Indigenous groups

Brunei Darussalam : Dusun, Murut, Kedayan, Iban, Tutong, Penan

The indigenous minority tribal groups in Brunei are the same as in the neighbouring Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Dusan

Dusun constitute about 6.3% per cent of the population, and Murut around 6 per cent. Traditionally animistic, though many have converted to Islam and Christianity, they are also traditionally migrating swidden cultivators and collectors of jungle products residing in the forested interior of the country. The forests around the area where the Dusun live are very rich in biodiversity. Some of the flora found in the forest contain medical value. To find out more about Healing flora of the Brunei Dusun

The Kedayan are Malay-speaking and Muslim agriculturalists. Despite their language and religious affiliations with the ethnic Malay majority, Kedayan are regarded by Bruneians as closer in status to the animist, interior tribal groups because of a number of similar cultural practices. The Kedayan are famous for their music and dance.

Kedayan music is indigenous to the Brunei Malays and is performed by its people especially during special occasions. The music is accompanied by different instruments such as percussions, drums, gongs, and stringed instruments of different forms. The music also goes with ethnic dancers wearing the traditional warrior's attire.

A traditional Kayan longhouse dance played on the keluri (keledi) mouth organ with dance steps by Emang Ajang from Long Laput Baram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XidWJmrIgmQ



Longhouses

Iban, formerly known also as Sea Dayaks, are roughly 4.7 per cent of the population, live mostly along the border with Sarawak (see Malaysia). They are considered to have entered Brunei from Sarawak during the reign of the famous "white Rajahs" of the Brooke family, and it is probably for this reason that they are not considered by Brunei authorities and its Constitution as Bumiputera. Traditionally involved in head-hunting and living in longhouses, they have more recently become labourers and are becoming more urbanised.

The Penan are perhaps less than 300 individuals in Brunei and are forest dwellers who traditionally followed a nomadic way of life. They traditionally harvested and used blowpipes with poison-tipped darts to hunt animals. Most now live in permanent settlements and engage in year-round farming. 

Click here to find out more about the Penan people