Human-Nature: Alternative Narratives Creative Collaboration Grants

UK Collaborator: Catherine Baxendale, Invisible Flock
Malaysia Collaborator: Tariq Zaman, University of Technology Sarawak

Carrier Frequencies: Ha’ lem Tana’ lalun combines creative technology and arts-based practices to listen to Long Lamai forest. Understanding sound as an analysis of biodiversity and artistic medium by which to hear and speak about change, the project forefronts community-embedded, grassroots approaches to climatic change. The project is a collaboration between University of Technology, Penan Community in Long Lamai, Orang Ulu Gallery, and artists Invisible Flock, and takes the form of forest listening and co-creation of two audio/sensory sculptures.

UK Collaborator: Rupert Cox, Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester
Malaysia Collaborator: Juliana Aping, Pertubuhan Kolektif Budaya Sabah 

Rinait Soundscapes explores the traditional ecological knowledge of Sabah’s Kadazandusun community through the ancient Rinait chants of Bobolian elders. The unique language of these ritual chants carries understandings about rainforest plants and life not found in everyday speech. By combining sound recording, visual documentation, and ecological arts practice, the project connects Indigenous knowledge with modern conservation efforts. This multi-sensory work helps pass on traditions to younger generations, while protecting these sacred soundscapes as an important part of cultural identity and resilience.

UK Collaborator: Ecosystem2
Malaysia Collaborator: Forever Sabah

Sabah’s Future Climate Chronicles combines data science, technology, and storytelling to create an interactive digital simulation on the Cesium platform. Merging fine-scale climate modelling with Indigenous-led video storytelling, the project humanises scientific data by grounding it in lived experiences. Presentations of lives and livelihoods alongside climate models aim to spark awareness and inspire conversations on climate change in Sabah.

UK Collaborator: Alice Aedy, Earthrise Studio
Malaysia Collaborator: Abe Lim, Anthropocene Media

Shared Ground is a UK–Malaysia storytelling project exploring how extractive economies shape people's relationships with land, labour, and nature. Told through a 4-minute Malay-language film with English captions, it follows communities living with environmental change and the uneven costs of development. Through cinematic people-and-place storytelling and supporting digital content, the project connects Malaysian lived experience with UK audiences, encouraging dialogue on responsibility, consumption, care and how more equitable human-nature relationships might be imagined across borders. 

UK Collaborator: Teresa Serrano Aviles, University of East London
Malaysia Collaborator: Azmah Arzmi, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 

Tana’ Adat explores how human–nature relationships in Indigenous Bidayuh settlements in Sarawak have changed over the past century through shifts in architecture, land use, and everyday spatial practices. Working with the community of Kampung Benuk, the project uses oral histories, participatory mapping, and local knowledge to understand changes in customary land governance and ecological practices, including collective mapping of memory and place. It centres Indigenous perspectives to contribute to wider conversations on environmental change, cultural continuity, and climate resilience.