The Kanyau Iban
The Kanyau Iban are a group of Iban who live on the border between Sarawak Malaysia and Indonesia on Borneo Island.
The Kanyau Iban consists of 108 households that live in the villages of Sedap, Kelayam, and Kampong Madang, which are on the upper reaches of Batang.
The early oral history states the Kapuas River is the source of early Iban migration. The first wave began in ~1800 heading north from the Kapuas River to the Batang Ai River. From there, the migrations continued to the Saribas, Undup and Skrang Rivers.
A rendering of oral history from the Kanyau people states they were led by Muban and Macan (1810-1820?). The river(Batang?) was named after a prominent leader of early settlers. A later migration in ~1860 to Batang Kanyau from the Katbas River in Sarawak occurred. Conflicts between the Brookes (the White Rajas) caused the Ibans to migrate back and forth across the border between the Sarawak and Dutch Kalimantan.
The Kanyau Iban currently trace their ancestry to the Kanyau Ibans who fought the Brookes. Charles Brooke was/is portrayed as cruel. They feel the Brookes turned the downriver Ibans into traitors. The downriver Ibans, a different tribe from the Kanyau, were from the upper Kapuas river valley.
The first war between the Brookes and their Iban supporters was against the upriver Ibans the Ulu Ai group. Many Kanyau Ibans were part of the Ulu Ai contingent.
The second conflict, the war at Sadok Hill, involved Rentap and Jubang who were defeated by Brooke and his Iban followers in 1861.
The third incursion was the upraising of the Balang and Unjop Iban groups in Katibas. According to this account, the Unjops’ involvement was sparked by the death of Raja Balang in Sibu. Raja Balang had been involved in a plot to murder the white ruler Rejang Resident J.B. Cruickshank and was executed by the Brooke forces.
Today, many Ibans from Batang Kanyau remember the stories of their great-great grandfathers who fought with Rentap against the Brookes. “Raja Beruk” refers to all three of the white rulers and means monkey king.
The essay continues with the differences between the Brooke’s and the Dutch in governing the territories. The British preferred the divide and rule idea ie separating and then defeating the Ibans. Yet, the Brookes also wanted to preserve the Iban culture and later, united all the Ibans. They preferred a “hands-on” involvement in Iban affairs.
This “hands-on” involvement included the taxation of the Iban people. Many rushed across the Indonesian border when the Brooke tax collectors came.
The Dutch virtually ignored the Iban border crossing preferring to concentrate on governing the island of Java. They felt Borneo was an empty space in no need of study. They saw no reason to concern themselves with the back-and-forth crossing of the border by the Batang Kanyau Ibans to visit their kin. Later, the Dutch tried to introduce a government of sorts by appointing members of each group as representatives of the Dutch government.
The Batang Kanyau were brought to the forefront during the communist and “Konfrontasi” episodes of the early 1960’s. The Batang Kanyau were not eager to involve themselves in a war between the Sarawak group where the Temenggung Jugah ruled and the Indonesian group governed by the communists. Both cross-border peoples were viewed as kin. Many Indonesian Batang Kanyau were forced to join the communist forces as scouts.
With the toppling of the Sukarno regime and the rise of the anti-communist Suharto, the Indonesians were forced to adopt a religion. The choice was between Catholicism and Islam. The majority of Batang Kanyau adopted Catholicism because they felt they could not give up eating pork which they had hunted for thousands of years and drinking rice wine which was deeply embedded in their culture.
Adapted from:
Iwan Meluia Pirous Contested Meaning of Nation-State in Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, vol 13, no.1 April 2011
Many thanks to Veronica Chang – Schmid
BorneoHistory.Net.
