The Khmer Loeu (Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរលើ “upper Khmers”) is the collective name given to the various indigenous ethnic groups residing in the highlands of Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Mondulkiri. Most of the highland groups are Mon-Khmer peoples and are distantly related, to one degree or another, to the Khmer. Two of the Khmer Loeu groups are Chamic peoples, a branch of the Austronesian peoples, and have a very different linguistic and cultural background. The Mon–Khmer-speaking tribes are the aboriginal inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia, their ancestors having trickled into the area from the northwest during the prehistoric metal ages. The Austronesian-speaking groups, Rade and Jarai, are descendants of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples who came to what is now coastal Vietnam; they established the Champa kingdoms, and after their decline migrated west over the Annamite Range, dispersing between the Mon–Khmer groups.
We underline the concept of aboriginal traditions because it makes us feel who we are. We think it is important to protect our aboriginal languages because it is a sign of identity and connection with our ancestors. We want to stress that it is important to underline the aboriginal territories because it protects our cultures and also the environment. It is important to involve the local and national governments so they can understand the importance of this idea and join as allies of this because this idea is also a benefit for the entire country. The territory is the land of our ancestors and when we die we want to be buried in our territory. We discovered in this meeting that the aboriginal peoples of other Asian countries share the same worries. Even our aboriginal languages seem to keep a certain relationship, when some words look too familiar to others. It has been a joyful discovery for us, Cambodian aboriginal youth.
In our villages, the bonfire is the place of meeting, talking, food, heat, and light. The fire reveals our traditions.
We continue working as delegations, sharing our cultures together, and keeping responsibilities, but we must be together. Some commissions could be:
A) Social Communication and Information Technology, media production.
B) Aboriginal Languages for promotion and care.
C) Education and Ancestral Knowledge.
D) Aboriginal Art.
This meeting we had here in Kep we could have once every two years. Maybe it can be in different countries if it is possible for cultural exchange. We can have online meetings by commission. Aboriginal Short Film Festival. Aboriginal Music Festivals.
Our Ancestors’ Story: Also we, Jarai had a Jarai King, and we were strong, and we had a country in what is today a part of Cambodia and Vietnam. We had our language, alphabet, identities, culture, territory, traditions… But then we lost many things in history and many Jarai clans migrated to other territories such as the USA, Europe, Australia, Canada… etc.
When we learn our own history, we can understand and clear many things, being linked to that ancient history, becoming important for our present time and the decisions we can make for our future. It also means that we have to adapt to our present times, according to the present problems and conflicts. Stories help us to keep the ancient values and they help us to reflect and confront modern realities. We can open a dialogue with our own ancestors.
We recognize that there is something good in every religion because every religion teaches us to behave well, to do good actions, and to be good. Every religion should be humble to share with respect with others. We think that the Church must know our stories to understand our values and to open a dialogue. Our ancestral stories teach values and they explain our traditions. They keep the secrets of ancient peoples and it helps us to communicate with others understand the world around us and take responsibility. If the Church is open to knowing those values, we feel we can listen too to their own stories.
In our villages, some Jarai people are Christians (Protestants) and they have another set of traditions that makes them look like other sort of Jarai people. The worry is that sometimes we lose real communication with them. It can be painful because it creates divisions. Can you be a Jarai and a Christian at the same time? It is our question.
Our ancestral traditions help us to protect the environment. For example, we believe in the spirits of the forest and we respect those spirits, so we respect the forest. But when a group of people stop believing in it, they destroy the forest and it destroys us.
We propose to keep connections with other aboriginal groups in Asia, through friendship, networks, NGOs, and journalism, to help us promote our programs, and our fights, and to make cultural exchanges with other countries, through social media, for example through the WhatsApp Group.
The ancestral land is the inheritance of our ancestors. It is also the life of our people today. If we lost that land, it is as if we lost our life.
We all must participate and promote our rights to the land. We all must participate, together, in the protection of forests and animals. We must work on the reforestation of places that were cut or destroyed.
Climate change. This problem can be solved somehow when we work in the protection of our indigenous territories, we have to work to solve the problem of plastic, pollution, and recycling… We should stop the destruction of forests, and take care of the inheritance of our ancestors to benefit the care of the environment. Please take care of water sources.
Aboriginal people live outside our communities like in big cities and foreign countries. It is important they do not forget their origin and help their siblings at home. You should remember your traditions wherever you should be. In cities, you can create associations of your group, create networks for communication and promotion of our traditions. If you live in a rich country, please help to be a benefactor for your own people in poor countries, especially education of children and youth.
Those living in cities or abroad can create associations, for example, “Jarai Phnom Penh” to meet once per month to celebrate our identity, to help each other, and to help those in the village. If you are a professional, please come to donate your time to your Aboriginal community.
To those aborigines who have lost their territory, we can say first do not forget your territory and do whatever is possible and good to recover it. If you cannot recover, look for a new territory and look for benefactors and allies. Cooperate even with other groups, other aborigine groups, and NGOs, to legally battle for the recovery.
Recording our elders on technological platforms, to tell us things we do not know, to explain to us who we are, our territories, where they are, our language sounds like what, our traditions…
What is home for us?
- Home is an important shelter for us to live in the rain, hot, wind … – Whont Tak Tampuan.
- Home is a place to live with our family and it gives us good memories – Nat Kompheak, Kreung.
- My home is the place where I am myself, I am happy with those I love very much, that is my family. I think if I don’t have that home, life could be very difficult.
- The house is a shade, providing the warmth of living with a blessed family – Mr Sev Dom Jarai.
- Home is a warm place for me, to meet my siblings and family, it’s the place that gives me a smile and makes me happy in my life – Mr. Sev Hlit Jarai.
- Safe place and a comfortable area. A place to live with our family and pets and enjoy with friends. A place to build memories as well as a way to build future wealth. Where we can really be ourselves – Mr. Sarl Chanthai, Jarai.
- It is the place I live because we are happy with our family. The home place has many important meanings. When we don’t have a home, we don’t have a life – Mr Rochom Lvan, Jarai.
- It is the place I live and it gives me happiness because I live with the people I love. I always feel happy in that place, I smile there – Mr. Romam Somnang, Jarai.
We chose the first question to discuss because it led us to many ideas. First, we are representatives of three aboriginal peoples of Cambodia: Jarai (10), Kreng (1), and Tam Puon (1). Two of us belong to two ethnic groups (Jarai and Tam Puon). Two of us are Christian Protestants, ten of us are Animists (Proman Sasna), and two of us are Animists but consider that other religions are also good.
In our cultures, we don’t have Creation stories. We feel that our generation has forgotten many ancestral stories and we, the young, must compromise to recover it from our elders before they die and to do research before it is too late. Media records can help us on it.
If we remember those ancient stories of our people, we will feel safe and we will understand many things.
We think that we have forgotten it because we have many conflicts in modern times. Our people are busy trying to survive and it makes us indifferent to our own identities.
Letting aside for a moment the idea of a Creator God, we discussed this:
In the Tam Poun spirituality, a Supreme Being we call Kren-Dai, the name means like the whole Universe, heavens, and earth. He lives in the heavens. In the forest, we have the spirits (Areak or Arak). We assume that he created everything. There was a time when the world was destroyed by fire (unknown reason) and only a woman survived. There was also a werewolf that survived. They were safe over a gong and they regenerated humanity.
We Tampuan call the Supreme Being like Pras. Pras is everywhere. We think that there is a being even superior to Pras but we do not know his name in our culture, at least before we knew other religions.
We Jarai call the Supreme Being as Yang. Yang is everywhere but especially in big trees that are beautiful and with aroma. Yang is also inside the waters. If you cut a tree without permission, you do a sin. When you build a house, you ask Yang’s permission and that house will live in harmony. Yang preserves harmony in the Universe. We do not know if Yang created the Universe but if Yang preserves the Universe, we think Yang is the Creator of it. You care for what you create.
Some trees are very important to us. Trees of flowers are very much respected. Trees of aromas and medicine.
Two of us are Protestant Christians. Our pastor is Jarai and he respects our traditions. We as Protestant Christians think that the spirits of the forest are there, and we respect them. They are part of the Creation too. We believe in the power of Jesus. For us, Christians, and Protestants, Jesus is Yang. Our pastor is not like our Chathom (elder). The Chathom guides all the villages, the pastor leads only those who are Christians.
We Protestant Jarai see the Catholic Mass as a ceremony to purify our hearts in the name of the Lord Jesus. It remembers the Last Supper.
We who are Animists, understand the Catholic Mass is a way to bring harmony to our hearts, we see that Jesus came to this world to bring a message of harmony to the Universe. It is a prayer of harmony and purity. It brings our energy in balance, to clear our minds. It is a kind of message for formation in life.
A Catholic priest, we understand he is a religious man to become a spiritual leader. He is like a monk, like the Buddhist monks, but they follow Jesus and help the poor a lot. He provides formation for life. The priest welcomes everybody without thinking about their different religions. A priest is also like a Chathom (elder) because he knows many things about life.
We can call this method Building Aboriginal Cultural Sharing because we have the opportunity to share our own traditions through these activities and to know other traditions of our siblings from different parts of the world. If we remain in our villages, we can be the same but we lose the ideas from others. It would be nice to have this experience in the future, like a festival.
We are the host delegation. We are very happy to help our siblings from other countries to visit us. Maybe we need something like more rooms.
One thing we need to improve is the Internet. We have learned practical things like editing videos, but also we get the opportunities to practice English to be able to communicate with others. Sharing our traditions is very important for us, first, we feel happy to show our identity to others and then to see that others have their traditions. In communication, it is important to love the purpose of it, and why we do it.
We understand our aboriginal language as important and useful as any other language in the world. We are concerned about the loss of aboriginal languages in many regions of the world and in our own country, it is the loss of the mother language. One problem is that our children do not get an education also in our own aboriginal language. Schools must include our own cultures, identities, and languages.
We hope that most Aboriginal siblings can reach positions in politics and administration in those regions with more Aboriginal groups, like in our Ratanakiri province. It will guarantee a better understanding of our human rights.
The same for aboriginal youth or families that migrate to the cities or other countries. It is good if they can enjoy the creation of associations or what we call “the Aboriginal village in the city” to promote our Aboriginal identity and protect our human rights even if we are far away from our ancestral territories. We recognize that we are getting out of our forests, but it does not mean that we must forget our forests. How can we continue protecting our forests even if we live in cities? Why is it important for us and for others? We believe that our languages keep ancient knowledge. Protecting and promoting our language means to protect our ancient wisdom. We feel connected with others, with the environment, with Mother Forest. The forest must continue being our own sign of identity even if we do not hunt and live inside the forests anymore.
Language and spirituality are important and connected too. Our language is the language of our ancestors, so the language of ancient peoples, so it is sacred. Nobody should force us to believe in other traditions. Everybody’s free to preach their own religions but with respect and understanding. Every preacher, when entering aboriginal territories, must be committed to knowing and respecting our cultures, languages, and traditions and to open a dialogue of mutual respect.
We appreciate very much this opportunity to share with other Indigenous peoples from our own country and from Asia and Oceania regions. Thanks to the Catholic Church for making these moments real. One new path that the Catholic Church can take is to continue promoting this dialogue, these kinds of meetings, and sharing activities. We think it is very useful for us as persons and as indigenous peoples.
In our Cambodian indigenous people, we see as our main struggle the loss of the forests. We are very worried about it. Problems like language loss and economic struggles are connected to the loss of forests and territories. Authorities and organizations can be more aware of it and join together to protect our human rights as Indigenous peoples and the Catholic Church, by creating spaces for dialogue and sharing, can make a great contribution, especially making that young Indigenous get their own knowledge and interest on their own ancestral identity.
Yes, we can share our stories, cultures, and traditions through media. Right now we, as students of Don Bosco Technical School, are doing two theses: One about creating networks and databases online with our traditions and another about a database for videos. We want to share it with others.
Written by Indigenous youths from the Indigenous groups (Jarai, Kreung, and Tampuan) in Cambodia during the 10-day extensive media production training for Asian Indigenous youth in Kep province, Cambodia in March 2024.
