After millenniums of hunting and gathering in the forests of north Borneo, the few hundred Penans who still cling to nomadic ways find themselves besieged by the full force of the 20th century. Loggers have invaded their turf, which is part of Malaysia, scarring the land, felling fruit trees, killing game and polluting rivers. Missionaries vie for the Penans’ souls, while development-minded officials disparage their existence as primitive.
These nomads, however, possess an abiding belief that their way of life is precious. During the past few years, they have mounted a stirring, nonviolent campaign to defend the forests, which are their libraries, shops and larders. “We cannot be separated from the land where our ancestors have lived,” says Asik Nyelik, the headman of Sungai Ubong who has twice been arrested for joining barricades to halt the loggers. Though the lure of modern living has reduced the nomadic Penans from 13,000 two decades ago to perhaps 500 today, those who remain see few advantages in choosing the “barren” road over the spongy, shady forest floor. Says Nyelik: “I don’t see that settled Penans are doing any better than we are.”
Nyelik’s longhouse, as the nomads’ communal bases are called, is unusual in that it has not only resisted settlement but has retained its animist beliefs. Other longhouses have converted to Christianity, a change that they find brings some practical benefits, but at a price. Gone are medicines that involved spells, as well as taboos on women’s eating leopard, monkey, sun bear and python. One old hunter says Christianity has simplified life. “Before, if I went from one place to another, I had to worry about taboos,” he says. “What dream did I have last night, what route should I take? Now I just go there.” On the other hand, he says, since converting, he no longer has the dreams that in the past would presage a successful hunt. He also laments that fewer and fewer of the young learn the art of creating the clever, flowery songs that used to commemorate visits and noteworthy events.
Along with Christianity have come axes, cooking pots, clothing and bedding, but nomadic Penans insist that modern goods do not threaten their way of life. Most Penan hunters still prefer blowpipes to guns, and a group of headmen insists that if Western goods disappeared, their longhouses could get along just fine so long as the forest remained. This is why after years of arrests, imprisonment and fruitless legal efforts to halt the logging, the Penans continue to blockade the timber roads. “If we die,” says Nyelik, “we die in the forest. There is no other place for us to go.”