Weaving Threads of Change: Enhancing Economic Empowerment Among Penan Weavers

The Penan community is a group of indigenous hunter-gatherers residing deep in the jungles of Sarawak and Brunei. They are typically nomadic in nature, but recent developments in urbanisation and commercialisation have forced them to settle down to live a sedentary lifestyle. The Penan have experienced significant struggles in adapting to these changes, with the women being the most significantly impacted. They often struggle with obtaining employment, hence limited finances are available to fund their children’s education, resulting in the children not attending or having to drop out of school.

Helping Hands Penan (HHP) is a social enterprise aiming to address these concerns and empower the Penan to be more self-sustainable, with a focus on bridging the Penan together with the wider local and global audience. The Penan women are extremely skilled in creating crafts like bags through the art of weaving that has been passed down through generations. HHP transports these completed crafts to the city and even overseas, sells them, and returns the funds back to the Penan who use it primarily to fund their children’s education.

There is a need for market access to promote Penan weavers’ craft sales as traditional weaving skills require support to become a consistent source of income. HHP facilitates their capacity development but are limited by their volunteer pool, facing operational constraints. This case study aims to identify how HHP empowers Penan weavers through women-centric collaboration to co-create products for community income generation. It also aims to identify potential areas to strengthen the capacity development of Penan weavers in order to generate a stronger and more consistent income that can empower them to be more self-sustainable.