Press Release
Artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners in Kota Kinabalu attended the “Archiving & Art-Making: Research, Documentation and Interrogation as Arts Practice”, a public sharing session that took place on 2 April 2026 at Ruang Tamu Ekosistem.
The session explores how archives and documentation can function as active, creative processes within artistic practice. Moving beyond the notion of archives as static repositories, it examines how they shape what is remembered, what is overlooked, and how they can be reimagined as tools for questioning dominant narratives and reclaiming community knowledge. Led by Catriona Maddocks, a curator, artist and researcher whose work centres collaborative, community-driven approaches across Borneo. Based in Sarawak since 2009, Maddocks has worked extensively with craft practitioners, musicians, and Indigenous communities to document cultural knowledge while challenging conventional archival frameworks.
Over the past 15 years, she has been an active presence in East Malaysia’s creative scene, developing and contributing to a range of archival projects and platforms. Through the social enterprise Catama, she has collaborated with rural craft practitioners to document woven motifs, techniques, and the cultural meanings embedded within them — highlighting the importance of preserving not only objects, but also the knowledge systems and lived experiences they carry.
Maddocks is also part of the arts platform Borneo Bengkel, where she curated the Soundbank living archive project — an online, interactive initiative that brought together 16 artists and musicians from Borneo, the UK, and beyond. Developed during the COVID-10 pandemic, the project invited participants to document and share sounds, music, images and everyday experiences from their local environments. Using a digital platform, collaborators uploaded and remixed recordings, including endangered languages, folk songs, and environmental soundscapes, creating a share, evolving archive that connects communities across borders while preserving cultural knowledge and lived experience.
Her ongoing work with the Borneo Boat Lute Revival project focuses on Indigenous stringed instruments, working closely with elders to document musical knowledge, revive instrument-making practices, and reconnect these traditions with contemporary communities. The project also critically engages with international museum collections, including those held by the Pitt Rivers Museum, British Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through this work, Maddocks and her collaborators challenge colonial-era archival records, correcting inaccuracies and re-centring Indigenous voices and perspectives.
The sharing session offers a unique opportunity to reflect on how archives can be used not only to preserve the past, but also to shape more inclusive, community-driven futures. Through examples and discussion, participants were invited to consider their own approaches to documentation and the role archives play in creative and cultural work. The session was supported by the Hasanah Social Enterprise Fund 2025, and initiative of the Ministry of Finance Malaysia and Yayaysan Hasanah.
