I have always loved presenting the results of research in an accessible and beautiful way, ‘informing, educating and entertaining’, as the BBC charter puts their own commitment. This has led me into museum work – making collections, curating exhibitions and most recently taking on the role of curator of the Hull University SE Asia Museum.

Hull South East Asia Museum

In late 2021 I took on the role of Curator of the SE Asia Museum and collection at the University of Hull.

I’m putting on a series of exhibitions aiming to raise the profile of the Museum and the collection. The first of these, in 2023, was entitled Heroines, Heroes and Cosmic Power in SE Asia. It was based on two narratives, about hero couples in the highlands and lowlands. I provide here the storyboards used in the exhibition, and some photos of the exhibition.

Heroines, Heroes and Cosmic Power Exhibition 2023

Storyboards

Heroes from an upland society

Heroes from lowland kingdoms

Power in SE Asia

The Art of Stephen Baya

Weapons and Cosmic Power

Photos of the Exhibition

Cultured Rainforest Exhibitions

To present the findings of the Cultured Rainforest project in the Kelabit Highlands, I curated a series of exhibitions in the Kelabit Highlands between 2013 and 2016.

The first of these was at the University of Cambridge in 2013 and the second, through the Sarawak Museum, was at the Miri Petroleum Museum in 2015.

The exhibition in Miri was transferred to the local community museum in Bario, the Teripun, in 2016, and some of the exhibition has become a permanent part of the Teripun.

Exhibition at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2013

Exhibition in Miri, Sarawak at the Petroleum Museum

Exhibition in Bario, 2016

Recordings of the legend of Tuked Rini

At the exhibitions we included recordings of the Kelabit myth about the culture hero and heroine Tuked Rini and his wife Aruring Menepo Boong as recited by Balang Pelaba of Pa' Dalih and by Ribuh Balang of Bario.

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Balang Pelaba reciting the Legend of Tuked Rini
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Virtual Visits

As part of these exhibitions, films were shown taking the visitor through the virtual visits created as part of the Cultured Rainforest. These films are included here. The virtual visits themselves, which are interactive, can be found on the part of the website about the Cultured Rainforest project.

Kelabit Collections

While I was living in the Kelabit Highlands in 1986-88, I made two comprehensive collections of Kelabit handicrafts, one for the British Museum in London and one for the Sarawak Museum in Kuching.

Many of the items in the Sarawak Museum collection are now exhibited in the Borneo Cultures Museum, which opened in 2022. In 2017-18, I was a research fellow at the Sarawak Museum, helping to plan the BCM.

I provide here catalogues of the two collections, which are the appendix to my book ‘The Forest Source of Life’.