Semai
Semai Women Making Progress
When she approached the microphone at an international conference in Kuala Lumpur, Fatimah Bah-sin wasn’t intimidated by the fact that she could not speak English. A part-Semai, part Semak Beri woman from a village near Kuantan, Malaysia, she wanted to tell the ASEAN Women’s Forum meeting about the problems she witnessed in her community. After […]
Oil Palm Prosperity
While some Semai emphasize retaining their ties to their natural forests, others accept, and value, forest-destructive practices that will secure for them the benefits of the consumer economy. A review in this website last Thursday discussed a journal article that analyzes the importance of the forest environment to three Semai communities in the hills just […]
Semai Place Names Help Preserve Forests—and Peacefulness [journal article review]
Semai names for places near their communities suggest their uses of the forests, their historical recollections, their spiritual values, and their commitments to maintaining a nonviolent society. Karen Heikkilä untangles these issues with a fascinating study of Semai toponymy, their understandings of place names, in a recent journal article. Heikkilä’s work provides a way of […]
A Malaysian Newspaper Revisits a Semai Village
Five months ago, a Malaysian newspaper, The Star, accompanied a celebrity to the Semai village of Kampung Ulu Tual and last week it published a story about a follow-up visit. The village is located in the Cameron Highlands, a mountainous region in the northwestern corner of Malaysia’s Pahang state. In mid-July, The Star sent a […]
How the Semai Repel Cockroaches [journal article review]
The Semai effectively utilize products from their nearby forests that give them health and economic benefits, and in the process they are able to preserve their traditional way of life. A journal article about a research project in Malaysia, published in 2012, analyzes an important aspect of their traditional relationships with the forests: the uses […]
Schooling for the Semai
A well-known Malaysian sports figure recently spent a day at a Semai village to find out the needs of the people and to highlight a report on the major development issues facing the nation. According to the Wikipedia, the sports star, Nicol David, is ranked as the world’s number one women’s squash player, and she […]
The Semai of Pos Betau
The New Straits Times, an English language newspaper from Malaysia, sent a journalist to the Semai village of Pos Betau in the Cameron Highlands last week to report on her impressions. As so often happens when people leave the comforts of urban life and venture into a remote area, the journalist was struck by the […]
A Semai Christmas
The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, ran a feature story last week by Ann Marie Chandy about the celebration of Christmas in a Semai village in Perak state. The author does not identify the village by name, nor does she indicate what percentage of the community is Christian. But her report conveys the charm of the […]
Semai Communal Lands Threatened
Malaysia’s Orang Asli believe that life must be based on nature in order to properly satisfy human needs, according to Anthony Williams-Hunt, a Semai lawyer. An article last week argued that, for the Orang Asli, the forest is their workplace, their shopping mall, their cultural provider, their playground, the source of their utilities, and the […]
Semai Beliefs about Snakes
“The python is considered a good snake and a source of energy for the Orang Asli,” according to Achom Luji, a Semai man from Kuala Lipis in Malaysia. Last week, the 63-year old man shared numerous stories about snakes and the ways the Semai think about them with a reporter from the New Straits Times. […]
