PENAMPANG: Indigenous communities should be regarded as strategic partners in nation-building rather than merely beneficiaries of development, said Borneo Dayak Forum president Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.
Jeffrey, who is also the main organising chairman of the 2026 Sabah World Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration (Shoas), said Indigenous peoples were seeking partnership rather than charity from governments.
“We ask for partnership, not charity, and Indigenous communities should be seen not merely as beneficiaries of development but as strategic partners in nation-building,” he said when officiating Shoas 2026 at the Koisaan Cultural Village (KCV), KDCA Hongkod Koisaan (Unity Centre), here, Saturday.
He said this partnership should include protecting customary land, culture and languages while strengthening rural connectivity and ensuring communities were not left behind in development.
Jeffrey said development should extend beyond urban areas to rural and interior communities, including those still lacking roads and access to basic services.
“Let no Indigenous child be excluded from the digital future because he or she was born in a longhouse, on an island, in a remote village or deep in the interior of Borneo,” he said.
He said Indigenous communities should also have a role as partners, owners and beneficiaries when economic opportunities involving their forests, biodiversity, traditional knowledge and cultural creativity arise.
“When governments or capitalists want to do something on our land, Indigenous peoples in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei or Indonesia have a role and must become partners, not merely spectators in development,” he said.
Jeffrey said the future of Indigenous communities would also increasingly be shaped by artificial intelligence, which is transforming fields including education, medicine, agriculture, business, government administration, communication and science.
He said the question was whether Indigenous peoples would help shape that future or merely inherit decisions made by others.
Jeffrey contrasted artificial intelligence (AI) with what he described as “ancestral intelligence”, saying technology could teach machines to learn while ancestral wisdom taught humanity how to live.
“AI can answer questions and AI is smart, but only values determine which questions are worth asking,” he said.
He warned that technology without ethics could be misused, including to imitate voices and steal identities, while Indigenous knowledge risked becoming data stripped of its meaning and ownership.
“Our cultures must not become merely content for algorithms, and our knowledge must not become data without dignity,” he said.
Jeffrey said technology should serve Indigenous peoples rather than dispossess them, while protecting their languages, identities and ownership of traditional knowledge.
He also called for stronger solidarity among Indigenous communities across Sabah, Sarawak, Kalimantan and Brunei, saying their shared histories, traditions, forests, rivers and families extended across political boundaries.
He said such unity was not intended to challenge the sovereignty of the countries to which the communities belonged, but to strengthen their ability to defend their rights and address common challenges arising from artificial intelligence, science and modernisation.
Jeffrey also urged Indigenous women and young people to play a central role in the future of their communities, describing women as guardians of families and languages and encouraging youths to value their mother tongues and ancestral knowledge.
“You should never have to choose between being Indigenous and being modern,” he said, urging young people to study artificial intelligence, science and technology while retaining their cultural roots.
Shoas 2026, held from Aug 21-23, brings together participants from Sabah, Sarawak, Kalimantan, Brunei and the wider Indigenous community for programmes including an international forum, discussions on Indigenous economy and sovereignty, cultural and heritage activities and the Kota Kinabalu Declaration 2026.
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