MIRI, SARAWAK: On 10th 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 Miri Court House.
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 YB Senator Abun Sui as a representative of the Parliament of Malaysia.
Participants of the march 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 Natives 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 explained.
“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. We currently have still so many pending cases involving NCRs and land encroachments in court and we hope that it will move to turn the court to the cause of our people,” Rety Anak Sendi of Sahabat Alam Malaysia shared.
The memorandum outlines key challenges and gaps that undermine the rights of Natives or Indigenous Peoples (IPs) 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 IPs rights and its connection to our planetary health.
Some of the issues highlights are:
-
Threats to Native Customary Rights (NCR) land and traditional territories from industrial extractivism activities (ie logging, oil palm and more).
-
While some of the recommendations are:
The absence of meaningful Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) before developments or corporate activities enter the NCRs.
-
The inadequate institutional protections and transparency regarding resource exploitations.
-
The erosion of traditional livelihoods, indigenous identity, and cultural heritage from encroachment .
While some of the recommendations are:
-
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 Native Customary Rights/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 stated that “The Sarawak Native rights memorandum is our attempt to capture the challenges, and the aspirations of our Sarawak Indigenous communities in regards 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 organizers of the march will be circulating the memorandum to all state ADUNs and the members of the Malaysian Parliament.
– END-
