Skip to main content

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


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oil Palm Frenzy

One of the single most frustrating part of introducing myself as a Malaysian, is being told that Malaysia is "No.1 in Palm Oil!". Then I would say something caustic to wipe that enthusiastic smiles of their faces. Unfortunately, there is this pervasive belief that Malaysia is a wonderful model to emulate in terms of becoming a world class producer of palm oil. At present, Philippines is number 6 but unable to produce enough to meet its own domestic needs. It is still a net importer of palm oil.  The same sentiments were echoed by the officer in-charge of the Philippines Palmoil Development Council, Inc. (PPDCI) which is located conveniently in Tacurong. Here,  I obtained an investment brief pamphlet from PPDCI which propagates oil palm as "Asia's Miracle Palm Tree'. It was written by an academic, Dr Pablito P. Pamplona who expounds the benefits of oil palm as follows:- For small holders who constitute more than 90% of Mindanao farmers to generate from a...
1 comment
Read more

Dealing with illness

I arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia on 1st March 2013. This portends my second phase of the research. I must admit, I was verily prepared for Indonesia. Many upheavals and changes had left me quite emotionally drained. Nevertheless, the work must go on. I was instantly shocked at how much things cost in Jakarta. Well definitely not as bad as KL. However, it would be straining a limited stipend. Backpackers - 6 Degrees, Jakarta Fortunately, the gods of travel were kind to me which led me to 6 Degrees, Cikini Raya, Jakarta. It turned out to be a mixed blessing. I was very worried about the lack of privacy but I was pleasantly surprised by the pods concept available at 6 Degrees. Yes, even a curtain can make a great difference. Plus I was paying ridiculously affordable rates in one of the most expensive cities in S.E.A. Food - killed me Ah...food which was my undoing entirely. Fooled by a very fortunately experience in Yogjakarta where I had a smorgasbord of street food and survived. ...
1 comment
Read more

Learning to Mentor

Background I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a useful workshop organized by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The workshop was entitled 'Women Mentoring Development Programme' was attended by over 40 women from various fields: civil society, small and medium level entrepreneurs, training and education.  The training was conducted in English by two master trainers who have had experience in mentoring women entrepreneurs. They presented a comprehensive workshop structure which included personal mastery, skills mastery and process mastery. We started with discovering our basic personality attributes to understand our prominent characteristics. We were introduced to a local developed personality assessment tool the LEONARD Personality Inventory. It was quite interesting to discover one's strength and shortcomings based on the analysis.  I am going to highlight some of the elements of the worksh...
1 comment
Read more