Tag: indigenous people

• If This Makes You Uncomfortable, You Should Ask Yourself Why

  

  This piece is not written about you. It is written to you. This is addressed to everyone across Southeast Asia, particularly to those who benefit from dominant historical narratives and feel unsettled when indigenous communities seek to reclaim histories that were marginalised, softened, or rewritten. To you, who insist you are not racist, who genuinely…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  January 5, 2026

  the indigenous narrative

  singapore, southeast asia, history, indigenous people, ASEAN, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, indigenous, politics, education

• Not Racist, Just Indigenous: Why We Should No Longer Stay Silent

  

  In Southeast Asia, silence is often mistaken for harmony. We are taught that keeping quiet preserves social cohesion, that raising difficult truths risks destabilising multicultural societies, and that speaking too plainly about history or power makes one divisive. In countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, silence is frequently framed as the price of peace. But…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  December 31, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  history, indigenous, indigenous people, politics, southeast asia, the indigenous narrative

• Bumiputera Privileges: Why They Are Justified and Should Not be Challenged

  

  In Southeast Asia, the question of indigenous rights and privileges often arises in public discourse, particularly in multi-ethnic nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore. Indigenous or native communities, including the Malays in Malaysia and Singapore, the Brunei Malays, and various native groups in Indonesia, have historically been granted special rights, protections, and access…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  December 25, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  culture, history, indigenous people, Indonesia, Malaysia, singapore, southeast asia, Thailand

• Rooted and Unapologetic: Embracing Indigenous Pride in Southeast Asia

  

  Indigenous identity in Southeast Asia has been historically devalued, leading many native people to suppress who they are. Pride must endure even when it is questioned, mocked, or dismissed by more economically affluent migrant communities. According to UNESCO, indigenous peoples across the Asia-Pacific region have faced sustained cultural marginalisation that pressures them to abandon language,…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  December 21, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  ASEAN, asia, colonialism, culture, history, indigenous people, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, singapore, southeast asia, Thailand, UNESCO

• Southeast Asia’s Hidden Hierarchy: Indigenous Disadvantage, Chinese Dominance

  

  Walk through the skyscraper-filled skylines of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, or Ho Chi Minh City, and a pattern emerges that is almost too obvious to mention. The banks, conglomerates, ports, plantations, and industrial empires are disproportionately controlled by ethnic Chinese families, often long-settled, naturalised citizens who dominate sectors that shape national economies. Meanwhile, the…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  December 17, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  asia, cambodia, history, indigenous people, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, singapore, southeast asia, Thailand, the indigenous narrative

• Renaming Food Is Not Branding. It Is Erasure.

  

  It happens quietly, almost imperceptibly at first. You walk into a café and see nasi lemak reintroduced as a “Nanyang Coconut Rice Set.” A packet of rendang is described as “Peranakan Braised Beef.” A bowl of laksa that follows Malay techniques and ingredients is marketed as “Nyonya Laksa.” Even traditional desserts like putri salat, kuih…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  December 10, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  culture, food, indigenous people, nonya, southeast asia, the indigenous narrative

• Mendam Berahi: Could the fabled Malaccan ship have really existed?

  

  For most of the last five centuries, the Mendam Berahi lived only in the imagination, half ship, half apparition. In the Hikayat Hang Tuah, the vessel gleams like a fever dream of Malacca’s golden age: a colossal royal galley built in secrecy, lacquered black, outfitted for diplomatic splendour, and entrusted to the Sultan’s most loyal…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  November 27, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  ASEAN, history, indigenous people, Malaysia, southeast asia, the indigenous narrative

• Why Some Histories Are Accepted Without Question, While Others Are Treated Like Myths

  

  By someone who has spent more nights with old manuscripts than with actual people. History has a funny temperament. In some regions, it sits comfortably and unchallenged, like a pampered cat perched atop a bookshelf. Medieval Europe is allowed to have its knights and castles without anyone demanding footnotes. The Middle East enjoys an uncontested…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  November 22, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  history, indigenous people, Indonesia, Malaysia, southeast asia, the indigenous narrative

• Austronesians Didn’t Come From Taiwan,They rose from Southeast Asia

  

  For nearly half a century, the world has been taught a strangely disempowering idea: that Austronesian peoples, the ancestors of Malays, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Polynesians, were not truly native to their own region. According to the familiar “Out of Taiwan” model, these populations supposedly sailed down from Taiwan around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, rapidly…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  November 18, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  history, indigenous people, southeast asia, the indigenous narrative

• The Austronesian Tide: How Seafaring Genius Gave Birth to Asia’s Maritime Civilisations

  

  Long before recorded history, before the rise of Srivijaya or Majapahit, before Chinese merchants and Indian traders reached the archipelagos, the seas of Southeast Asia were already alive with movement. This was the world of the early Austronesians, a maritime civilisation rooted in Island Southeast Asia, whose seafaring knowledge shaped migrations, trade routes, and later…

  The Indigenous Narrative

  November 15, 2025

  the indigenous narrative

  history, indigenous people, Indonesia, Malaysia, maritime, Philippines, southeast asia