Indigenous Women's Leadership in Malaysia

Temuan community from 3 villages (Kg. Tekir, Kg. Tering and Gebok)

Land is integral to the identity of the Orang Asli community in Peninsular Malaysia. The increase in land grabs at the expense of the Orang Asli rights has culminated in the community resisting through court cases, blockades and demonstrations. This video clearly describes the predicament of Orang Asli and land ownership as elaborated by Tijah Yak Chopil of Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Semenanjung Malaysia (JKOASM).

Empower's experience of conducting leadership programs for Orang Asli women has been very insightful. The initial engagement started in 2013, when a fledgling focus group discussion was conduct among 10 women leaders from Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Pahang, Perak and Johor. To date, Empower has managed to train 50 women with leadership potential from various villages in Peninsular Malaysia.

Land Mapping Workshop in partnership with JOAS in June 2016

Thus far the module for leadership training of Orang Asli women has been shaped through the close partnership developed with the women. Many different approaches were employed to engage the women in order for knowledge to be shared mutually. Methods such as story telling employing powerful narratives of past women leaders in their traditions were collected. Our favourite is a story relayed by Tijah Yak Chopil from her grandmother. 'Ken Tatau', possibly the first woman 'halaq' (shaman) among the Semai community was introduced in our training.

Fatimah of Kg. Mengkapoh, Pahang

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MAPARBEMPCO

During the 1970's, a land dispute between First Southern Land and the residents of Barangay Mapantig occurred. First Southern Land occupied all available tracts of land to the consternation of the residents of the area. People were driven away from their farms and some were even taken to court and imprisoned. Upon facing serious resistance from the company, the villagers gave up and some even moved to different locales in order to survive when the land was taken from them. When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform programme was implemented during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the villagers saw an opportunity arising to get back their land. However, the company applied for a deferment of 10 years which delayed further the implementation of the land reform programme. Finally in 1998, the Department of Agriculture decreed that the land being occupied by the Kenram Estate (the name of the plantation) would be subjected to agrarian reform. The residents who w...

A Library for Kampung Tering

Murni Bte Liga of Kampung Tering, an idyllic village in the outskirts of Kuala Pilah, has a burning desire. She is passionate about improving access to quality education for her community. She has often raised her concerns about quality education for Orang Asli children in meetings with authorities or civil society organizations. One of the issues that she finds problematic is the high attrition among Orang Asli children at primary and secondary school levels. In order to address the issue at her village, she decided to set up a functioning library which could be used by the children. Women from the village organizing the reading material for the library She noted the interest of mothers' in the village who want their children to improve their English language skills. She expressed her interest in running workshops on a monthly basis for her community. The workshops would focus on improving the language skills of the children who participate. Essay writing activities ...

Day One: Household Interviews

Meeting Mrs Panaso We reached our final respondent for the day, Mrs Panaso at almost 1 pm. Her house was a typical traditional house. It had no rooms, some wooden shelves inside and a lot of bundles. The walls were made of kalakat which is woven oil palm fronds. The fronds are woven and painted over with shellac to make it water proof. Oil palm the fronds are dried until they turn yellow and then used for kalakat. Mrs Panaso was a very slim woman of 60 with a shock of dyed brown hair. She is cheerful by nature and very accomodating. She was about to start her lunch of small dried fish, rice and fluffy brown dish of something I did not recognize. Mrs Panaso's deep well Her house had an open air kitchen which was a cheerful and warm place. She used fire wood for her cooking. She also had a deep well from which she obtained her water supply. The metal pump looked unwieldy to manoeuvre and I wondered how she managed. Mrs Panaso's open stove ...

Unseen Faces, Unheard Voices

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