The Kenyah people, traditionally being swidden agriculturalists[5] and living in longhouses (uma dado'),[6] is an umbrella term for over 40 sub-groups that mostly share common migration histories, customs, and related dialects.

When they have an event or celebration such as harvest festival, they will normally use the longhouse verandah (oseh bi'o) to gather and deliver speeches to guide their youngsters.

Before the arrival of Christian missionaries, the Kenyah people practice a traditional form of animism called 'Adat Pu'un'.

Statistical figures, based on the Indonesian and Malaysian national censuses collected in 2000, recorded a total of 44,350 Kenyah people in East Kalimantan, Indonesia and 24,906 in Sarawak, Malaysia.

The Kenyah people are also divided into various sub-ethnic groups such as:-[14] The Usun Apau (aka Usun Apo) plateau (in the Plieran River valley) or Apo Kayan Highlands (a remote forested plateau in Malaysian and Indonesian border) in the present-day Indonesian province of North Kalimantan and Malaysia's Sarawak is believed by the Kenyah people to be their place of origin;[15] which was the largest concentration site of Kenyah populations between the late 19th century to the early 1980s.