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Carey Island

Edward Valentine Carey was born on 14th February 1865 to Margaret Maingay and Arthur Edward Carey , a coffee planter based in Ceylon. Like father like son, Valentine Carey followed in his father’s footsteps   pursuing an illustrious career as a coffee planter and later, taking a chance on rubber planting in Malaya. Managers and assistants were normally recruited by holding companies and corporations located in England. Their hiring criteria was either based on the old boys’ network or largely based on whether the candidate could play rugby or cricket well enough! Valentine Carey’s social status as well as 11 years of work experience in planting coffee, cinchona and tea in Ceylon, gained him a job as a manager at the Liberian Coffee Co. Selangor, Straits Settlements. His tenacity and early cultivated interest in tropical planting soon made him an authority in all subjects relating to the rubber industry. In 1892 the European planters set up a Planter’s Association in Selangor in which Carey was elected as Chairman. In 1897, other states followed suit and founded the United Planters’ Association of Federated Malays States.

Coffee had been planted as main crop in Malaya’s European plantations since 1880s and was thriving still when Carey first stepped foot on Malayan soil. But he foresaw that coffee would decline in the commodity market due to over supply from Brazil and he advised his fellow planters that the next big crop commodity, rubber, would not follow the way of the coffee any time soon. Carey’s influence and determination helped place Malaya on the world map as the world’s leading producer of rubber until the late 20th century. He slowly but methodically replanted estates with rubber trees and inter planted with coffee plants, making the latter a secondary crop. Through tenacity and hard work, by 1905, Carey had taken charge of large plantations accumulating to 500,000 trees planted in 3 large estates spread over 2000 acres.   

In gratitude of his contribution in making rubber a main commodity, Carey was granted an island by the Malay States Government, which he called 'Carey Island.' The area was set up and companies named Carey United and Jugra Land were formed to manage the plantations.

The companies were several of the earliest in Peninsular Malaysia and faired well under the watch of Valentine Carey. However, years in the tropics had taken a toll on Carey’s health. Due to the recurring bouts of malarial fever, Carey’s health began to deteriorate, forcing him to retire in 1910. Carey passed away on 21st April 1914 at age 49, relieving him from his long struggle with the illness.

 
The Hma (People) Meri (Forest)

Long before Carey arrived, the Hma’ Meri people were already living along the river estuaries on the island. Their settlements (keled) were temporary and they occasionally also lived on boats in which they moored overnight in mangrove swamps. The Hma’ Meri relied on land and sea for food and shelter.  The Temuan people on the mainland used to refer the the Hma’ Meri as Hma’ Besise’ - ‘The people with (fish) scales’ due to their fondness in fishing . They were often found fishing along coastal areas. However, they used the rivers as waterways to get to other settlements but hardly ventured into the open sea. Perhaps for fear of bumping into pirate ships or slave traders of which were both common sights in those days.

The people often moved when illnesses or deaths plagued them, or when slave hunters and pirates pillaged their settlements and when food in the area was scarce. By mid-1800s the Hma Meri decided on permanent settlements strategically located at estuaries and mainly at Telo’ Gunjeng (Gunjeng Bay). Gunjeng, a type of edible fern, was once upon a time found in abundance on the island. As plantations started to encroach into primary forests and mangrove swamps, the flora in the area was rapidly replaced by first coconut trees and later , tea and rubber estates. The gunjeng ferns are so rare now that the younger generation have not seen the plant let alone tasted its shoots.

The Hma’ Meri speak a Besise’ language, which is a south aslian subdivision of the Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic language. The language is still spoken amongst the Hma’ Meri although they would rather refer to their own as Hma’ Hae, meaning ‘our people’.

When Carey started slashing the jungles and opening lands for his rubber estates in 1905, the Hma’ Meri had already been previously moved several times and by 1966 the Hma’ Meri were allocated an area of just over 1,000acres of Aboriginal Reserve and Forest Reserve land  within the 35,000acre island. By the 1990’s further encroachment into forest tracts and new land reclamation projects had progressively confined the villages and eventually the villages became land locked. Their link and love with the waters and the coast had been severed and slowly the residents’ reliance on the surrounding land and forests were also reduced..

Today, the reduced size of 320acre settlement contains 3 hamlets : Kampung Sungai Bumbon, Kampung Sungai Mata  and Kampung Sungai Salang. The hamlets are located so close to each other, they consider themselves just one big village now with 83 families making up 500 individuals (2007). The village is provided with utilities such as potable water and electricity, tarred road, clinic, a school etc and each family is provided on plots of inherited land cultivated with cash crops. The younger generation faces a difficult future ahead. Being land less, they either help their parents with work on their tiny plots, or   leave in search of jobs at nearby plantations, restaurants or shops.

With meager means, the young people who prefer to remain in their village turn to craftwork to sell to tourists. The Hma’ Meri maintain their customs and traditions through their craft. Their rituals, customary laws, taboos and spiritual/animistic beliefs remains strongly embedded in their daily lives and they continue to practice them in all they do.  Their customary laws (adat) govern their lives and with these they have rules as how they should live. The Batin or head of the village concedes that losing their ‘adat’ is like losing their identity. The Batin and the council of village elders (mengge’ tengah) govern the village. But they lament that many younger villagers no longer respect or adhere to the adat and fear that one day soon, when the older generation is no longer in this world, the identity of the Hma’ Meri will disappear and so will the people themselves.

next page , Ari Muyang and Hma' Meri's crafts...

Malaysia Cultural Activities, Festivals and Arts, People