Sarawak Culture Sarawak Penan Culture People of the Forest : The Penan

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Ba Abang Ba Data Bila

Main Penan Settlements

Ba' Data Bila

Ba’ Data Bila is a remote Penan settlement which can be reached after an arduous seven and a half hour trek from the junction near Long Muboi. The logging road which at one time connected Ba’ Data Bila with the other surrounding settlements has been left in disrepair and is impassable for vehicles, with the exception of motorcycles. The inhabitants at one time provided fresh garden produce to traders but that has stopped since the road link had been cut. The settlement itself consists of nine completed houses, with a further eleven houses yet to be completed.

The majority of the people who stay at the settlement are mature adults, with the majority of  children and young people away at boarding school or working in the various settlements and timber camps near the area. The current settlement was established in 2000, but the area has always been the traditional ancestral land of the Ba’ Data Bila people. In a complex twist, the older generation of Ba’ Data Bila Penan had earlier migrated and settled with the Kenyah at Long Muboi during the 1950s and 1960s. However due to competition over land, the Penan were gradually forced to leave Long Muboi and return to their ancestral land. Its remoteness from the surrounding communities does have its advantages when compared to the other accessible Penan settlements.

Village life is regulated by a set of rules that are normally posted at the village chief's house, as was seen in Ba’ Data Bila. For various offences like drunkeness and fighting, hefty fines are imposed and the severity of the fines acts as a deterrent for anti-social behaviour amongst the villagers.

The flora and fauna surrounding Ba’ Data Bila is still plentiful and diverse whereas the other Penan settlements have to face the challenges of deforestation and the disappearance of plants and wildlife which are of strong ethnobotanical and cultural value. Like the other Penan settlements, the challenges faced by the Ba’ Data Bila Penan are similar. The common complaint heard was the difficulty in obtaining official documents like birth certificates and identity cards. The financial constraints of sending children to school was highlighted not only in Ba’ Data Bila, but in all the other settlements as well.