Resilient Landscapes: Co-Producing Orang Asli Visual Narratives of Climate Change and Environmental Transformation

The Orang Asli, the Indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, are increasingly affected by climate change and environmental degradation. Expanding deforestation, mining, quarrying, and palm oil agriculture are transforming ancestral landscapes, limiting access to forest foods, clean water, and medicinal plants. These changes have significant consequences for health, cultural practices, and traditional ecological knowledge systems closely tied to forest environments.

The Resilient Landscapes project explores how Orang Asli communities experience and respond to these transformations through interdisciplinary, community-centred research. Combining ethnographic and creative methods, the project collaborates with Indigenous artist Shaq Koyok to facilitate participatory art workshops that document local experiences of environmental change and its impacts on wellbeing and livelihoods. These workshops create a platform for Orang Asli voices within wider discussions of sustainability and climate action.

The project aims to generate new insights into the relationships between health, environment, and culture, while contributing to public engagement through collaborative research outputs and a digital platform documenting community artworks and fieldwork.