Orang Kanaq are one of the 18 Orang Asli ethnic groups in Malaysia. They are classified under the Proto-Malay people group, which forms the three major people group of the Orang Asli. The Orang Kanaq are considered as the smallest Orang Asli group with a population of approximately 90 people only.
Despite its negligible numbers, most representatives of the micro-ethnos have well maintained their identity. However, the sad dynamics of the Kanaq people's population show that there is a real threat of disappearance over their unique language and culture. It continues to exist only because of the low level of contact with other people since its traditions do not approve of mixed marriages with other ethnic groups.
Indigenous inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia have a special status, which is enshrined in the legislation of the country. They use the special term Orang Asli, which means "ancient inhabitants", "original peoples", "first peoples", "aborigines" in the Malay language. They were sponsored by the state Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) until 2011 when it became the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli, JHEOA). The purpose of the department is to raise the living standard of the indigenous people to the country's average.
The Orang Asli do not form a united community, but it is a conglomerate of different origins, culture, way of life, language and racial features of tribes and peoples. For ease of administration, JHEOA divides them into 18 tribes, uniting in 3 groups of 6 tribes in each. This group are the Negritos, the Senoi and the Proto-Malays. Kanaq people belong to the last of them.
Despite belonging to the indigenous population, the Kanaq people are relatively recent inhabitants of the country. They have lived on the Malay Peninsula for only about 200 years. Their motherland is the islands of the Riau-Lingga Archipelago located further south, within the present-day Indonesia. There, on a small island, Daik, that is still inhabited by a tribe of Sekanak people, which is believed to be related to the Kanaq people of Peninsular Malaysia.
The Kanaq people are the least studied group of Orang Asli. Usually, they avoid contact with other people and so researchers have paid little attention to them. Only recently have Malaysian scholars published a number of materials devoted to this tribe.
The spoken language of the Orang Kanaq resembles Malay but with a distinct coarse accent. Its population of the Orang Kanaq is dwindling, bit according to the Center of Orang Asli Concern, the Orang Kanaq language has still managed to survive.
Settlement area
Currently, they are situated at Kampung Sungai Selangi, located northeast of Mawai, within the Kota Tinggi District, in the eastern Johor state. Out of the 147,412 Orang Asli from 18 tribes in Malaysia, the Kanaq people make up the smallest number. The inhabitants of the Sungai Selangi village comprise 87 Orang Kanaq people, including 3 Malays, from 23 families. The village took shape in 1965, with only 40 Kanaq residents from 10 families. In addition to them, only a few Malay people live in Sungai Selangi.
Population The data available in various sources allow to a certain extent to observe the dynamics of the Kanaq people's population:- Year 1952 (Williams-Hunt) 1960 1965 1969 1974 1980 1996 2000 2003 2004 2008 2010 Population 34 38 40 40 36 37 64 73 83 83 85 139 (JHEOA) / 238 (Population & Housing Census)
The census, conducted in 2008 among the Orang Asli communities in the state of Johor's local Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), Johor Bahru, covering five major groups of Proto-Malay's Jakun, Orang Seletar, Orang Kuala, Temuan and Kanaq people. The census showed that the Kanaq people are the smallest of these five groups, with only 85 people, or 0.72% of the total Proto-Malay's population of 11,701 individuals. All of them; 23 families, are residents of the Selangi village.
According to the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) in 2010, 29 families of Kanaq people lived in Malaysia numbered at 139 people (2010, JHEOA). They made up 0.18% of the Proto-Malay people and 0.1% of the Orang Asli's total population.
Language They speak Orang Kanaq language, which belongs to the Malay group of Austronesian languages. Little is explored about the Orang Kanaq language. In the early 2000s, Mohammad Sharifudin Yusof in the course of field research, for the first time he composed a list of words of the Orang Kanaq language and presented it in phonetic form. Using these records, the reader will be able to pronounce Kanaq words correctly, even if one has never spoken to native a speaker.
In general, Orang Kanaq language is very similar to Malay language, especially in vocabulary and sound system, but it has a special accent and some other features. Sometimes it's called a coarse dialect of Malay language.
Most Kanaq people speak their native language well. But Orang Kanaq language is under increasing pressure from the standard Malay language, this tendency is especially noticeable among the younger generation. Malay language for the Kanak people is the language of schooling. Given the small number of Orang Kanaq language speakers, it can be argued that it is in serious danger of disappearance.
Religion Most Kanaq people continue to adhere to traditional beliefs, which are a complex set of different cults and rituals. They believe in the existence of spirits and souls, believe in the power of spirits, which, if necessary, become a source of help for them. Numerous taboos, passed from generation to generation, regulate the daily lives of Kanaq people. These people have a whole set of myths and legends associated with faith in supernatural deities. Traditional shamans act as mediums that communicate with invisible forces.
As a result of missionary activity, part of the Kanak population has already adopted Islam or Christianity. Joshua Project estimates the religious composition of the tribal members as follows: 81% support traditional beliefs, 15% Muslims, 4% Christians. At the same time, JHEOA statistics say that almost all Kanaq people are Muslims: 65 people in 1997. Islamization of the people is associated with active government policy in this direction, which was carried out in the 1980s.
History As part of the Orang Laut The Orang Kanaq were originally one of the Sea Gypsy peoples, a group of sea nomads and pirates from the Riau-Lingga archipelago located on the east of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is believed that the Kanaq people originated from the small island of Pulau Sekanak located in this archipelago, in the north of Batam Island, Indonesia.
Orang laut played an important role in the history of the Malaysian statehood. The special relationship between the Orang laut and the Malay rulers developed during the time of the Srivijaya empire (7th-11th centuries). In this state, sea nomads served as the navy. For hundreds of years, the loyalty of the Orang laut to the Malay rulers was a decisive factor in the preservation and prosperity of the state. These special relationships were inherited in the 14th century by the Malacca Sultanate, and then followed by its successor, the Johor Sultanate. The Orang laut continued to occupy prominent positions in the Johor Empire in the 17th-18th centuries. In particular, the Orang Kanaq tribe is mentioned in the legendary Malay Annals. At the beginning of the 19th century, mentions of the Kanaq people are found in the notes of European researchers, in particular Logan (Logan, 1847).
The 1699 rebellion in Johor brought an illegitimate ruler to power and destroyed the established relationship between the Sultan and the Orang laut. The latter did not recognize the new government and began, to some extent, to take uncontrollable piracy. Tribes of sea nomads have changed the place of their disposition several times. In particular, the Orang Kanaq tribe was attested in Sekana Bay on the northern shore of the island of Singkep in the Lingga Islands. They were headed by a man (leader of the tribes of the Lingga Islands's Orang laut) by the name of Panglima Raman. The overlords of the Kanaq people were rulers of the Bintan-Lingga Sultanate, dependent on the Johor Sultanate. The tribe is mentioned in those days as not very skillful pirates, who in their predatory campaigns reached the shores of Siam and Cochinchina.
The further political situation was not in favor of the Orang laut. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Siak Sultanate, ruler from the east coast of Sumatra, summoned the service of the Ilanun (Iranun people), which significantly outperformed the Orang laut in the naval affairs. Another important trend in the region was the strengthening of the position of Europeans, primarily Dutch and English colonials, who in the 19th century already firmly established in the Strait of Malacca. Europeans had inappropriate piracy in the region, and they began to carry out military operations against the Iranun people and Orang laut. In 1843 an action was carried out on the "reconciliation" of the Kanaq people. Lingga Sultanate, at the request of the Dutch, persuaded them to stop pursuing piracy. In the same year, Dutch troops destroyed the Kanaq settlement in Sekana Gulf, forcing the tribe to move deeper into the island. To demonstrate loyalty to the Sultan, the Kanaq people symbolically burned their boats and committed themselves to farming, which did not have any skills and abilities. They took the new occupation as forced labour (kerah in Malay language), that is, corvee.
After 1862, there were no more signs of the presence of the Kanaq people in the Gulf of Sekana (Sopher, 1965). Instead, they are mentioned in the list of Orang laut tribes, which were vassal of the Johor Sultanate. The Sultanate's then society was highly structured, each of the vassal tribes occupied a place strictly defined for it, which corresponded to the tribal status and obligated to perform certain duties in favor of the ruling Sultan. The Orang Kanaq's status was rather high, they ruled the Sultan's ships. At that time, the Kanaq people had their settlement near the island of Bintan, south of Singapore, but often had to leave their homes for a long time; and it could last for more than a year.
Relocation to Malay Peninsula The date and reasons for the resettlement of the Kanaq people from Bintan to the Malay Peninsula remain unexplained. Different sources give contradictory dates, and the discrepancy between which is more than 100 years. One of the undocumented documents held in the archives of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs in Johor Bahru states that the first group of the Kanaq people numbering about 100 people was delivered by the Dutch to the Kota Tinggi District in 1758 to work on a black pepper plantation in the Sungai Papan village. After the plantation was closed, they moved to Lebak Mincin, a land awarded to them by the Sultan of Johor at the foothills of Gunung Panti and founded a new settlement here. There they began to grow fruit trees and collect forest products.