Developing indigenous communities into Sakai in South Thailand and Riau (Indonesia)

Porath, Nathan (2002) Developing indigenous communities into Sakai in South Thailand and Riau (Indonesia). In, Benjamin, Geoffrey and Chou, Cynthia (eds.) Tribal Communities in the Malay World : Historical, Cultural and Social Perspectives. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, pp. 97-118.

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with two contemporary indigenous ethnic groups, who have come to be officially named Sakai. The first are a small Negrito population of ex-hunters and gatherers living in the southern region of the modern kingdom of Thailand. Their area was peripheral to the historical Malay kingdom of Patani. Today, their area is located in the Thai border province of Yala. The second group are a larger population of descendants of indigenous Malay woodsmen living in the peripheral forest of the Malay kingdom of Siak. Today, they live in the Indonesian province of mainland Riau, on the east coast of Sumatra, between the modern towns of Duri and Pekanbaru.

The southern Thai Negritos were traditionally nomadic hunters and gatherers. The Riau indigenes were sago- and (sometimes) rice-swiddeners and forest-produce collectors. They also engaged in gathering fish from the rivers of the area, and hunting and trapping wild animals. The Negritos were, and some still are, lean-to dwellers. The Sakais of Riau would traditionally build their houses as rectangular thatched rooms on stilts sometimes two metres high. The Negritos are usually considered to be genetically distinct from the surrounding populations and they speak Mon-Khmer, not Austronesian or Tai, languages. In the migratory-wave approach still widely followed in the region, the Sakais of Riau are considered to be “Proto-” or indigenous Malays; their languages are Austronesian, being Malay dialects. Both peoples are characterized as Orang Asli in certain contexts.

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