Women In The Mist

Deep within the rainforests of Miri, ten hours off road lies a hidden tribe of women who reign as breadwinners while their men struggle to make ends meet. Lira Jamaluddin ventures deep into the mountains of Sarawak for this Marie Claire exclusive.

- Lira Jamaluddin

I’ve had a number of impactful experiences while working with Marie Claire in the past few years, but none had truly effected me the way my latest experience did, when I travelled down to Kampung Long Nen to visit a Penan Tribal village located about an eight hour drive from Miri, Sarawak.

The women of Penan were far from how I expected them to be. Despite having almost no communication with any other humans aside from a handful few like our guide and chairperson of Penan Women Project, Ann Wong, these courageous women were warm and welcoming from the moment we set foot onto their lands.

The people of Penan come from an ancestry line of nomadic hunting tribe who have travelled down every inch of the Borneo rainforest for the past 40,000 years. This rainforest is where they sourced for food, herbs, and spices for hundreds of generations. Before The Penan Women Project was set up, their source of income came mainly from the jungle. The men would go out and gather what they can; at times they are able to find spices that they can sell or barter trade.

As we landed at the airport I met with Ann Wong, who I identified by her bright yellow Penan hand weaved handbag. Ann is one of the founders of the Penan Women Project; their mission is to help Penan women get out of poverty by making and selling hand-woven products such as tote bags and baskets.

These products were familiar to me, I’ve seen them being sold at seasonal flea markets around Kuala Lumpur. I’ve heard people say, “I own a Penan handbag.” The bag was weaved using plastic ribbons in various colours and I always wondered why they were not made of rattan.