Beyond Preservation: Relocation and Cultural Change Among the Dayak Kenyah
Maxwell Wijaya
28/09/2026
The Dayak Kenyah of East Kalimantan have experienced significant changes in their lifestyles over the past six decades. This paper follows the change through two of their communities, Pampang and Sungai Bawang, both having migrated down from the Apoinkayan interior in the 1960s. Interested in their shifting understanding of sustainability, the study examines ecological, economic, and cultural aspects. Before the migration, living sustainably meant keeping a balance with the forest, where rituals, animist belief and communal life all contributed to survival. After the move, sustainability shifted from an emphasis on ecological to economic and cultural. Furthermore, interviews with village leaders, elders, academics, and NGO workers reveal a gap between the future these communities were reaching for and the one they actually live in. Some of the gap comes from tradeoffs the community accepted willingly, in exchange for schooling, medical care, and paid work. The rest represents a misalignment between expectation and reality, including but not limited to conflicts over customary land, poor infrastructures, and an alienation from modern technologies like digital media.