CHAPTER 6

English for the Indigenous People of Sarawak:

Focus on the Bidayuhs

Patricia Nora Riget and Xiaomei Wang

Introduction

Sarawak covers a vast land area of 124,450 km2 and is the largest state in
Malaysia. Despite its size, its population of 2.4 million people constitutes less
than one tenth of the country’s population of 30 million people (as of 2015).
In terms of its ethnic composition, besides the Malays and Chinese, there are
at least 10 main indigenous groups living within the state’s border, namely
the Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau, Bisaya, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, Penan, Kayan,
Kenyah and Kajang, the last three being collectively known as the Orang Ulu
(lit. ‘upriver people’), a term that also includes other smaller groups (Hood,
2006). The Bidayuh (formerly known as the Land Dayaks) population is 198,473
(State Planning Unit, 2010), which constitutes roughly 8% of the total popula-
tion of Sarawak. The Bidayuhs form the fourth largest ethnic group after the
Ibans, the Chinese and the Malays. In terms of their distribution and density,
the Bidayuhs are mostly found living in the Lundu, Bau and Kuching districts
(Kuching Division) and in the Serian district (Samarahan Division), situated at
the western end of Sarawak (Rensch et al., 2006). However, due to the lack of
employment opportunities in their native districts, many Bidayuhs, especially
youths, have migrated to other parts of the state, such as Miri in the east, for
job opportunities and many have moved to parts of Peninsula Malaysia, espe-
cially Kuala Lumpur, to seek greener pastures.
Traditionally, the Bidayuhs lived in longhouses along the hills and were
involved primarily in hill paddy planting. Traditionally, the Bidayuh commu-
nity held matters concerning land close to their hearts as the land is looked
upon as a direct source of sustenance. In the same way, paddy planting
became a natural activity (regarded as part of Bidayuh life) and thus needed
to be treated with great care and respect. Today, the majority of the Bidayuhs,
particularly those living in rural villages, continue their agricultural activities,
but they are less involved in paddy planting. They have gradually switched to
planting cash crops such as rubber, cocoa, oil palm and pepper, in addition to
investing their time and energy in orchards that produce fruits such as durian,
rambutan and bananas and many vegetables (Minos, 2000, pp. 45–47). The

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/9789004314306_007

English For The Indigenous People Of Sarawak 103

main reason for the change in agrarian activity is that cash crops provide them
with better income.
Over the years, with better access to formal education, more Bidayuhs have
found employment in government offices and private businesses, most of
which are located in Kuching (Hood, 2006, p. 89). Indeed, in the 1960s, the
majority of Bidayuh parents began to believe that education was the key to
obtaining a job in the government service. In fact, nowadays, the two areas
in which many Bidayuhs are involved are teaching and health services.
Nevertheless, according to Minos (2000, p. 44), the Bidayuh community is still
economically backward compared to the other major races of Malaysia as only
about 10% of Bidayuhs, primarily those who are well educated and have exper-
tise, work for the government or private sectors, and only a handful of them are
practising liberal professions such as medicine, the law or accountancy.
In terms of religious belief, the Bidayuhs used to practice animism.
According to Minos (2000, pp. 117–118), the Bidayuhs can be considered ‘natu-
ralists’ or believers in nature. Minos further explained that, being land-based
people, the Bidayuhs who practised animism in the past paid respect to the
land, including the hills and mountains, the woods, the forests, the rivers and
many other things connected with nature and the environment. However,
nowadays, the majority of Bidayuhs are Christians, most belonging to the
Catholic or Anglican churches and a few to the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
The Bidayuhs’ conversion to Christianity began with the arrival of the first
Christian missionaries to the island of Borneo in the 19th century during the
Rajah Brooke regime. Hence, it is quite common nowadays to see one or more
churches in each Bidayuh village.
Regarding the use of languages, most of the Bidayuh speak languages
belonging to a common family of languages traditionally called ‘Land Dayak’
(Hudson, 1970); more specifically, it is called ‘Bidayuh’ (Rensch et al., 2006). All
these languages belong to part of the Austronesian family. There are five major
varieties of Bidayuh, sometimes referred to as dialects: Bidayuh Serian (tra-
ditionally called Bukar-Sadong), Bidayuh Bau (traditionally called Bau-Jagoi),
Bidayuh Biatah (encompassing dialects spoken in the Penrissen and Padawan
regions), Rara Bakati and Salako. Not all of these are mutually intelligible. The
Salako, though politically and culturally of Bidayuh ethnicity, speak a language
more closely related to Malay.

Bidayuh People and Formal Education

Earlier records show that Sarawak does not have a long history of formal educa-
tion (Noeb & Ridu, 2006, p. 11). Besides the Malay traditional religious schools,