26 Chapter 3 | INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ PERSPECTIVE OF LAND and economic activities. Whether nomadic or settled, their relationship with the land is quite different from that of the other indigenous communities in Sarawak. Traditionally, the Penan do not cut the forest to establish customary rights to the land. Instead, they establish rights to resources within the territory they occupy. To appreciate the Penan relationship with the landscape, it is helpful to look at their nomadic lifestyle and how that relationship with the land is maintained when they settled down. 3.34 Nomadic Penan live in lean-tos, they call lamin.31 When they move, new lamin are built, and the former lamin site is referred to as la’a.32 La’a are not forgotten, they are frequently visited, and in the circular migration of a nomadic band a new lamin may be built at a former site or close to it. It should be noted that the term nomadic is in some ways misleading as their migration over the same territory is cyclical, returning to previously harvested areas that have regenerated, In other words, the same resource site may be occupied more than once within the life of an individual. 3.35 Penan refer to the numerous la’a scattered across the landscape of their home river system area as their uban,33 marks or footprints. When they refer to la’a as uban, they are talking about its cultural significance, past events, connections, relationships, and rights within an area and all that it encompasses. Nomadic Penan move within a home territory that could have, for example, river systems, as boundaries. As they migrate each band leaves traces through the la’a. Through years of migration, a band would have left numerous la’a over the landscape. 3.36 Surrounding the lamin or la’a is what the Penan call tana’ pengurip;34 the land that provides the essentials of life, food and other resources that they collect for barter trade or convert into handicrafts for domestic use or for sale. In the tana’ pengurip Penan stake claim to forest resources such as wild sago, rattan, fruit trees, ketepe (a wild rubber), various species of useful trees such as tajem trees (Antiaris toxicara) that provide poison for their blowpipes, trees to make blowpipes, to build boats, houses (for those who adopted the settled life) and to make coffin. Clusters of wild sago are called birai uvud, and stands of rattan birai wai. These are two of the most important resources that Penan would stake a claim to. In the la’a may be found fruit trees growing from seeds that their ancestors ate. Such fruit trees become common property of the group, and are inherited by its descendants. Ancestral graves may also be found in the la’a. All these serve as evidence of former occupation and of rights to the area and resources therein. 31 Lamin refers to any dwelling place; it also refers to a nomadic camp comprising several family huts or lean-tos. 32 La’a (or laa lamin in Western Penan)refers to a former site of a lamin tana’ or nomadic camp. A lamin may be occupied from a period of several weeks or months depending on the amount of food resources in the surrounding area. During that occupation Penan would have eaten all sorts of fruits and seeds thrown all over the camp. When these seeds become fruit trees, ownership resides with the group as a community. These trees also help future generations identify former lamin sites or la’a or laalamin occupied by their ancestors. 33 When writing about uban in the case of Western Penan, Brosius (2001:38) says that: “In its broadest sense, uban refers to an empty place left behind by the withdrawal of an object or being. For instance, pig tracts are referred to as uban mabui, young men often speak of former lover as their uban, and an empty place in a hut left by someone who is away or has died is referred to as the person’s uban. In the later case, and in reference to former lamin sites or other places where past events occurred, uban is an evocative and emotionally laden word.” With regard to Eastern Penan, uban carries the same meaning as described by Brosius for the Western Penan. 34 Tana’ =land and forest, and pengurip, from the root word urip=life. Tana’ pengurip can be defined as the land that provides food and other essential resources for survival, or foraging area. It conveys the same meaning as that of the Iban pemakai menua described earlier by Gerunsin Lembat (1994). chapter 3_a4.indd 26 7/5/13 6:43 PM