IDENTITY

For most people belonging to a certain race, identity is not an issue. For it is because they are already known to belong to a certain group and their identity is not a problem. In case of Sarawak for example, an Iban when identified as such is not a problem at all, because he or she is known as an Iban.

But for the "Orang Ulu" communities, it's a totally different issue. The term Orang Ulu describes all the many ethnic groups lumped under this category, who live or come from the upper reaches of rivers in Sarawak. The term came about from 'outsiders' who did not know what race these people were when they came down rivers to buy supplies. In other words, due to a lack of name (identity) thus the Orang Ulu term came to stick to these people.

Reported history tell us this appeared to be the case, especially when leaders from these races identified themselves a "representatives of the Orang Ulu" during the Rajah Brooke reign.

The term had in fact been made official perhaps in one of the Sarawak Gazettes and thus making the term stuck to identify these minority groups.

Over the years though, lots of people from these communities have become successful in business, private employment and government sectors. Still, this does not help catapult the identity of these peoples.

Lately however, there's been effort to correct this, but at the time of writing this, the issue has not yet seen any decision yet. But, at the same time, many see the NEED to change this term into one that is able to represent the true identity of these groups of ethnic people.

We'll continue with this issue in "blogs" to come, for now this should give a brief background on why identity is paramount to these communities.

THE ABOVE PICTURE SHOWS WHAT AN "ORANG ULU" TRADITIONAL COSTUME LOOKS LIKE.

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...