Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses diverse sites of market place research in Malaysian Borneo from the perspective of belonging and exclusion.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses market place research in Malaysian Borneo primarily from the viewpoint of belonging and exclusion. I examine how market place actors, interact with each other, taking note of their language usage and ethnicity.

The most important markets in regard to this paper are the recently established Asap fresh foods market, and the even more recently established open air fish and game market at the Bakun jetty. The latter two are of prime importance because they were both set up in response to a government scheme which displaced fifteen longhouses from the Balui River to a new location. Their river became a lake and their land was largely submerged beneath the waters of the lake. Recent events have enabled the displaced people to claim exclusive rights to the numerous fish in the lake and game in the remaining forest, but contestation from government bodies and other ethnic groups with only tenuous ties to the area make the position of the indigenous Orang Ulu of the Balui/Rejang River rather precarious. Sovereignty over their domain, officially degazetted in the late 1990s, once again becomes an issue but this time the Orang Ulu of Asap/Koyan are united in their claims, and each and every longhouse in the Bakun Resettlement Scheme is striving to capture its share of the market as well as repossess the land and waters they involuntarily surrendered to the State for the 'good of the nation'.