Sheela Jane Menon is Assistant Professor of English at Dickinson College, specializing in Malaysian literary and cultural studies. Her current book project maps the contradictions of state multiculturalism through a unique cultural archive consisting of Indigenous (Orang Asal) oral histories as well as Malaysian literature, film, and public culture. Her work has been published in Verge: Studies in Global Asias, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, The Conversation, The Diplomat, and New Mandala.
“Culture isn’t just something [that’s] good for postcards or tourists. It provides meaning for our existence. Social memory never really dies. Even when you don’t know what that is, it will call to you.” In a December 2016 interview, Nadira Ilana, a Dusun filmmaker from the East Malaysian state of Sabah, frames Indigenous, Orang Asal culture as a dynamic, enduring force. She suggests that culture is imbued with history and endowed with the power to speak to the present. I take Nadira’s reflections as starting points for mapping how she and other Orang Asal creatives have answered this call. My paper examines a selection of contemporary Orang Asal film, art, and curatorial projects, illuminating the aesthetic choices, political contexts, and communal strategies that undergird them. I trace points of intersection and collaboration between creatives like Nadira Ilana, Shaq Koyok, and Pangrok Sulap, and curators such as Gerimis Art and the Borneo Arts Collective. In line with the goals of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies: Movements project and inspired by scholars like Kuan-Hsing Chen, my project is attentive to the regional forces and contexts that shape these artists and their work. I examine the different kinds of media platforms and communication strategies that have been central to creating art and fueling collaborations across (and despite) the political and geographic barriers that separate Peninsular and East Malaysia. In so doing, I argue that Orang Asal art and media in Malaysia are experiencing a cultural renaissance, one which is inherently relational and collaborative. Drawing on Daniel Heath Justice’s assertion that “relationship is the driving impetus behind the vast majority of texts by Indigenous writers,” this essay examines the kinds of relationships that structure the work of individual artists, shape collaborations between creatives and curators, and inform the ways in which Orang Asal cultural production is circulated.