Discovering the ‘others’ who make Malaysia what it is

Faye Lim travels across the country to document the stories of small communities whose identities have long been buried under the catch-all category.

It happened at a combined celebration of the Kaamatan and Gawai festivities of Sabah and Sarawak that she first began to realise just how much of Malaysia’s cultural tapestry she had never known.

She met people at the celebration who introduced themselves by the names of communities she had never heard of. “I met people who said, ‘I’m Kelabit.’ Then someone else said, ‘I’m Kiput.’ I thought, what is this? I didn’t understand,” said Lim, who is better known as Faye Lim.

She admitted feeling ashamed when she realised there were so many communities and ethnic groups in Malaysia she knew nothing about. She began seeking out the people and stories behind those names, particularly communities whose identities had long been reduced to the catch-all category of “others”.

Finding Malaysia’s ‘family’

The journey grew through the Rojak Projek using art, food and culture to connect with people from different backgrounds. One of her early projects involved creating portraits of Malaysians using food such as onde-onde, laksa and nasi lemak.

Through the project, she began to realise that Malaysia’s diversity was far broader than she had ever known. She has gathered information on more than 250 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups so far.

“After meeting so many people, I can’t imagine my life without knowing them. I’ve gained so much knowledge, connections and experiences from this journey,” said the 36-year-old.

In 2025, her efforts took her deep into Sarawak after she received a Gamuda Foundation grant to trace and document the cultures of Orang Ulu communities.

Lim and her team initially set out to meet 15 communities, but eventually documented the stories of 18, including the Lun Bawang, Kedayan, Bisaya, Tabun, Berawan, Tering, Sa’ban, Kenyah, Penan and Penan Peruan.

Their stories were later shared on the social media platforms of the Rojak Projek and Canvas Art Malaysia.

“As someone from the peninsula, I realised that many of us simply don’t know them. But I also found Sarawakians who didn’t know these small communities. If I mention names such as Kiput, Sa’ban or other minority communities, many people in Sarawak might not even know who they are.

“But when we bring their stories to a wider audience and give them space to share, more people begin to learn that they exist,” she said.

Heritage under threat

For Lim, the small size of a community should never mean that its existence is overlooked, especially when its language, customs and culture face the risk of disappearing.

The migration of younger generations to cities meant older members were increasingly among the last people who still practised their communities’ customs and their heritage.

“Take the Tabun community, for example. There may be only about 20 to 30 people still recorded as Tabun. The rest are almost gone,” she said.

The effort to document these communities also took Lim and her team deep into the interior, including journeys by boat.

“Once, we were stranded after dark without phone reception. I ended up crying, but fortunately, one of us managed to get a signal and call for help,” she said.

But the experience only strengthened Lim’s determination to continue telling the stories of communities that have long gone unnoticed.

For her, getting to know these communities is about understanding the country itself. We have to make an effort to get to know our ‘family’ in Malaysia. We are what makes Malaysia what it is,” she said.