John Lowrie UK Cambodia St Helena

Traditional Birth Attendant "warming" the mother after childbirth to recuperate

Grand-Ma and unhappy child. by traditional Bunong house

Traditional dance troupe

Cambodia Mondulkiri Centre and Bunong Indigenous Minority

Stories of how remote groups of indigenous people must join the modern world.
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A topical and archive summary of the highlights of Nomad RSI and MIPAD and like-minded NGOs.

A Bunong indigenous community meeting, with typical onlookers.

My Take: Current and recent developments affecting Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples

In my article and blog "More to Cambodia than Angkor Wat" I explained that there are around 26 distinct ethnic minority groups who total just 200,000 in a country of 15 million. This in itself indicates that the odds are against them, even without factoring in that their vast traditional lands have been appropriated for unscrupulous exploitation.

There are two points that concern me and where I am still a lone voice.

1. These groups have never developed centralised top leaderships in the same way as other peoples around the world. Athough they are from the same group, or originated from it, and/or have had relations with their peers in the region they tended to have little interaction with each other. Instead each community evolved its own leadership. It is outsiders who have reached out to them.

2. Outsiders - whether government or non-governmental officials - have prioritised their own interests over those of indigenous people. This comes as no surprise when it comes to public officials but not to others with well-intended purposes. In the Cambodian language, Khmer, the name of one of the largest groups "Bunong" (or Phnong) actually means and is used for "primitive" or "savages". Where it is surprising - even shocking - is that human rights, development and conservation NGOs have all tended to operate in the same way. They believe that "they know best" and so rarely enable indigenous people to express themselves truly. Few give real effect to "Free, Prior and Informed Consent" due to language, educational and contextual differences., This is harder - but not impossible - to do with indigenous people. At times, they have pursued their own agendas at the cost of indigenous people, a process accentuated by the lack of co-ordination and development of shared interests within and across ethnic minority groups. Indeed there is evidence of too much dogma that has contributed to conflicts, instead of trying to explore agreements.

It is still my ambition for there to be a national conference to bring all these groups together. It's an idea I have pursued since 2010. So far few donors and no responsible authority have taken up the idea. (It needs support of more than UNESCO and one NGO so far.) For an academic insight in to the topics raised here, and of NGOs in Cambodia, please access Tim Frewer's papers - click on to one below.

One thing though has changed and is changing. Many young indigenous students are attaining higher education (like for example Ms Vanny Rath), helped by recent moves encouraging children to enrol at primary schools by allowing indigenous languages, not just Khmer, for teaching, The best students have proceeded quickly beyond Khmer, from their native tongue in to English and ICT (Information Communications Technology) skills. They are much more worldly; more able to self-advocate and more importantly in role-reversal in traditional societies they are able to return to communities to convey this knowledge and opportunities to elders. So today they are much less likely to accept the "parent/child" relationship that the ruling party imposes on them.

Despite the wholesale loss of their traditional lands* and [at times] misguided priorities of human rights, development and conservation friends, I hope that we can still help and facilitate indigenous people to be in charge of their own destiny.

* Story vividly portrayed in excellent film "The Last Refuge".

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Indigenous children often did not enrol at school because Khmer was the only language for teaching. Thankfully this has changed in recent years. Click for Video.

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CARE International was one of the first NGOs to support teaching in indigenous languages in schools, with UNICEF and others now helping too. Click for Video.

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Many children in Cambodia, especially girls in remote communities, drop out of school, due to distance from high schools. For some like these Jarai girls, safe dormitory facilities and personal sponsorships, enable them to graduate. Click to read more.

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After high school, they must go far to study at university in PhnomPenh, where again residential, study, and safe dormitories are needed. Click to read more. After graduating they go home with knowledge and worldliness previously lacking - new advocacy skills.

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Ms Vanny Rath - one of the first Bunong graduates with a degree from the Royal College of Agriculture. I helped her with her dissertation in rural health and nutrition. Click to read more.

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Great documentary filming of Kreung people in Ratanakkiri Province by Mourng Vet thanks to the Bophana Centre.

For some stunning of photography of Vietnam indigenous people, cousins of course of Cambodia's existing before modern nation states and borders, please go to this South East Asia Globe Article. One excellent article with great images is "The Bunong; Caretakers of Cambodia Ancient Spirit Forests".

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Recent publication - Frederic Bourdier

My colleague Fredric Bourdier, a renowned expert on indigenous people of South East Asia released a new book in November 2020. Here is how he introduces it, sentiments I full agree with. It is a fact that all Cambodia's ethnic minorities have been subjected to enforced "Khmerization" since, before and after the notorious Khmer Rouge regime.

"Shortly speaking, the present book goes against this still rampant but wrong idea that the indigenous peoples have been complicit with the Pol Pot regime. I restore the Truth, demonstrating that this idea is totally wrong, and that they have been, like most people in Cambodia, victims of this ultramaoist regime. It was important to put this forward, and as a scientist/activist, it was also part of my duty.

The title of the book is: “Time of war, time of revolt, with the indigenous populations of Cambodia (The first popular Khmer Rouge controlled area in Ratanakiri (1967-1971)".

During the 1960s, the northern province of Ratanakiri, mostly inhabited by indigenous populations, became a scene of bitter confrontation between Prince Norodom Sihanouk's regular army and Cambodian Ultramaoist dissidents. The ground was not virgin: against the royal power, indigenous popular uprisings, supported by the Vietminh troops broken in guerrilla warfare, had prepared the ground. The Cambodian guerrillas, future leaders of a terror regime, skilfully managed to take advantage of these local revolts and give them a whole new meaning, concealing from the populations of the province their intention to establish a totalitarian regime. It was in Ratanakiri that the first Khmer Rouge foundation was established in 1970.

Long after the civil war and once order was restored, the indigenous populations - who were among the first victims of Angkar (the revolutionary ultramaoist organization) - will be indiscriminately associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide. Such a misunderstanding is rooted in a denial of history mixed with an insidious form of ethnic xenophobia: it is irresponsible. To render memory and justice to the indigenous populations of Cambodia, it is important today that a more objective history being restored. This is what has been achieved in this book, following the trajectories of various long term field-works since the 1990s and the following up of a teenager from the highlands of Ratanakiri, his family and his clan."

Temps de Guerre

The UN has a good online learning tool to find out more about the rights of indigenous people. Click on the link here.

The Mondulkiri Centre Project and Website

The Mondulkiri-Centre and its website started in 2010 with the purposes set out below. The original idea came from Anthroplogist and Maternal Child Health Researcher Brigitte Nikles (Swiss), one of the Nomad RSI team. Nomad RSI was an international organisation founded by Laurent Pordié (France) registered in France and with only one other country programme in Ladakh, India.

Originally the aim was to promote and protect ancient traditional health practices. However in Cambodia due to the loss of indigenous people's traditional lands, livelihoods and culture, the mission diversified to promote and protect the rights [to exist] of Mondulkiri's Bunong ethnic minority and (their cousins elsewhere). It also diversified in to health and livelihood improvements. Please see my article on their historical and contemporary plight of recent years.

Nomad RSI was the first development NGO in the remote province of Mondulkiri and so took on pressing needs such as addressing serious malaria outbreaks where modern science interacted with ancient traditional health beliefs. Indeed a similar pattern observed by Brigitte when it came to traditional birth practices. These and other projects led to the desire to document and save Bunong knowledge for posterity by establishing the Mondulkiri Resources and Documentation Centre (MRDC). We hoped to extend it to other groups equally at-risk with a similar unit in Banlung, Ratanakkiri to cover Kreung, Tampoun, Jarai, and others. Our other projects included the need to find new livelihoods to replace traditional ones lost and advocacy skills to raise awareness to preserve indigenous culture. (Links below go to Annual Reports for more reading. Please also go here for more on Jarai and Tampoun.)

By 2013, Nomad RSI felt that both its original mission and its variants had advanced sufficiently for its beneficiaries to be able to take over in their own NGO - “Mondulkiri Indigenous People's Association for Development” (MIPAD).

Rare Medicinal Plant

I took this photograph as the flower was very pretty. Then we had to do research to find out about it and came across the most fascinating of Bunong stories.

The "Ginger" and Childbirth story