Sarawak Indigenous groups march over land rights

On 10 October, nearly 300 Indigenous peoples from Miri, Marudi, Baram, Niah, Belaga, Bintulu, Sibu and Kuching participated in the Sarawak Indigenous Solidarity March, which began at Miri City Fan and ended in front of the Miri courthouse.

The march was jointly organised by Hak Tanah Adat Bangsa Asal Sarawak (Tahabas), Save Rivers and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM). It began with the blessing from the traditional ‘Miring’ ritual, then proceeded with the march towards the Miri High Court and ended with the handover of the Sarawak native rights memorandum to Senator Abun Sui, as a representative of Parliament.

March participants could be seen in their colourful and vibrant traditional attire as they passionately called on duty bearers to recognise and be fully committed to the protection of Sarawak native rights.

“This well-attended march today is a testament that Sarawak Indigenous peoples are still facing many challenges in the protection of their rights and territorial domain,” Celine Lim, the managing director of Save Rivers, said.

“We marched all the way to the Miri High Court as a strong symbolism and an act of prayer that these places of power will respect and uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples,” SAM’s Rety Anak Sendi said.

“We currently have still so many pending cases involving NCRs [native customary rights] and land encroachments in court, and we hope that it will move to turn the court to the cause of our people.”

The memorandum outlines key challenges and gaps that undermine the rights of natives or Indigenous peoples of Sarawak, which weakens the state’s ability to address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and long-term ecological sustainability.

It also highlights grassroots-based recommendations and solutions towards genuine recognition of Indigenous people’s rights and its connection to our planetary health.

Some of the issues highlighted:

• Threats to NCR land and traditional territories from industrial extractive activities (ie logging, oil palm and more)
• The absence of meaningful free, prior and informed consent before development projects or corporate activities enter NCR land
• The inadequate institutional protections and transparency regarding resource exploitation
• The erosion of traditional livelihoods, indigenous identity and cultural heritage from encroachment

Some of the recommendations:

• Declassify historical aerial photographs taken during and prior to 1958, making them publicly available online and in government offices
• Maintain a transparent, public database of all NCR/Indigenous territories surveyed by the Sarawak Land and Survey Department, alongside pending applications
• Integrate Indigenous rights and traditional ecological knowledge directly into Sarawak’s state-level climate resilience and sustainability strategies.

Hellan Empaing, a Tahabas representative, said: “The Sarawak Native rights memorandum is our attempt to capture the challenges and the aspirations of our Sarawak Indigenous communities [with regard to] to their rights, livelihood and identity.

“We will continue to pursue full recognition from the state and federal government as duty bearers that must uphold justice and constitutional protection for its Indigenous peoples.

“We also thank all the Indigenous communities, our NGOs counterparts and our lawyers for their support today. We also thank the police force and the various state/national representatives that supported us in upholding our rights to peaceful assembly as we continue to advocate for our Sarawak Orang Asal,” she added.

The organisers of the march will be circulating the memorandum to all state assembly members and the members of the Malaysian Parliament. – Tahabas / Save Rivers / Sahabat Alam Malaysia

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