The Wahau Kenyah of Indonesia

The Wahau Kenyah of Indonesia, numbering approximately 9,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Wehea, or Wahau, subgroup of the Modang-Kenyah peoples along the Mahakam River's tributaries in East Kalimantan's Kutai Regency, tracing ancestral origin to the Apo Kayan Highlands where Kenyah populations concentrated most heavily until the early 1980s. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Wahau Kenyah is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Wahau Kenyah

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Wahau Kenyah (whk)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 9,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG022621
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Pray for the Wahau Kenyah of Indonesia

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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

—
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Wahau Kenyah
Language Family: Austronesian

76%
%
Kenyah, Wahau Speakers

Media Resources in Wahau Kenyah:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Wahau Kenyah:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Wahau Kenyah bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Wahau Kenyah 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 Wahau Kenyah:
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 Wahau Kenyah of Indonesia

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed"
readGalatians 3:8

Ask the Lord to fulfill His promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed by advancing the gospel to every people group who has yet to receive it.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.
readDeuteronomy 7:9

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will know God's faithful love and keep His commandments, experiencing His steadfast care.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
read2 Corinthians 12:28

Ask God to raise up believers who will faithfully proclaim the good news and equip others to do the same.

Kenyah, Wahau Across Countries (ROP3 - 104841) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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