Kuy People: The Lost Connection

 

Written by: Jae St. Pierre

https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/newsworthy/cry-alarm-prey-lang-wildlife-santuary-being-gutted-t38150.html

Introduction to the issue

The indigenous Kuy people in Cambodia have been struggling with the issue of illegal logging, land grabbing, and the effects that these actions has had on their community, culture, and well-being for a very long time.

For this blog we will look at these issues with a time span beginning around 2011 to current time, as this issue is still ongoing.

Introduction to the Kuy people

From my research the Cambodia’s Kuy people live all over the northern, middle, and eastern areas of Cambodia, in provinces such as Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri, Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kratie, and Kampong Thom.

The people who identify as Khmer in Cambodia would classify the Kuy and many other ethnic groups as “ethnic minorities, hill tribes, Khmer Loue and more dehumanizing terms”, all meaning that these people are “primitive” or “savages”, which is just not the case. The Kuy have an amazingly rich and complex culture and traditions, one that should not be snuffed out, or silenced by the Cambodian, and foreign governments.

Importance of land to the Kuy

The Kuy peoples’ culture, traditions, and just their everyday life rely heavily on the forest, mountains, and land around them. This is where they find their food, the materials to make the necessary medicines, their way of meeting economic needs by selling different plants, fruits, and timber to distract markets, and is a place where they can connect to their ancestors, their dead,  and the Ah’ret (local spirits).

Their land is very important to them, and without it the damages would be immense and quite possibly irreversible. When Cambodian government tells them to just relocate after taking their land, the reason stated above is why that suggestion, or sometimes even order is not possible.

For the Kuy people to just up and leave their land, they would not just be losing their home, they would be losing the connection to their way of life, source of income, to their community and the Ah’ret.

Logging on their land

The Kuy have been fighting their own government along with private companies about logging on their land for a very long time. Around “2012 a company called Think Biotech was granted 17,000 acres of land in the Prey Lang forest by the Cambodian government”. This forest is part of the Kuy people home, and there have been allegations of this company illegally logging in their area.

This company steals the timber in from that area, and also coerces the Kuy and others in that area to sell their timber for a much lower price than what they would get in the district market. Damaging the Kuy peoples’ income and economy.

Landing grabbing

Land grabbing is another issue the Kuy people how to struggle with. Land grabbing is tied to the logging issue, it deserved its own section because it would be the best way to get more in-depth about the topic.

Land grabbing in terms of the Kuy is when the Cambodian government essentially “sells off the country’s lands and natural resources to the highest bidder”. This problem is happening more frequently and at a frighting alarming rate.

The Cambodian government does this all in the name of urban and economic “development”, the Kuy people say that “the only development they seek is that of human dignity”, and that the Cambodian government needs to “stop these deals and give the land back to the people”.

Starvation amid the pandemic

Along with the dehumanization, disrespect, and economic distress, one other impact of the logging and land grabbing is the health and well-being of the Kuy amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.

The companies and foreign governments that have taken their land for logging or industrial purposes has severely decreased the Kuy people health, not only are they not able to farm and find their own food, but the worldwide pandemic has put a damper on everyone’s income and savings, so the Kuy can barely afford the food they can find.

It seems that the Cambodian government is more interested in making deals with foreign countries than providing its own country’s people with the proper aid and care it needs during this long, and stressful coronavirus pandemic.

Defense of companies/governments

Some of the companies claim that these allegations are false, and that they did, and have not taken part of any illegal actions.

One owner of a company claims that the majority of the timber his company processed

were all sold locally, and furthermore he claims that his is a “victim of these illegal

loggers using his company as a midway between the Prey Lang forest preserve and  their export destinations”.

Brief conclusion

The Kuy are very tied to their land, it is their source of income, sustenance’s, community, traditions, and spirituality. In every sense of the word they are connected to that land, and through that land they have a connection to everything and everyone around them. Without it they would truly and quite possibly irreversibly lose their way of life, their community, their culture, and their identity.

Sources:

Keating, Neal B. 2012. "Spirits of the Forest: Cambodia's Kuy People Practice Spirit-based Conservation." Anthropology Faculty Publications, (May), https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ant_facpub (Links to an external site.). 

Keeton-Olsen, Danielle. 2020. “Cambodian firm accused of creating a ‘monopoly in the timber business’.” Mongabay, May 13. https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/cambodian-firm-accused-of-creating-a-monopoly-in-the-timber-business/

“No Author”. 2020. “Cambodia urged to rethink Chinese ties, land policies to recover from pandemic.” People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, June 29. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia-government-urged-to-rethink-chinese-ties-and-prioritize-land-rights-and-right-to-food/