As part of Human-Nature, the British Council’s 3-year programme in Malaysia exploring the role of the arts and creative approaches to highlight climate adaptation, Radical Ecology and Borneo Bengkel are collaborating with the British Council to deliver TIME OF THE RIVERS, an artist fellowship programme running from March to September 2025. This fellowship will include online mentoring sessions to deepen decolonial approaches to art and ecology (March/April), 2 x 2-week field visits in Borneo and the UK respectively (between June-August), and an online showcase reflecting research findings and proposals for new works that will emerge through the 6-month programme (September).
The project builds on ongoing research and community engagement by Radical Ecology and Borneo Bengkel into the ecological and social impact of big dam projects including Bengoh (Sarawak, 2010s) and Burrator (Dartmoor, 1890s). It centres the lives of displaced communities and historic legacies of dispossession, raising questions around how far extractivist dynamics of economic development are also reflected in dominant approaches to heritage and culture that connect the UK and Borneo to this day.
In the face of such dynamics and projected impacts of global warming, the project also considers the reparative and emancipatory potential of artistic strategies that reconnect us with the time and flow of our river ecologies.
Fellows will be announced in March 2025.
Meet the Mentors
Celine Lim. An indigenous Kayan from Sarawak, Malaysia, Celine Lim is the Managing Director of SAVE Rivers, a grassroots organisation advocating for indigenous rights and environmental protection. Through community mapping, agroforestry and more, SAVE Rivers empowers local indigenous communities in climate solutions. Celine’s work addresses deforestation, sustainability and social inequalities, earning her recognition in sustainability leadership and women-led impact.
Emma Nicolson is Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland. She is known for her innovative approach to art, nature and community engagement, having spearheaded transformative projects at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and founded the award-winning ATLAS Arts on the Isle of Skye. Emma was part of the 2024 Human-Nature delegation to Malaysia, funded by the British Council.
Françoise Vergès is a Senior Research Fellow at UCL’s Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation and Bennister Fletcher Foundation Fellow in 2025 for ‘Imagining the Post-Museum’. Her recent publications include ‘Making the World Clean: Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment and Racial Capitalism’ (Goldsmiths Press, 2024), ‘A Programme of Absolute Disorder’ (Pluto Press, 2024) and ‘A Decolonial Feminism’ (Pluto Press, 2024).
June Rubis is an indigenous scholar, decolonial thinker and conservationist from Sarawak, Malaysia with over 20 years of experience in biodiversity conservation, climate change and indigenous knowledge systems. She is the Global Council Co-Chair of Documenting Territories for the ICCA (Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas) Consortium, and co-founded BiiH (Building Initiatives in Indigenous Heritage) to support the revitalisation of rituals and cultural protocols in her homeland and beyond.