Cambodia & Minorities: In Kdol Leu, the S'tieng relearn how to say who they are

Tboung Khmum. In the community house of Kdol Leu, under the tin roof that rattles slightly in the afternoon heat, about thirty villagers sit on wooden benches. There are grandmothers with weathered faces, men in sarongs, and a few teenagers who have come mostly out of curiosity.

@DC Cam

At the back of the room, panels tell another, darker story: that of the decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, of bombings, of the Khmer Rouge regime, of families displaced and later returning to settle here, on this red soil of Memot district. It is the Koh Thma Documentation Center, a local branch of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), which today serves as the setting for a different kind of meeting: it is no longer only about memory, but about identity.

A name, a question

The Ministry of Rural Development organized this meeting to present, on the ground, the national policy for the development of indigenous minorities and the procedure for community recognition. From the ministry, officials came from Phnom Penh; alongside them sit representatives from the provincial Department of Rural Development of Tboung Khmum, the administration of Memot district, the authorities of Tonlung commune, and the village of Kdol Leu itself.

The session opens with a welcome speech from the first deputy chief of Tonlung commune, visibly moved to see elders and younger villagers gathered on the same benches. He states it simply: most of the inhabitants of Kdol Leu are S'tieng, this indigenous people whose grandparents—and sometimes parents—still speak the language and maintain clearly identifiable traditions. But today’s meeting is not addressed to them by chance—it specifically targets the S'tieng of this village, at the crossroads of Tonlung commune and Memot district.

Then comes the question that gives full meaning to the afternoon, posed by a representative of the ministry: why are they called “S'tieng”? Why this name and not another? According to the definition recalled that day, an indigenous group is a population living in the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia that has its own ethnic, social, cultural, and economic unity, practices a traditional way of life, and cultivates land according to customary rules combining collective use and individual ownership.

The fear of declaring oneself different

But behind the administrative definition lies a harsher reality, which the ministry official did not avoid: many members of indigenous communities do not dare to declare themselves as such, for fear of being stigmatized. She cited the example of a Kuy man from Kampong Thom province, simply dressed in red according to his community’s customs, and mocked for that reason alone—an episode which, according to her, illustrates a very real and persistent ethnic discrimination, pushing many S'tieng to hide their origins rather than claim them.

It is precisely this reflex of discretion that the ministry seeks to reverse. The stated objective is clear: to encourage residents of indigenous origin in Kdol Leu to identify themselves as S'tieng, in order to preserve their language, customs, and traditions—and ultimately to open the way for development designed for them and with them, rather than imposed from outside.

Five steps toward recognition

A ministry office official detailed, point by point, the administrative path leading to the official recognition of an indigenous community. It begins with a phase of awareness-raising among national and provincial authorities, relevant technical services, as well as districts, communes, villages, and the communities themselves.

Next comes the moment when the indigenous community must, on its own initiative, express its willingness to engage in the recognition process. A third step consists of disseminating information within the targeted community, before it proceeds, in the fourth step, to elect its representatives to a committee and to declare its self-identification as an indigenous group. The process concludes with the official submission of the file, its evaluation, and the recognition of the community’s identity by the Ministry of Rural Development.

A path that may seem bureaucratic on paper, but which, in a room where elders listen in silence, takes on another dimension: that of a people finally being asked to say for themselves who they are.

“May the elders return home in good health”

The meeting closed with words of thanks addressed to the provincial Department of Rural Development, the authorities of Memot district, and all the villagers who came to listen attentively. Wishes for good health were extended to grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, and younger participants, as well as to the field team, with the hope that everyone would return home safely. And already, hope for what comes next: a larger meeting that would help move further toward the official recognition of the S'tieng of Kdol Leu village, in Tonlung commune, Memot district, Tboung Khmum province.

For the Koh Thma Documentation Center, which since 2024 has celebrated the renovation of its community house and sanctuary in the same village, this meeting is part of a broader mission: to make this place—originally created to document the most painful chapters of Cambodian history—a space where indigenous communities also discuss their future—land rights, development, cultural transmission—and where memory, far from being fixed, continues to shape the present.

Article written based on reports and photographic archives of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), Koh Thma branch, Tboung Khmum province.