Dusun is the collective name of an indigenous ethnic group to the Malaysian state of Sabah of North Borneo.

The Dusun people have been internationally recognised as indigenous to Borneo since 2004 as per the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Bruneian Dusuns share a common origin, language and identity with the Bisaya people of Brunei, northern Sarawak and southwestern Sabah.

[3] According to a Genome-wide SNP genotypic data studies by human genetics research team from University Malaysia Sabah (2018),[4] the Northern Borneon Dusun (Sonsogon, Rungus, Lingkabau and Murut) are closely related to Taiwan natives (Ami, Atayal) and non–Austro-Melanesian Filipinos (Visayan, Tagalog, Ilocano, Minanubu), rather than populations from other parts of Borneo.

The present Tambunan-Penampang road was largely constructed based on the trading route used by the Bundu-Liwan Dusun to cross the Crocker Range on their mongimbadi.

The vast majority of Dusuns live in the hills and upland valleys and have a reputation for peacefulness, hospitality, hard work, frugality, drinking and aversion to violence.

They are now modernised and well-integrated into the larger framework of Malaysian society, taking up various occupations as government servants and employees in the private sector, as well as becoming business owners.

The arrival of Christian Missionaries in the 1880s brought to the Dayaks and the Dusuns of Borneo the ability to read, write and converse in English.

Domestically, modern Kaamatan is celebrated as per individual personal aspiration with the option of whether or not to serve the Kadazandusun traditional food and drinks which are mostly non-halal.

[8] For example, the koubasanan dress design for Kadazandusun women of Penampang usually comes in a set of sleeveless blouse combined with long skirts and no hats, while the koubasanan dress design for Kadazandusun women of Papar comes in a set of long sleeves blouse combined with knee-length skirts and wore with a siung hat.

Upon hearing this chant, dancers will raise their hands to the sides of their body and in line with their chest, and move their wrists and arms up and down resembling the movement of a flying bird.

Musical instruments in Sabah are classified into chordophones (tongkungon, gambus, sundatang or gagayan), aerophones (suling, turali or tuahi, bungkau, sompoton), idiophones (togunggak, gong, kulintangan), and membranophones (kompang, gendang or tontog).

[7][9] Kadazandusun people use natural materials as resources in producing handicrafts, including bamboo, rattan, lias, calabash, and woods.

Some of the many handicrafts that are identified with the Kadazandusun people are wakid, barait, sompoton, pinakol, siung hat, parang and gayang.

[7] The mythology is that the Dusun originated from a place called Nunuk Ragang (whose name signifies ‘red-coloured Ficus/banyan tree’).

[12] The quasi-governmental Kadazandusun Cultural Association claimed that this place was located at a village called Tampias in Ranau, renamed "Nunuk Ragang".

[11] The Dusun Lotud occupy the Tuaran district (including Tamparuli sub-district and also Kiulu and Tenghilan villages) as well as the suburb of Telipok in the city of Kota Kinabalu.

From the time before the spread of the major world religions in Southeast Asia and until the present day, the ethnic Lotud were animists.

[citation needed] The boy's family will appoint an elderly person known as 'suruhan' qualified on the 'adat resam' and will visit the girl's house for the purpose of 'merisik' or negotiating.

At the traditional pre-speech, 'adat berian' or dowry custom and belanja dapur or kitchen expenses, the heads of the villages from the man's and girl's sides will start the pre-discussion.

They have prepared some pieces of 'kirai' or the mangrove palm shoot rolled, dried and turned to make cigarettes, or the match sticks as a symbol of notes equivalent to RM1,000 each.

Based on tradition, if the bridegroom does not have assets like land, the 'berian four binukul' (valuable archaic items) will be mentioned with the value of RM1,000.00 as 'adat berian' and has fulfilled the terms.

Most of the Dusun Ranau embrace Islam (especially in Kundasang owing to mass Islamisation of the population from animism during the colonial as well as USNO rules) and also Christianity (in which the largest single denomination amongst them would be the Sidang Injil Borneo, with minorities belonging to other denominations such as Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Seventh-day Adventism, Lutheranism and so on).

[14][15] Ethnically and linguistically related to the other Dusun tribes of the Bundu-Liwan valleys of the Crocker Range, this sub-ethnic group are religiously Christians (most of them being Roman Catholics since the late 19th and early 20th centuries), owing to mass Christianisation done by the Mill Hill Missionaries in today's Diocese of Keningau especially in their home district of Tambunan after converting their fellow Kadazan kinsfolk in Penampang as well as Papar, both located in Sabah's West Coast and the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu into the said religion, with minorities of this tribe's Christian populace being Protestants belonging to churches such as Sidang Injil Borneo, Seventh-day Adventist and many more other denominations, whilst a large non-Christian minority populace of them being Muslims especially those resident in the border villages surrounding the neighbouring district of Ranau, owing to intermarriages and assimilation factors.