Mutang Urud

Mutang Urud in Montreal, Canada, 2021Mutang Urud (20 October 1958) is an Indigenous Kelabit environmental activist, born in Long Napir in Sarawak, a state of Malaysia located on the island of Borneo. Urud is known for helping to organize anti-logging blockades in Sarawak, and as the founder of the Sarawak Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance. He was a member of the Voices for the Borneo Rainforest World Tour in 1990, and spoke to the UN to ask for a halt to logging on Indigenous lands in Borneo. Urud serves as the executive director of the Kalio Conservation and Development Society, and is working to record the oral history of the Kelabit people, create a dictionary of the Kelabit language, and map the Kelabit cultural boundaries.

Biography

Early life Urud was born in a small Kelabit village known as Long Napir in the highlands of Sarawak. Urud appeared in the 2016 film The Borneo Case and his life story was featured in the 2017 film A Time to Swim.

Response from Malaysian authorities

On February 5, 1992, Urud was arrested by Malaysian Police for failing to register the Sarawak Indigenous People's Alliance. He was held and interrogated for 28 days, 10 of which were spent in solitary confinement. Once he was released, Urud left the Malaysia, but planned to return the following September to attend his trial. However, when speaking at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June, he mentioned that he felt "privileged" to be able to safely return home after speaking out against the logging practices in Malaysia, but was misquoted in a newsletter documenting the conference and was made to look as though he was attacking the Malaysian government, causing a rush of negative press in the Sarawak media. Returning to Vancouver from the Earth Summit, Urud learned there was another warrant for his arrest in Malaysia charging him under the Internal Security Act, which would have allowed for him to be held for up to two years without trial. In response to this, Urud elected to remain in exile in Canada. Urud has recently been able to return to Malaysia to visit, and has conducting mapping and language related research work in his community.

Personal life and education After being incarcerated in Malaysia, Urud came to Canada as a refugee, where he lives with his partner, Natasha Blanchet-Cohen, and their two children. Urud received a BA degree in anthropology at Concordia University in Canada.