Introduction

Cultural resilience is defined as “the ability to maintain livelihoods that satisfy both material and moral (normative) needs in the face of major stresses and shocks: environmental, political, economic, or otherwise” (Crane, 2010: 3). The concept of cultural resilience suggests that adversity can be overcome through the support of broader sociocultural factors, such as culture, which can buffer risk rather than based on individual characteristics alone (Belgrave et al., 2000; Clauss-Ehlers, 2008; Fleming & Ledogar, 2008; Kirmayer et al., 2011). Aspects of culture that contribute to resilience are “spirituality; harmony; collective responsibility; oral tradition; sensitivity to emotional cues; authenticity; balance; concurrent time orientation to past, present, and future; and interpersonal/communal orientation” (Belgrave et al., 2000: 136).

In a study of 196 First Nation communities in British Columbia, researchers identified the critical role of what they termed “cultural continuity,” later “cultural resilience,” comprised of six markers: (1) evidence of having taken steps or secured aboriginal title to their land, (2) rights of self-governance, (3) educational services, (4) police and fire protection services, (5) health delivery services, and (6) evidence of having established cultural facilities to preserve and enrich their cultural lives (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998). Strikingly, markers of cultural continuity were associated with significantly lower suicide rates (the 5-year suicide rate fell to zero when all six were present) (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998). This is especially significant given that the suicide rate for some First Nations peoples is nearly 800 times the national average (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998). Hallet et al. (2007) extended this work by adding a seventh cultural marker, native language use, and found that it was the strongest predictor of lower rates of youth suicide. When at least half or more of the community spoke their Native language conversationally, youth suicide rates dropped to zero (ibid.).

Recent trends point to a growing interest in resilience as a feature of cultural groups (Clauss-Ehlers, 2008; Fleming & Ledogar, 2008; Crane, 2010), particularly those from marginalized gender or ethnic groups (Clauss-Ehlers, 2010). According to aboriginal perspectives, much of what builds cultural resilience is outside the individual (Kirmayer et al., 2011). For example, “cultural resources for resilience” (Fleming & Ledogar, 2008: 2) include “symbols and proverbs from a common language and culture, traditional child-rearing philosophies, religious leaders, counselors, and Elders.” Some argue that resilience models need to be informed by indigenous culture and histories (Fleming & Ledogar, 2008; Kirmayer et al., 2011), particularly those outside the U.S. and U.K. (Kirmayer et al., 2012), which is what our study contributes.

The Eastern Penan village of Long Lamai in Sarawak, Malaysia, parallels what is happening to indigenous communities worldwide as indigenous knowledge is being lost with the rapid changes in their way of life (Brosius, 2006). Indeed the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture is one of the major shifts in human history (Lancelotti et al., 2016). There is a disconnect among elders passing on traditional knowledge to a youth that seeks to engage with contemporary science and knowledge using modern technologies (Gómez-Baggethun & Reyes-García, 2013). Myriad global forces affect indigenous communities from resource extraction, state and national policies and initiatives, economic and market influences, religious conversion, climate change, among others (Brosius & Hitchner, 2010). While the Punan of Indonesia are an outgrowth of the Western Penan of Sarawak, we focus on the Eastern Penan due to their historically distinct and documented characteristics (Needham, 1972), including linguistic distinctions (Soriente, 2014).

Our objective was to understand the concept of cultural resilience from the perspective of a community that has undergone rapid change in a short time and yet continues to maintain critical aspects of its culture as it adapts to a new way of life. To do so, we investigated (1) how the Penan define resilience, (2) how they see themselves in the context of global forces, and (3) how they have maintained aspects of their culture despite undergoing rapid transition. We discuss our results in terms of implications for enhancing the cultural resilience of indigenous communities.

Literature review

Five key themes emerged in our review of research on indigenous cultural resilience. First, community narratives and metaphors are essential for building morals and structure within the community (Kirmayer et al., 2011; Rumbach & Foley, 2014; Wexler et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015). Second, the maintenance of culture is essential to both a community’s identity and purpose, and plays an essential role in developing resilient individuals (Kirmayer et al., 2011; Allen et al., 2014; Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015). Thus, the criticality of culture to resilience is particularly important for indigenous communities compared to non-native communities due to the challenges imposed by colonization and other forces (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998; Hallett et al., 2007; Fleming & Ledogar, 2008; McMillen et al., 2017). Third, the adaption of traditional knowledge takes various forms—even when it seems knowledge is being lost (Kirmayer et al., 2011; Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Wexler et al., 2014; Martin, 2015; McMillen et al., 2017). Fourth, institutions and structures put in place to maintain the resilience of the culture convey significant political and social benefits (Abidi-Habib & Lawrence, 2007; Allen et al., 2014). Finally, studies discuss the importance of building indigenous cultural resilience in response to the key forces of development, globalization, and climate change (Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015) as well as the evolving space of information and communication technologies (Harris & Harris, 2011; Zaman & Yeo-Wee, 2014).

Stories as Metaphors and Morals

Indigenous communities have unique stories and metaphors that guide morals, philosophy, and sometimes even community rules (Kirmayer et al., 2011, 2012; Rumbach & Foley, 2014; Wexler et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015). These metaphors can take the form of origin narratives and mythical tales of the adventures of ancestors (Kirmayer et al., 2011) that outline the way relationships are viewed, along with concepts like peace, resiliency, and strength. For example, the indigenous Mi’kmaq people of Canada have maintained their language while practicing traditional customs despite colonization and forced assimilation (Kirmayer et al., 2011). Mi’kmaq oral traditions convey that Treaties with the British Crown were meant for knowledge sharing with Europeans, as “a true human being was one who could live in peace and friendship” (Kirmayer et al., 2011: 86). For the Guna Indigenous community in Panama, the community holds high the principles of an ideal called Bab Igar, which include respect, using the heart in decision making, and seeing all individuals as part of a whole (Apgar et al., 2015). American Samoans are governed by fa’a, known as the Samoan Way, a concept that encompasses the rights, responsibilities, and behaviors of its citizens (Rumbach & Foley, 2014).

Whether it is the Creation Story of the Haudenosaunee and how humans came to live on Mother Earth or the Inuit concepts of niriunniq (hope), indigenous stories, traditions, and metaphors provide a moral belief structure that buffers against vulnerabilities created by threats such as violence, unhealthy relationships, poor schooling, and limited access to land (Ulturgasheva et al., 2014). Cultural metaphors provide guidance and insights while also connecting people.

Indigenous Culture and Identity

Identity is an essential aspect of culture in indigenous communities (Kirmayer et al., 2011; Allen et al., 2014; Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015). In their Root of Resilience project with Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Kirmayer et al., (2011) found that indigenous ideas of resilience were rooted in cultural values and identities. For example, aboriginal beliefs about identity are grounded in one’s connection to the land and environment—both human and non-human.

For Inuit, Yup’ik, and Inupiaq communities, an essential part of bonding and identity development occurs when older men take young men on hunts and teach them how to successfully provide for their family (Ulturgasheva et al., 2014). In an Inupiaq community in the Arctic, engaging in cultural activities enhanced the youths’ “story of self,” reducing suicide rates (Wexler et al., 2014). In the Mi’kmaq community in Canada, revitalization of native culture along with maintaining a historical identity can repair damage in community resiliency (Kirmayer et al., 2011). Their language gives them access to local knowledge and concepts of conflict resolution specific to their particular traits, livelihoods, and community structure (ibid.). Cultural practices that relate specifically to leadership development (apprenticeships), personal development (life experience), and social network (youth groups, men’ s/women’s groups) are essential practices for resiliency. For example, acquiring knowledge of medicinal plants and therapeutic chants is a leadership skill that Guna leaders must learn through apprenticeships. This gives individuals a more profound sense of identity within their community and allows for their personal and professional development (Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Apgar et al., 2015). Strong ethnic and gender identities directly correlated with greater resilience to past trauma and learning about the history of one’s ethnic group identity can foster resilience (Clauss-Ehlers et al. 2006), as can a concurrent time orientation to both past and future (Cabrera & Padilla, 2004).

Traditional Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledge is a “living system [that] creates new knowledge, closely connected to day-to-day activities and social systems, and is reflected upon before acceptance and assimilation” Zaman et al., 2015a, c: 242). Traditional knowledge fluctuates between varying levels of use, adaptation, and loss in indigenous communities (Kirmayer et al., 2011; Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Wexler et al., 2014; Martin, 2015; McMillen et al., 2017). Inevitably, communities lose traditional knowledge as changes in the social and environmental climate exert different pressures on a community (Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Wexler et al., 2014). In the face of threats like climate change and globalization, researchers have found that communities become more resilient the more they rely on core values and culture (Allen et al., 2014; Ulturgasheva et al., 2014; Hooli, 2016), for instance, depending on traditional subsistence methods and sharing living spaces strengthened the resilience of the communities ( Wexler et al., 2014).

Similarly, natural adaption of traditional knowledge has shown promise across the cultural resilience research, while forced integration of knowledge seems to be more of a controversial topic (Martin, 2015). Regarding Inupiaq youth, greater versatility in the community’s resilience strategies developed when women expanded their knowledge and worked outside their gender roles by learning to hunt and clean carcasses. Martin’s (2015) case study of the Anaktuvuk Pass community shows a vast reduction in the number of caribous combined with the introduction of oil production to the area caused a shift in the economy from a primarily subsistence-based to a mixed economy. Income to purchase guns, freezers, and food increased the community’s resilience due to increased efficiency; however, knowledge of hunting and weather patterns was much diminished.

A study of the Ka’upulehu community in Hawai’i revealed that the loss of traditions like forecasting, storage, and traditional skills, decreased significantly over time due to the availability of food in markets, which resulted in reduced resilience (McMillen et al., 2017). However, other traditions like subsistence strategies, language, and cultural identity have been maintained or adapted to account for climate change and globalization, leading to increased community resilience (McMillen et al., 2017). This includes speaking in English and the local languages, fishing at night to reduce early morning demand, and traditional songs/proverbs being slightly changed to account for the new environment (Wexler et al., 2014; McMillen et al., 2017). The passing down of reindeer herding knowledge across generations among nomadic Nenets remains high as many youths choose herding as a livelihood (Forbes et al., 2009).

Indigenous Institutions

Resilience is enhanced by institutions representing the community in relation to outside changes (Abidi-Habib & Lawrence, 2007; Allen et al., 2014). Crucially, this could be a solution for communities that struggle with various threats to resilience, including low political standing. For instance, the Shimshal Nature Trust, an indigenous institution located in Pakistan’s Upper Hunza region, includes both household members and elected officers who represent the community and is designed to deploy traditional knowledge and science to mitigate global challenges. Not only did it successfully negotiate community rights when its land was designated as a national park, but it was also able to accumulate financial resources to mobilize people in the community to build a road (Abidi-Habib & Lawrence, 2007).

Indigenous institutions are successful in building resilience because they are trusted and their networks reach throughout the community, allowing prompt responses to disasters or other threats (Allen et al., 2014; Parraguez-Vergara et al., 2016) study of an indigenous Mapuche community in the Andean foothills of Chili found that over-reliance on outside (government) resources during a climate disaster reflected a loss of community resilience, which they suggest could be mitigated and resilience increased through the establishment of a local committee to work with the government to formulate emergency and long-term mitigation plans (see also Abidi-Habib & Lawrence 2007; Hooli, 2016). Government flood mitigation plans often exclude indigenous knowledge, which allowed previous indigenous generations to predict climate disasters based on local knowledge of trees, plants, and weather. The resilience of the Nenets in the Yamal peninsula of Arctic Russia is enhanced through the embedding of local nomadic needs into institutions to adapt to changing anthropogenic influences, such as controlling animals’ movement across the landscape (Forbes et al., 2009). Many indigenous Nenets still live as nomads and practice reindeer herding, despite a near collapse of other reindeer herding communities in the region (ibid.).

Development, Information and Communication Technologies, and Indigenous Communities

Indigenized development is defined as development that is not top-down but, instead, generated by community aspirations and engagement (Harris, 2017; Minkler, 2004) aptly makes the distinction between “community-placed” and “community-based” interventions, characterizing the latter as authentic relationships founded on trust where participants feel they have a meaningful and equal role in the project. Thus, the decision of when and how to develop one’s community involves choice and agency, and indigenous communities desire self-determination and collective rights, institutional participation, and representation (Hall & Patrinos, 2012). Information and communication technologies (ICT) for development are an avenue for development that can benefit indigenous communities if implemented with their own goals in mind.

ICTs represent a vital force in cultural change and offer rural development, disaster risk reduction, information empowerment, and poverty reduction for rural indigenous communities (Harris & Harris, 2011; Srivastava, 2012). The concept of e-resilience has emerged in Information Systems (I.S.) and is understood as the contribution of ICTs to community resilience (Heeks & Ospina, 2019). ICTs can be used to record and pass on unique culture and traditions, bridge the digital divide, and strengthen cultural transmission (Harris & Harris, 2011). While digital technologies are often touted for their contributions to economic development in Asia, users also desire ICTs for social purposes such as education and cultural transmission of knowledge - “the process of passing down tradition in order to preserve a culture” (ibid., p. 3). Access to ICTs in remote and rural indigenous communities is increasing, particularly through the establishment of telecenters that provide computing and internet facilities, resources, training, and services (ibid.) as “a means to expand equitably the telecommunications network and give rural communities the chance to adopt ICTs to their benefit, strengthen social ties within the community and economic ties with the outside world” (Mahmood, 2005: 205). However, there can be tension between ICTs’ role in promoting indigenous culture and rights and the barrage of outside information and negative cultural influences associated with them (Harris & Harris, 2011).

The Kelabit are one of Borneo’s isolated indigenous groups (Bala, 2002). Examining the role of ICTs and other forms of communication in the transmission of Kelabit and Malay language, history, and way of life, Harris & Harris (2011) found that family, friends, and church were all major influences, but that television plays a prominent role, particularly in transmitting Malaysian culture to the younger generation. Digital resources did not factor prominently as Kelabit websites are all in English. There is an absence of digital media in the Kelabit language, suggesting a need for digital resources to be accessible in indigenous languages.

Indigenous peoples such as the Penan of Malaysian Borneo have been described as being on the “receiving end of development” (Selvadurai et al., 2013: 72) that is driven by state authorities (Ibrahim, 2015). For example, there is very little unlogged forest left in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, primarily due to commercial logging and palm oil production (Aeria, 2005; Bryan et al., 2013; Straumann, 2014). In Sarawak, only 3% of forests are intact with legally protected status (Bryan et al., 2013). This impacts the Penan and the they land traditionally used for foraging and other forest-dependent livelihood activities (Selvadurai et al., 2013). The Penan are not anti-development (Ibrahim, 2015) but favor development that sustains their ecological relationships with the land and builds infrastructure like schools and utilities that furthers their goals for education and public services (Selvadurai et al., 2013).

Participatory Research Methods

Our community-based research process followed the community’s cultural protocols regarding free and prior informed consent, protection, sharing of knowledge, and following local customs (Smith, 2012; Stoecker, 2012).

Study Site: The Penan of Long Lamai in Malaysian Borneo

The village of Long Lamai is located in the interior rainforests of the Upper Baram region of Sarawak (Bending, 2006; Malone, 2014). Sarawak is Malaysia’s largest state, representing 38% of the land area of the country (Aeria, 2005). Fifty-percent of the state of Sarawak’s population is indigenous (Harris & Harris, 2011), and Long Lamai is among the biggest and oldest settlements of the Eastern Penan, one of 28 indigenous groups living in the state of Sarawak (Harris & Harris, 2011).

In the 1950s, the nomadic Penan began settlement under the first Headman Belaré Jabu, who was encouraged by Christian missionaries and the Malaysian government (sukarelawan) to settle (Bending, 2006; Sopher, 2010; Kanazawa, 2017). Long Lamai is located along the Ba’ Balong River near the Indonesian border and is only accessible by boat or on foot. Approximately 598 people live in Long Lamai (115 families) (Falak et al., 2016). Long Lamai was an ideal study site to examine the concept of resilience as the Penan there have experienced transitions from nomadic hunting and gathering in the Borneo rainforest until the village was first settled.

The Penan consist of two distinct cultural groups—eastern and western Penan (Needham, 1954, 1972; Brosius, 1991, 2001; Langub, 2020). Among both eastern and western Penan, the band or community is the primary unit of social and political identity (Brosius, 1997). Until permanent settlement, Penan subsistence was based on wild sago (Eugeissona utilis) and game. The nomadic eastern Penan bands comprised between 20 and 40 individuals; their forest settlements lasted from a few days to a few months, and they foraged over an area of fewer than 400 km2 (Brosius, 1997). The Penan are outstanding hunters and catch their prey using a ‘keleput’ or blowpipe made from hardwood carved with incredible accuracy using a bone drill (Caldecott, 1988). The darts are made from sago palm and with poisonous latex from the Tajem tree on its tip. Fewer than 300–400 Penan currently follow the traditional nomadic lifestyle (Langub, 1996; Brosius, 1999; Bending, 2001). However, many elements of the nomadic life remain embedded in their current culture and philosophies. Like other hunter-gatherer societies, they are egalitarian and their survival as nomads depended upon extensive cooperation and sharing.

Current subsistence in Long Lamai entails wet rice cultivation and foraging, often by the younger generations who collect vegetables and fish in the rainforest, as well as social activities such as church band practice and sports. They also help their parents feeding the animals, preparing food, and making traditional crafts. The Sunday morning church service is an important gathering, and in the afternoon a meeting is held at the community hall to discuss and plan for weekly activities.

We made three visits to meet with Long Lamai community elders in October, November, and December of 2015 before starting data collection in January of 2016. During these preliminary meetings, we discussed our research project, heard community perspectives, learned about mutual interests, arranged logistics, and defined the project scope. We worked closely with community leaders and hired a local research liaison from the community to the research team to strengthen the research relationship and reciprocity. All research team members underwent a cultural protocol training conducted by Long Lamai elders. The cultural protocols entailed a discussion of “community ownership rights and governance with respect to knowledge resources” and also the need “to respect cultural norms and values in the community” (Zaman & Yeo-Wee, 2014: 262; Zaman et al., 2015c).

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection entailed visual charting and audio recording of discussions at community meetings (n = 4) and in-depth interviews with community leaders (n = 3) to investigate the topic of indigenous community resilience in the context of the Penan as global citizens. Five community meetings were held (January 2016, June 2016, January 2017, April 2017, and January 2018), ranging from 2 to 3 h, each with 20–30 participants. Visual charting is a tool that can be used to communicate and gather information in a group discussion (Allred et al., 2016). The process of drawing visual charts engages participants in recording the meeting proceedings. The use of visual aids clarifies and simplifies communication and is therefore especially useful in meetings that involve multiple languages and varying language capabilities, individual backgrounds, and levels of education (Allred et al., 2016). Community resilience is about having sufficient adaptive capacity to draw upon when faced with turbulence, threats, or downturns. So, the visual charts represented community assets, challenges, and opportunities to understand vulnerabilities and capacities that can be drawn upon in times of adversity.

We asked the following questions asked during the interviews and community meetings:

  1. 1)

    how do the Penan of Long Lamai define resilience?

  2. 2)

    what aspects of Penan culture contribute to resilience?

  3. 3)

    what are the Penan of Long Lamai trying to be resilient against? What are the “stressors” or “drivers of change” that you want to combat?

  4. 4)

    how do you define a global citizen?

  5. 5)

    what culturally-based strategies have you used to cope, adapt, and respond to the stressors and drivers of change? What do you see as the key strengths of the Penan community?

The community meeting discussions always included two native Penan speakers as members of the research team. Often, an elder appointed a local young man to translate so that the discussion could be conducted in the local Penan language and also as a way to mentor young leaders in the community. For all community meetings, discussion was primarily in Penan, translated to English, although part of the discussion was also in Bahasa Malaysia. We photographed and digitally uploaded the visual charts from community meetings for thematic analysis based on the cultural resilience framework described above: metaphors of resilience, indigenous culture and identity, local knowledge, and indigenous institutions, as well as any emergent themes using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014; Saldana, 2015).

Additionally, interviews were conducted with the village Headman and two other elders in the community (n = 3). The interviews and community meetings were conducted in Penan, were audio-recorded, and transcribed into English by a native Penan speaker.

Results

We began by asking the community to share their conception of their community and all the essential elements and the challenges they face. Figure 1 was drawn together by elders and youths as a visual representation of the Long Lamai community. The chart includes dimensions of the Penan culture, such as the nomadic life and the Oroo’ language, a non-verbal sign language used to leave messages to nomadic groups as they traveled throughout the forest. The visual chart also shows the blowpipe, unique to the Penan, used for hunting game during the nomadic and semi-nomadic times and is still in use. The upper left corner of the chart shows the telikit game, which was used to teach young Penan men hunting skills as it entails spearing a rattan coiled into a circle and bounced or rolled along the ground as a way to simulate an animal charging toward or alongside a Penan hunter (Mackenzie, 2020). Below the telikit game is the word atui, and the drawing shows a musical instrument, a traditional tree drum, made of hollowed out bamboo and played by a person at each end. The atui was used during nomadic times for celebrations and continues to be used in the village for the same purpose. The visual chart also includes educational institutions such as the primary school and the kindergarten. Football (soccer) is an important recreational activity at which they excel. The church and community hall also feature prominently in the visual chart as indigenous institutions. The upper right corner shows the governance structure, with the primary leader being the Headman (Ketua Kampung) and other groups being project coordinator, boat association, women’s group, youth group, Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), business development, and the church Pastor.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Visual chart of Long Lamai (January 2016). Items in “bubbles” represent current challenges or future desires as indicated by the community

Full size image

The visual chart shows the community’s infrastructure, including the bridge, the powerhouse building for the micro-hydropower system, the irrigation dam, and the water pipe that supplies water to the community. The Penan now practice agriculture, so the paddy fields are shown along with tourism and handicrafts that they produce with materials from the forest. Tourism (homestays) and handicrafts are sources of community income, as is the boat association (Long Lamai is only accessible by boat and 4WD, a short plane ride and a boat, or by foot). Most importantly, the visual chart notes the natural environment, such as the forest preserve, which is a source of fruit, traditional medicine, and a place for prayer. The church is another important institution in the community and is featured in the visual chart.

Community members noted challenges such as the necessity of traveling further to find wild boar and the prized Empurau (Tor Tembroides) fish, which are both dietary staples. Long Lamai also has a telecenter, but it is no longer functional.The Maxis telecommunications company cell tower in the community no longer provides a reliable signal for cell service and data/internet (the signal goes down for days and weeks at a time). The community would like to have a teacher-training center for all Penan (not just locals) to further their education goals. Drainage during heavy rainfall around the longhouse (built by the government) is also a problem. There is no medical clinic, but they hope there will be in future.

Metaphors of Resilience (Petem Reken)

A community elder began the discussion of resilience by describing what this term means to the Penan, including how the word and concept translate in the Penan language:

We Penan [call] it Petem Reken, but it mean[s] many things that our elders know…it come[s] from two different words. First, Petem mean[s] if we see an angau (a stick embedded in the water) in the stream. Have [you] seen it move because of the water? It will still be there. That is what petem mean, the base not going to move even top of the stick moving it will [go] back to its position. So, it mean[s] the origin of the Penan.

Reken is like this pole. Even though I push it, this pole not moving. That is what reken mean. Petem can move but will still [stay] in the position. That how we should do anything in our village according to our planning and aim. Even if we face obstacle, we should stick to what can develop us. That mean by petem, and reken is like this pole.

The Penan definition of resilience includes some degree of flexibility (petem) and steadfastness (reken). Petem was described as bouncing back to the original position even though there may be some movement. Village elder and Project Coordinator, Garen Jengan, elaborated: “The pole of the house – adamant. The bamboo shoots overhanging on the river – it’ [s] moving, but [stays there].”

The Village Headman drew a diagram of Penan understanding of resilience that showed a car figure representing the community and the relationships between the Village Headman, community members, and those external to the community: “This car is the village…or a family.” The Village Head is the car’s driver, the community members are passengers, and headlights represent lighting the way through learning and education. “The car, they have a driver. This is the leader of the group…the passenger is the community in the village.” The wheels of the car represent knowledge internal to the community as well as those external to the community. “The wheel[s], this is the knowledge of the people. If the wheel[s] stop…we can’t reach our destination.”

The concept of being unified as a community and following the leader were important points as there are negative consequences from not doing so: “If the passenger disturb[s] the driver, it will cause an accident for the car.” A community elder went on to explain: “If [we] have unity in the village then you can reach further. I understand it this way, we are [a] collectivist culture, and we practice it based on the idea of community. That is what I understand about petem reken.”

Penan Cultural Identity as Global Citizens

In discussing global citizenship, the Penan described how it was vital for them to maintain their identity even in the context of global interactions and influences—which they often welcomed if culturally appropriate and beneficial to the community. We began the discussion of global citizenship by recalling that researchers from four countries/continents (Africa, Europe, North America, Asia) have visited Long Lamai for research purposes in the past year, including the first group of service-learning students from a North American university. They continued with the car metaphor when asked about global citizenship and what that means to Long Lamai: “We want to have this unity. Unity is the main attribute of global citizenship for Long Lamai…without unity we [are] not one family. All the community went in one direction. It might take long, but it’s moving forward… working together. Headman Wilson expounded that “Unity in the village is a fuel that make[s] the car move forward.” They emphasized the importance of “unity in the village…. pengepemung…unity.” Pengepemung is the Bahasa Malay word for unity.

Fairness and collaboration were also crucial concepts. There was a sense that everyone in the community should benefit from activities surrounding global citizenship and working with foreign visitors to their community. “Fair, if we eat, we all eat together.” Pastor Awang explained, “Now we have a light in our village. But not all of us have the light. Only half get the light.” Then the translator further explained, “For now, half of the village get a light and half [are] not getting light. If possible, they want it to be fair and they want everyone [to] get the electricity.” The narrative used to describe what it means for Penan to be global citizens included “adil,” which means fair in Bahasa Malay, and “pendidikan,” which is the Penan word for collectivism. Also, Pemekat ha’ eh kua,’ which translates in Penan to “good outcome for all of us” in the Penan language. Puun olé éh kua’ngan lu’ bé. A Village elder went on to say:

Whatever we have we should share, as it will be fair. Because it is important for us…our children who go to school…they will get much more knowledge…our children who go there bring the knowledge back…not only the children but also our elders. It will bring benefit to all of us, to make our village move forward… the education...resilience because we collaborate with people around the world. We get a bit knowledge in many aspect[s]. That’s how we can bring improvement in our village and bring us forward in our unity. [The] main thing is unity.

Six central principles regarding Penan cultural identity emerged from this discussion about the Penan as global citizens: (1) unity, (2) fairness, (3) cohesion, (4) collective decision-making, (5) benefits to all, and (6) education and learning for advancement. Being a global citizen can help the community move toward its collective goals. However, in engaging with researchers, tourists, or other outsiders, it is important that the six core elements of the Penan identity are not compromised in the process: “All people have a say in what could affect them. It is not an individualized community” (Lerroy Lemen).

At a community meeting, an elder described noted: “We as a community will face many challenges along the way to achieve advancement. Global citizenship [is] when we collaborate with others.” The Pemancha [Paramount Chief] (Henneser Uning Bong) stated the critical role of education succinctly: “Learning is continuous process; people stop learning when they stop breathing.” The village Headman went on to explain the concept of unity and collective decision-making: “If want to go faster, go alone. If want to go further, go together.” He went on to describe why safety is so important in the context of collective decision-making, again using the car metaphor:

Even if light is green, [you] have to look around and [you] may have to wait if there is a car in front. Guide and go slowly once it is safe. If it is not suitable for us, [it] may have [a negative] social impact on community. When you think it is safe, then you move so that all the people can move together safely. [We] aim for development, but if you rush in, it may give you a sudden change or impact on the people—leading to a negative impact on the people. You have to wait to be safe.

James Lalo stated during the April 2017 community meeting that it is his “mission, even from an early age during my primary school education days, to see Penan as being united and resilient (Petem Reken) – all this is what has brought us to where we are today. We have made headway in our life as a Penan, when compared to the early days of nomadic life. But this is just part of our journey, we need to continue our journey.”

Fairness and unity are achieved through established mechanisms for communication and handling internal conflict. The weekly community meeting held after church service on Sundays is used to address internal conflicts that may occur. Fairness is also realized through joint decision-making regarding the rotating system for homestay and boat operators for visitors to the village. Although, some researchers have noted differences between youth in the community who have been exposed to external influences and favor rapid tourism growth and development in contrast to elders who are more concerned with the welfare of the community and emphasize sharing and following local rules (Falak et al., 2016). Sharing is a resource for resilience as Lerroy Lemen explained: “You have to take a boat to get to the road, which is good because we have a transport community. The income is shared among the group (boat transporters), and we are moving together economically although it is slower than if it was not that way.”

Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledge encompasses “generations of experimentation and innovation which has been carried over orally through the years and now serves communities as a rich source of tacit and implicit knowledge” Zaman et al., 2015d: 171). For the Penan, forests are vital to their survival—both past and present (Langub, 1996). James Lalo described examples of Penan indigenous knowledge. Some vines that grow on trees in the forest contain water for drinking. The Penan can differentiate the poisonous vines from those that are safe to drink, keeping them hydrated. Also, insects denote the beginning and end of the month, and birds are used to predict the seasons for the fruits. The vae (people other than Penan) use a compass to navigate in the jungle. However, the Penan way find in the jungle based on hills and valleys. Garen Jengen said simply, “If you don’t know about your [forest] origin, you are not a Penan,” and James Lalo Kesoh went on to say that “Penan knowledge is stored in the jungle.” Elder Toreng Gia explained, “We people in Long Lamai are very serious on protect and preserving our land and water.”

The Penan of Long Lamai have a complex botanical knowledge of plants of the forest that is currently being documented using eToro, which is an “activity-based knowledge sharing and mentoring journey that links community elders and members of the younger generations in grooming future guardians of the rainforest” (Zaman et al. 2012: 2). A Toro journey is a passage into the rainforest that male Penan youths take, whereby Penan elders impart their knowledge about forests and stewardship. During Toro, the younger generation learns the competencies needed to locate water sources, hunt, forage for food, and build shelters (Zaman et al., 2013; van Gevelt et al., 2019). Building on this traditional nomadic practice, eToro is an initiative that uses digital technologies to preserve the indigenous botanical knowledge of the Penan (Zaman et al., 2013). The eToro: Indigenous Botanical Knowledge Management System for the Penan is based on indigenous knowledge, such as how to build a lamin toro, a temporary hut that was utilized during nomadic times, or how to play traditional music instruments such as the pagang or keringot. In collaboration with the Long Lamai community, researchers are developing a digital content collection and management system that can be utilized on mobile devices (Zaman et al., 2015b).

For the Penan, stewardship is sheathed in the concept of “molong,” which is dually a conservation ethic and demarcation of ownership of a particular resource. Examples of molong include harvesting fruit from a tree rather than cutting it down or leaving smaller shoots to grow by harvesting only the largest fronds of rattan. Oroo’ is the sign language of the Penan and molong is denoted by the identifying sign of branches in the shape of the letter “Y” placed next to the sago palm or durian tree (Davis et al., 1995; Zaman et al., 2015a). The Oroo’ sign is a public statement of ownership and “is the equivalent of a private property sign that reads ‘please share wisely’ rather than ‘no trespassing’” (Davis et al., 1995 p. 48).

The Oroo’ sign language that was essential to communication between groups of Penan traveling throughout the forest during the nomadic life has evolved into creating drawings and digitizing the Oroo’ signs and working with youth in the community to utilize Oroo’ in modern communication such as text messages (Plimmer et al., 2015; Zaman et al., 2016). Researchers are working collaboratively with the Penan “to systematically digitalize the complete signage language, which will provide the Penan with a modern technology to uphold and transfer their cultural heritage” (Zaman et al., 2016: 7). Thus, indigenous knowledge is not static but ever evolving as it is transferred and adapted between generations.

Indigenous Institutions

The school, church, and egalitarian decision-making structure of the village are the leading institutional structures and feature prominently in Long Lamai. Leadership was also a crucial part of how the Penan define resilience. “What makes it resilience? Leader in the village. Resilience is the leader in the village.” The leader is also the one who has responsibility for the lights and the steering wheel. “The light is there because of this leader. This [steering] wheel [is] also controlled by this leader.” The leader is important to give direction to the community as he can steer the car down many different paths. “The community is inside and they follow the leader.” This was an imperative emphasized by the Village Head and another Long Lamai elder: “they need to follow their leader…because the leader brings them to be united…because no matter how many wires are inside the car, everything is controlled by this man [the leader]. The leader of the car, the driver… people who follow the instructions of their leader can reach their destination.” The Village Headman went on to explain the importance of education and agency of the community, “[Outsiders] must follow the guidance of the [Penan] people. Follow the guidance of the [Penan] leader. That’s why we need a light. People in this car can’t see sometime[s]. They use the light to see the path. From there, we can see somewhere else, and we also can see the edge.” This illustrates the need for strong leadership so that the direction the community proceeds is the right one and they can see the limits. Thus, the community leader keeps the interests of community members and the guidance of the community in mind at all steps in the process.

The egalitarian governance structure of Long Lamai is comprised of:

  • Joint Community Meeting – takes place every Sunday in the church; planning village activities; discussing internal community problems (e.g., interpersonal conflicts), interaction and joint projects with other communities; requests for externally initiated projects within the community (e.g., visits and research proposals from foreign researchers, etc.);

  • Council of Elders - consists of the Headman, the Pastor, and the Secretary of the council (elected). It is at the heart of the decision-making process, the backbone of the community, consisting of entrusted individuals with responsibilities not only with development initiatives but also in keeping the unity and the knowledge about “the Penan way.” Each of them is responsible for organizing and reporting to the community on issues from their own “domain.”

  • Women’s section – planning activities related to their role in the community, including educating the young women while respecting and preserving Penan traditions.

  • Youth section – organizing and planning their activities. Entrusted as the energy of the community, its future leaders – educated, monitored, and advised by the Men’s section.

  • Headman – appointed by the state government, approved and trusted official representative of the community. He is vested in legal power, although the community rarely resorts to the state legal system to solve internal conflicts.

  • Pastor – trusted guide on morality; vital role on keeping the unity of the community and educating and preparing the young.

  • Ad-hoc committees to monitor and report on specific issues (e.g. projects, activities, etc.)

Schools and education opportunities feature prominently in Penan views of resilience. Long Lamai has a pre-School/Kindergarten that was started in 2010 with the assistance of the Borneo Evangelical Mission. This school provides instruction in Penan, Bahasa Malay (the national language), and English, employing local Penan-speaking teachers. In this way, they have been able to embed local language learning and use at an early age, which might otherwise be lost (in later grades the languages of instruction are Bahasa Malay and English). Nevertheless, the erosion of the Penan language is still occurring. One young adult in the community, Lerroy Lemen described:

I can see they’re kind of losing it because they’re not really speaking Penan but more of a Malay language. Their language is influenced by other languages. I think it is because of the influence from technologies and social media and also going to the city, where there is influence. They have influence from the television. For preserving the identity of Penan [it] is bad but in term of harmony and diversity then it is a good thing. We are using Malay language and English language and it’s building a diversity of life. I have a mixed feeling about it, but I wish we could preserve the Penan language…35% of words they use in conversation is non-Penan. Penan don’t have a word for mobile phone or computer but it is okay to borrow it. [For example, the word] help in English, and in Penan it’s yan and B.M. [Bahasa Malay] it’s tulong. But people are more likely to use the B.M. word. We don’t use many Penan words anymore.” Zaman et al., 2015 reported, “this phase of the workshop was without doubt the liveliest activity, where all participants engaged in writing SMS, reading others, laughing out loud and replying promptly. Within less than 15 min 89 SMS texts were created, with one third in Malay and the rest in English.”

Despite the extinction of many indigenous languages worldwide and the challenges described above, the Long Lamai community has still maintained their spoken and written language (Penan) and embedded that learning into their educational system Crystal, 2000; Nettle & Romaine, 2000; Wurm, 2001; Dalby, 2003; Harrison, 2008; Durning, 1992: 7) states that “Encoded in indigenous languages, customs, and practices may be as much understanding of nature as is stored in the libraries of modern science.” Thus, many dimensions of indigenous culture are lost as languages die. Indeed, linguists argue that the primary way to perpetuate a language is to acquire new language learners (either members of the community or outsiders), without whom language loss is inevitable. One of the challenges is the Penan language orthography, which has no standardized spelling system. The Long Lamai community initiated a process of re/writing the Bible in the Penan language that the youth can refer to as a source for standard spellings.

The Headman of the village of Long Lamai, Wilson Bian Belare’, brought the concepts of resilience and global citizenship together when he returned to the car metaphor: “Every part of this car play[s] its role to make it a car. Every single thing make[s] it move smoothly. Any project [that] will come [to our community], it has to be agreed from our discussions through consensus. We don’t need to follow [exactly] what other[s] did – we need to do what we need to, depending entirely on our readiness. Faster is not always the safest path.” Thus, the community has to decide on the pace of projects and changes to make without allowing itself to be subjected entirely to others’ influence. This will also be the way to vouchsafe safety, unity, and the sovereignty of collective decision-making. Thus, before adopting a new idea, project, or initiative, the Penan evaluate whether and to what extent it would impact their community values.

Another aspect of institutions and governance is the legal status of the Penan in relationship to the forest. Native Customary Land, Sect. 2(a) of Sarawak Land Code, is land in which native customary rights, whether communal or otherwise, have lawfully been created before the 1 January 1958 and still exist as such. The Sarawak Land Law stipulates that indigenous people have rights to land if they can prove they have lived in or used the lands prior to January 1, 1958. Thus, Penan land rights are only customary rather than legally recognized. To address the lack of documentation, maps of Penan ancestral lands were completed in 2017, covering 10,0002 km of Penan territory in the Miri and Limbang Districts of northern Sarawak. The set of 23 maps created by the Bruno Manser Fund in partnership with Keruan, a Penan organization, identifies important cultural and historical markers such as mountains, rivers, streams, tajem trees, hunting grounds, and burial sites (Cannon, 2018). The maps provide written documentation to help Penan establish sovereignty over their land “as timber companies march closer” (Cannon, 2018).

Development, Information, and Communication Technologies and the Penan

Here, we discuss two development interventions – a road to the village and ICT—through the lens of cultural resilience. The Penan view development as something deliberate and measured. One elder declared that we: “can’t rush for development” at a 2018 community meeting. Such a road represents development and the potential for considerable shocks to their culture and community, so their desire not to pursue the proposal is relevant here. An elder stated: “[Communities] which have road, what progress they have? We want to meet and [be] equal but Long Lamai [is] without road. We want to catch up with these people, but we [want to] do it even without a road. [We] just depend on this river. That is our real destination. We want to create something equal to those [communities] having road, but without having a road. We want to try that.” The Penan want to progress and have equality with communities with roads but do not view a road as central to the progress they would like to see. Toreng Gia further explained:

We have to make wise decision[s] on allowing any development project. I have seen in the past few years, people are asking to bring the road but people around here they think they are not ready yet, because of several reason like safety. Let’s say government brings the road then the alcohol and drugs are just [as] easily to come in [to the village]. So, we think that we are not ready, that’s why we stop that one [road] for a while. In [the] future we might allow it [the road]. For Long Lamai I think we are not ready yet. That’s why we block the road.

There was a strong sense that building a road to the community could fracture the community. Headman Wilson said that, “What we have seen is that we are moving forward. In the car, we are moving forward, no matter [whether] we have a road or not. We don’t want to separate [our village]. We need to [be] united, which is strong. That is what we want.” Lerroy Lemen shared that: “I think we are still in a transition from nomadic to settled life still…our life is not really settled yet. If we don’t use collective decision making and we allow the road to come the gap between the rich and the poor will grow. Anything can come in for business purpose via the road, and the poor won’t benefit from this or any economic gain. Now you have to take a boat to get to the road, which is good because we have a transport community. The income is shared among the group (boat transporters) and we are moving together economically.” This economic impact is reinforced by another observation at the community meeting: “… now you have to take a boat to get here [to Long Lamai]. So, it’s giving us the money indirectly by using the services here [in Long Lamai]. In a way, we can gain some (income) when visitors come here.” The ecological impacts of road construction are also of concern to the Penan. Toreng Gia noted that: “We people in Long Lamai are very serious on protecting and preserving our land and water. Even though some people will say [that a] certain project will bring development to our society, if it could destroy what we protect, like land and water, that could be a problem for our community.”

Roads transport people but can also be vectors of undesirable impacts on the community. As Lerroy Lemen explained: “Here in Long Lamai we’re not really exposed to outside influences. [In] other communities you can access by roads and they have different lifestyles. In Long Lamai you can’t bring in alcohol and rarely [will] you see smokers. It’s not allowed [in Long Lamai]. That’s one of the reasons the road is not here. If you find a community with a road you can find alcohol and maybe weed and also smokes. [We are] trying to avoid those bad influences and to make sure we are ready for the change to come.”

Sarawak state agencies have negotiated the proposal for road access to Long Lamai several times through Ezra Uda (a local community member and currently Sarawak State government civil servant) and through the local member of Sarawak State Legislative Assembly. The proposal has been discussed in community meetings, and a unanimous decision “to hold the proposal for the time being” has been made and announced (Penan usually avoid taking a hard stance, so the community never gave an impression that they “rejected” the proposal).

ICTs are regarded as one of the main drivers of globalization (Harris & Harris, 2011; Heeks & Ospina, 2019). Garen Jengan lamented: “As you know now it is touch-screen society like what we can see, of course, the answers they can access through touch-screen, that [is what] they want. [In] Long Lamai before we had the telecenter, only the old, old people [are] here. After we had the telecenter, then I talk about how to get the youth back…they prefer to stay in town because they want to stick to this screen touch. In order to interest them to come back [to Long Lamai], we have to have jobs for them. Out of the ICTs, we employ them like what we have around here now.”

Discussion

We address how the Penan of Long Lamai define cultural resilience, how they see themselves in the context of global forces (Penan as global citizens), and how they have undergone a rapid transition (Lancelotti et al., 2016) from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural one and enhanced their resilience. The Penan define resilience as the ability to remain steadfast on their course of life in their collective decision-making towards the pursuit of a better world that promises fairness for everyone. Sources of resilience in Long Lamai are linked to Penan cultural identity and values, and they rely on internal help before seeking help externally. The Penan community has to be allowed to decide their own pace. The Penan are patient and cautious while considering the potential impact on the community from the very start—this is the precautionary principle of “first, do no harm.”

Consistent with past research (Ibrahim, 2015), we found that the Penan give strong emphasis to education as a way to maintain and preserve culture and advance the community. This is significant given that education is a protective factor in building resilience (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998). A key contributor towards resilience is also the Penan’s highly focused efforts on integrating indigenous knowledge management at every possible instance, maintaining a link to collective wisdom, and the insistence on ensuring the passing on of this knowledge to the younger generation. An example is the carrying on of nomadic traditions such as the telikit game and playing the traditional musical instruments such as the atui, adapting these nomadic rainforest traditions for village life, a key factor in cultural continuity (Kirmayer et al., 2011).

In reflecting on the meaning of resilience, the Penan use metaphors to describe the concept. While the car metaphor may be unexpected given the lack of support for road connectivity, it represents the Penan desire to buffer drivers of development. Just as the Inupiaq youth describe resilience using an image of a “willow bending in response to the icy western wind” (Wexler et al., 2014: 695), so the Penan describe a rooted branch bending but withstanding the current of water. The Inupiaq stated, “Our roots, our culture makes us strong. That is resilience” (Wexler et al., 2014). We similarly found that Penan notions of resilience are rooted in cultural values and identities (Kirmayer et al., 2011).

Thecar metaphor to describe community interactions and identity was both surprising and yet not. The villagers use motorized boats and 4WD vehicles to get to nearby villages to visit family, obtain medical care, and attend school, among other reasons. Yet, they have not prioritized roads and cars becoming prevalent in the village since road connections to nearby towns could encourage further development. Also, this metaphor is not purely indigenous—it represents elements of contemporary artifacts as well. In creating the metaphor, the Penan engaged in co-creation and reflexivity by using the car artifact as a metaphor that was easy to visualize in the discussion.

Our results reveal that indigenous knowledge forms are not fixed; in fact, Brosius emphasizes that “what matters is not how much Penan know about the landscape they inhabit, but how they position that knowledge, and themselves, within the broader contours of power” (2006: 136). When indigenous knowledge is effectively synergized with scientific knowledge in the form and manner that a community desires to act upon results in a greater sense of empowerment and can increase resilience (Srivastava, 2012; van Gevelt et al., 2019).

The Penan of Long Lamai have enhanced their resilience by adapting to change through continuously engaging in dialogues and discussions with all parties concerned. With their civilization threatened and the uncertainties in unconsidered adoption of contemporary notions of advancement, they tend to be cautious. Attempts by government officials to build a road have not yet materialized in Long Lamai because the need to have road access has not yet been regarded as a high priority by the Penan of Long Lamai. As illustrated by their car metaphor, leaders' readiness to drive change has to precede the ability to navigate when the road becomes present. Further, while road construction is often regarded as a vital step in economic advancement and poverty alleviation, the negative consequences of rural roads have been well documented (Beazley & Lassoie, 2017); ultimately you “can’t eat a road” (Yeneabat & Butterfield, 2012: 134). Ocay (2015) describes it as the “ethics of refusal.” The importance of having a leader who projects resilience and, as a result, gains the respect and trust of the community remains a significant factor. The Penan have developed in a manner consistent with their values, including a micro-hydropower system that produces renewable energy for members of the village and they maintain a telecenter that, when it was operational, provided indispensable internet connectivity and access to information and education for villagers.

The Penan of Long Lamai do not face a conflict with seeing themselves as global citizens. Their connection to traditions and maintaining their core Penan values are seen to be most important. The Penan express moral and ethical values, for example, through fairness and unity. The desire to ensure that no one is left out in the course of advancing the community is extremely salient to them. They are willing to forgo the benefits and comforts that come with technological advancements if aspects of fairness and collective well-being are compromised. They also accept obligations in principle towards people in any part of the world, which is explained by their global citizenship conceptions. They adopt a methodical approach of fostering internal communal strength and unity before reaching out to others and network building. Being global in outlook calls for responsibility to ensure that no one is disadvantaged, with all relationships dealt with care. This confirms the critical role of community unity in building resilience (Belgrave et al., 2000).

Despite the Eastern Penan being criticized by the government for being anti-progress (Brosius, 2006), they remain determined to protect what they have stood for over many generations--, to preserve their cultural identities and their intricately connected link to their environment. The Penan adapt and maintain fundamental aspects of their culture and identity in a fast-changing world while seeing the emerging world as an extension of their existence, without succumbing to the currents of change, but rather advancing by riding the wave of change. Staying firmly directed towards a common vision, the Penan of Long Lamai continue to tread the path of a global citizen, relying in full faith on the wisdom of their leadership and their age-old values system as a guide despite the enormous challenges faced.

Tenure security for present and future generations are at the core of Penan identity and resilience (Ibrahim, 2015). Approximately 80% of the rainforests in Malaysian Borneo have been impacted by logging from 1990 to 2009 (Bryan et al., 2013). The challenge stems from a failure to recognize “customary law (adet) of the Penan that includes farmlands, traditional hunting and gathering grounds, and burial grounds forming the ancestral domain known as pengurip rather than only recognizing indigenous farmland as NCR land (Wong, 2013: 4).

Another aspect that impacts Penan resilience is outmigration from the community, similar to that noted by Brosius (2006), Zaman et al., (2013), and van Gevelt et al. (2019). Our results demonstrate that young people migrate out of Long Lamai for secondary education, economic opportunities, and the “allure of urban life” (van Gevelt et al., 2019: 2). With more time away from the village, there is a sense among both elders and youth have less time and interest in learning traditional nomadic practices and indigenous knowledge, consistent with van Gevelt (2019). However, community-based and participatory information and communication technologies such as eToro and digitizing the Oroo’ sign language hold much promise for fostering intergenerational transfer of indigenous knowledge (Zaman et al., 2015d, 2016). Our results emphasize the role of cultural resilience as a way forward to allow younger generations to better cope with future scenarios.

Conclusions

The role of culture in indigenous communities’ resilience cannot be discounted, and we encourage future explorations of resilience to incorporate the critical dimension of culture (Norris et al., 2008). Much can be learned from the Penan experience that might be applicable to indigenous communities struggling for resilience against both swift and ongoing perturbations. The Penan of Long Lamai persist on the journey ahead as global citizens and strive to maintain their cultural resilience. They are banking on education as a powerful influence. Their vigorous pursuit of the pathway towards resilience in their collective community by steadfastly adhering to their core traditional values remains their hope to successfully withstand the uncertainties and the tides of change. Their progress and abiding resilience have been noteworthy. This community that most people have overlooked has much to share in their quest for indigenized development (Harris, 2017)—development that is not top-down but, instead, borne out of community aspirations. As one elder succinctly stated, “this is just part of our journey; we need to continue our journey.”