FoxHershockMappingCommunities

map strengthened the community's claims. 2 This case
showed the value of community maps in asserting native
customary rights and led to other communities demanding
community-based mapping of their territories. In reaction to
the court's decision, the state government enacted the
Sarawak Land Surveyors Ordinance in 2001 to regulate land
surveying activities in the state. In the said Ordinance,
Sections 20 and Section 23 are the legal maneuvers
designed to make it more difficult for the community to
assert claims to customary lands. Community-based
mapping activities have since been labelled as subversive
activities. 3
Contrary to the conventional view, community mapping in
Sarawak is not a new phenomenon. In the 1930s, the
Brooke government assisted the Dayaks and Malays to map
their customary land boundaries. However, a shortage of
resources prevented the implementation of this effort
throughout the state. The effort was also halted during the
Second World War and resumed briefly during the British
Colonial Administration, only to be shelved when Sarawak
gained its independence in 1963.
It was not until 1992 that community mapping efforts began
to resurface with several community activists discussing the
need to record and demarcate the native customary lands
of the Dayaks. In 1995, the Borneo Project organized a
training session in community-based mapping for NGOs
and CBOs in Sarawak so the communities could produce
their own maps. 4 From 1997 onwards, BRIMAS has been in
the forefront of community-based mapping activities in
Sarawak, receiving many requests from communities to map
customary lands and to conduct training sessions in
mapping. The enactment of the Land and Surveyors
Ordinance, however, has created an uncertain future for
community-based mapping in Sarawak.
This paper explains how community-based mapping serves
as a tool for the indigenous Dayaks in upholding their
native customary rights to land in Sarawak. It will also
attempt to counter the misrepresentation of communitybased
mapping activities as subversive, and instead present
them as legitimate community actions.
METHODS 5
Since 2003, BRIMAS, a non-governmental organization
(NGO) based Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, has assisted in
mapping the customary land areas of thirty-three
communities using hand-held Global Positioning System
(GPS) devices that subsequently were built into a
Geographic Information System (GIS). 6 Each of the thirtythree
communities surveyed consisted of one or several
longhouses/villages that shared a common customary land
boundary. For each community, a meeting was held prior to
and after the completion of the field mapping activities. In
these meetings, we gathered background information such
as existing maps, identified communal boundaries as
agreed to by the groups, and clarified the
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