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The Daro - Matu of Malaysia

The Daro - Matu of Malaysia, numbering approximately 18,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Melanau community of central Sarawak, especially the Daro and Matu districts, whose Daro and Matu speech varieties form the distinctive Daro-Matu Melanau language. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Daro-Matu Melanau is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Daro - Matu

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Daro-Matu Melanau (dro)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 18,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG020227
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Pray for the Daro - Matu of Malaysia

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

50%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Daro-Matu Melanau
Language Family: Austronesian

70%
%
Melanau, Daro-Matu Speakers

Media Resources in Daro-Matu Melanau:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Daro-Matu Melanau:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Daro-Matu Melanau bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Daro - Matu are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Daro - Matu:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Daro - Matu of Malaysia

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
readPsalm 67:3

Pray that those who are lost and unaware of God's blessings will come to know Him as the one true God, put their trust in Him, and join in praising Him among the nations.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
readActs 6:7

Pray that the Word of God will be increasingly available to these people in ways they will resonate with so that all may have a chance to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
readEphesians 6:18

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be alert and persistent in prayer for all believers, offering their requests with thanksgiving.

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
readMark 5:20

Pray that God will bring people who appear beyond hope to faith in Jesus and that they will then go and tell others of the marvelous things He has done.

Daro-Matu Across Countries (ROP3 - 102465) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion ▼
Daro - MatuPG020227Daro - MatuMalaysia18,500No Longer UnreachedDaro-Matu MelanauSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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