Despite this, stories about Orang Asli and Orang Asal rarely make it to the silver screen, leaving their younger generations sorely lacking the representation they desire in modern day Malaysia.
Wishing to right this wrong, a group of Orang Asli women between the ages of 18 and 30 have been creating short videos and films about their lives. They call themselves “Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli”.
With this year’s theme of “Indigenous Youths as Agents of Change for Self-Determination”, FMT Lifestyle sat down with the group’s programme coordinator Eliana Tan Beng Hui.
Pahang-based Eliana is of Jakun descent and has worked with the collective since 2021. She said that although it was tough going when they first started in 2018, the group has started to see a positive impact.
“Even when we appear at sharing sessions and talks, the impact is not only meant for the audience but for ourselves as well. Our team members want to rise up and be leaders in society,” she said.
In her opinion, most Malaysians know very little about Orang Asli simply because they’re rarely seen on social media or television – something she wanted to change.
“We have unique stories, so we decided to bring our issues forward in our films,” she said, adding that they were using ‘powerful’ social media platforms like Tik Tok and YouTube to get their messages across.
She said the collective was determined to focus on Orang Asli women specifically, mostly because women struggled to be heard. “There is always this message that women should stay in the kitchen and are not capable of being leaders.”
“Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli” is a collaboration between Freedom Film Network and young Orang Asli women from various tribes in Malaysia. The aim is to empower these women through storytelling.
Sharing their lived realities and hoping to secure better rights for their communities, they have produced a book called “Kami Pun Ada Hak Bersekolah: Wanita Orang Asli Bersuara” and a handful of short films, that have appeared in local and international film festivals.
Alongside her sister Diana, Eliana joined the collective shortly after completing her studies. She was only a 20-year-old studying accountancy at a local university then.
Her parents were not too pleased about it, she said, as she and her sister were young and had just started their studies.
“I come from Pahang. We weren’t used to coming to Kuala Lumpur, which, to us, was like the ‘modern world’. My grandmother tried to block me, saying that you can’t go far from home.
“She said, ‘No need to do this work, you should just stay at home’. Many elders in my village didn’t believe that a woman – let alone a young woman – could be a leader,” she said, adding that the community still had the tendency to listen to men more than they did women.
Now aged 22, Eliana said she felt a strong sense of responsibility to educate Malaysians on its indigenous peoples.
She said she felt blessed that she was able to further her studies in a discipline that she was genuinely interested in. Yet her longing to be her people’s voice was equally strong.
“I thought, ‘If not me, then who will lead and inspire my people?’, so that’s why I decided to work full time with ‘Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli’,” she said.
She also noted that while there were efforts to empower Orang Asli communities through improving their access to basic amenities and economic opportunities, not many projects appeared to empower the people in those communities.
“When we think of projects to do with the Orang Asli, we think of infrastructure and the economy, but we need to do more to empower them.
“Young people are the drivers of the future. They will be the ones bringing the identities of their ancestors with them to the future,” said Eliana.
Check out the Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli YouTube channel to find out more about the collective.
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