some to farm as well. They've successfully planted rubber, cacao, pepper, and are moving into Palm but the capriciousness of global markets continues to blindside them. Juicy mentioned that Malaysia and the forest rewards hardworking people and the Bidayuh certainly are trying.

Unfortunately the tribe structure doesn't seem to be supporting them as well as they would like. Collectively they have an enormous amount of land. However each farms their own parcel of land individually and the farms are too small to attract government support. There seems to be no mechanism to enlarge the holding.

Time is not on their side anymore. 

The jungle provides everything they need, but now the hardwood timber needed can only be found south of the border. A growing population will strain the jungle more and more. Eventually they'll have to switch to modern alternatives because the original is gone. If nothing changes Borneans will become just another minority slowly fading into the Chinese and Malays.

While Juicy showed us the skulls collected by past generations in a room with a wi-fi router, I thought about all the troubles the Ngai Tahu Maori had had adjusting to the new Aotearoa. Those troubles seem, mostly, sorted these days. This is due, in part, to large compensation packages for historic grievances. But more importantly the tribes re-incorporated themselves in a modern way to successfully traverse the legal system. 

Perhaps my Ngai Tahu friends would be able to help the Bornean people upgrade their tribe to a modern institution and create a new powerful force in Malaysia and Indonesia. One that will leverage their numbers, knowledge, and resources successfully in the newly international Borneo. 

Hopefully one that can carry the longhouse's sense of community into the 22nd century.