Sarawakian film director, publisher and artist Sarah Lois Dorai is developing a resource to help pass the Kelabit language on to future generations.
A recipient of this year's Krishen Jit Fund, she will produce Alai & Paren Go To Bario, an elementary-level bilingual children's storybook in Kelabit and English, written by Zoe Da'un Mariner. The project follows Sceptre Seven Press' earlier publications of beginner-level children's books.
"We come from families that are mixed-heritage and we were born in the city – and so we didn't really get much exposure to speaking the Kelabit language. In looking for a resource, we found that there wasn't one apart from a Kelabit translated Bible, and dictionary," said Dorai in a recent interview at the Krishen Jit Fund 2026 event, held at the Five Arts Centre studio, GMBB in KL.
The book is being developed by Dorai and Mariner, who was motivated by a desire to pass her heritage on to her daughter.
"Because Kelabit was passed down orally, there is no standardised spelling, pronunciation or grammatical theory on the language. This book will be a collective work, as we refer to our elders in the village. We hope to also create an audiobook, so that people can listen to how Kelabit is spoken," added Mariner.
Dorai, who is of half-Indian and half-Kelabit heritage, is among seven recipients of this year's Krishen Jit Fund, which supports the development of independent arts and community-based projects in Malaysia.
The Krishen Jit Fund, now in its 21st year, honours the legacy of the late Datuk Krishen Jit (1939–2005), a pioneering Malaysian theatre director, critic, academic and arts advocate.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur-based artist and cultural worker Chew Win Chen, better known as Okui Lala, will use the Krishen Jit Fund grant to produce Something In Me, an experimental video essay examining the body as a site of continual mapping and interpretation.
Structured in fragmented chapters, the work moves between medical records, memory and conversations, treating them as interconnected forms of documentation through which the body and consciousness are continually understood and reinterpreted.
"This video essay examines medical records documenting growths within the body – in this case, non-cancerous growths such as fibroids or cysts, which are common but may require varying degrees of monitoring," said Okui Lala, who divides her time between Kuala Lumpur and her home state of Penang.
"The video essay will feature ultrasound images, things I discovered from looking through the images – some look like constellations in the sky, but the only difference is the doctor is hoping that they don't find a shining star," she added.
Over the years, Okui Lala's multidisciplinary practice has explored identity, language, migration and domestic labour, establishing her as a distinctive voice in Malaysia's contemporary art scene."I've been in the arts scene for a decade, but this work will be a bit different because I used to work with other people, collectives and members of the public in Penang – now with this grant, I'll be focusing more on my own body," she adds.
The other Krishen Jit Fund 2026 recipients are theatremaker and educator Loh Kok Man, whose Smuggling Dreams is a 60-minute interdisciplinary performance combining puppetry, dance, multimedia and physical theatre, visual storyteller Kuik Yi Ke, whose Jalan In The Dream is a cross-media exhibition exploring the animistic cosmologies of the Semaq Beri and Jah Hut Orang Asli communities in Pahang and filmmaker Ananth Subramaniam, whose Society Of Bones is a 15-minute Tamil-language comedy-drama about a Malaysian Tamil village facing displacement after local children discover prehistoric bones beneath their village.
Also receiving the grant are journalist Zince Chew Tze Ying, whose Resting Place: Reaching For The Sky, Belonging To The Earth explores the shared script between a property agent and a grave broker and theatre practitioner Mohammad Naquididin, whose project will develop a web-based learning platform for undergraduate lighting design in the performing arts. Integrating research-based knowledge, practical design processes and interactive digital tools, the platform aims to deepen students' understanding of both the technical and creative aspects of stage lighting.
Supported by Astro and Creador Foundation, the Krishen Jit Fund has awarded 103 grants totalling RM783,000 to date.
The grants support training, workshops, attachments, experimental projects, writing and the development of new work across music, dance, theatre, film, visual arts and performance.
This year, the seven recipients recently announced shared RM61,000 in funding, with individual grants ranging from RM5,000 to RM12,000.
