Shukri Zali

11/08/2026

https://www.lensculture.com/submissions/d4ae256e-a946-44d2-b177-36f251d6e90d/public

La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion has been submitted to the LensCulture Photobook Prize 2026—a long-term photographic project begun in Borneo in 2004 and developed across Southeast Asia and Europe.

LensCulture

06/08/2026

06/08/2026

22/25 — THOSE HELD BY THE SOIL

Ninh Thuận, Việt Nam, 2025

Those Held by the Soil belongs to West of the Champa Sea, a subchapter within From Borneo to Indochina, one of the two principal chapters of La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion.

During the wider Chăm Bani Ramâwan ceremonial period, families return to ancestral burial grounds, care for the graves and renew their relationship with those who came before them.
Religious dignitaries known as Acar officiate prayers and ancestral rites during the ceremonies associated with Mbeng Muk Kei. The ancestors are invited to return temporarily to the earthly realm and remain close to their families during Ramâwan. [1]

The burial ground therefore remains part of the community’s living social and spiritual geography.
A grave marks physical absence, but it also preserves a place within a lineage. The relationship between generations is maintained through return, care, prayer and repeated ceremonial responsibility.
The soil receives the body and holds its place within the ancestral landscape.

Stone may endure, but stone alone cannot preserve a relationship. Continuity depends upon the living returning to the ground, recognising those buried there and accepting responsibility for what has been inherited.

Chăm Bani religious life has developed through its own history, institutions and forms of authority. Scholarly research cautions against defining it only through external classifications or treating it as an incomplete version of another religious tradition. [2]

The wider historical and religious framework—including Ramâwan, ancestor veneration and the diversity of contemporary Chăm communities—is introduced in the text accompanying Memory and Wind.

RESEARCH NOTES

[1] RAMÂWAN, MBENG MUK KEI AND ANCESTRAL RETURN

Research published by Cambridge University Press identifies Ramâwan as the most important annual ceremonial period for many Chăm Bani communities.

The wider observance includes visits to ancestral graves, prayers officiated by Acar and the invitation of ancestral spirits to return temporarily to the earthly realm.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/article/praxis-and-policy-discourse-on-cham-bani-religious-identity-in-vietnam/06B490A27069397273F92ACC4A0E034D

[2] CHĂM BANI RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

The same research challenges descriptions of Chăm Bani merely as a heterodox, syncretic or incomplete form of Islam.
It argues for understanding Chăm Bani religious identity through the community’s own historical development, practices, institutions and interpretations.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/article/praxis-and-policy-discourse-on-cham-bani-religious-identity-in-vietnam/06B490A27069397273F92ACC4A0E034D

SELECTED RECOGNITION

This photograph forms part of the recognised and published photo essay:
The Earth Remembers Through Us — Official Selection
International Photography Awards, 2026
https://www.photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1722625557-26

The Earth Remembers Through Us — Selected and published
Prêmio Portfólio FotoDoc, 2026

https://fotodoc.com.br/en/photo-essay/the-earth-remembers-through-us/

FEATURE / READ MORE

Read the FMT feature on La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion:
“Documenting humanity across borders with his pictures”

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2026/06/06/documenting-humanity-across-borders-with-his-pictures/

From La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion, an ongoing photographic and moving-image project by Shukri Zali, begun in 2004.
Photography and text © Shukri Zali. All rights reserved.

Editorial note: AI-assisted tools supported research organisation and language refinement. The concept, selection of facts, interpretation and final editorial decisions are the author’s own. All sources and final wording were reviewed and approved by the author.

06/08/2026

15/25 — PASSING THE OFFERINGS

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2024

Passing the Offerings belongs to The Great Lake of Hope, a subchapter within From Borneo to Indochina, one of the two principal chapters of La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion.

The title refers not only to ritual objects, but also to the transmission of responsibility.

Traditions do not survive independently of the people who practise them. They must be prepared, carried, received and renewed. Their continuity depends upon repeated acts through which inherited meanings are brought into the present.

Within historic Khmer Buddhist imagery, the lotus is associated with sacred figures and with the purification of human life. Lotus forms recur throughout Cambodian religious art. [1]

The lotus also occupies an important place in Thailand. Flowers, incense and candles remain common offerings to Buddhist monks and Buddha images, while the annual Rab Bua festival at Bang Phli centres upon the offering of lotus flowers as expressions of devotion, purity and merit. [3]

This shared symbolism does not mean that Cambodian and Thai practices are identical, or that the two modern nations belong to one undifferentiated culture. It reveals a religious and artistic vocabulary that developed across territories long before present-day national borders were established.
The significance of the lotus does not remain confined to ancient sculpture or doctrine. A symbol stays alive because communities continue to incorporate it into lived practice.

An offering is material, but its intended meaning exceeds the object itself. It may express devotion, gratitude, remembrance or participation in a sacred relationship. Flowers fade, food is consumed and incense disappears into smoke. What persists is the decision to offer again.

A threshold separates one space from another, but it also permits passage between them. Religious life often depends upon movement between domestic, public and ceremonial spaces. Objects, gestures and responsibilities cross those boundaries according to practices that give the passage meaning.

Passing the Offerings follows Where Two Rivers Meet within this album. That earlier photograph considers Cambodia as a shared national space in which distinct religious and cultural identities remain visible. Cambodia’s Constitution protects freedom of belief and worship while recognising Buddhism as the religion of the State. [2]

Culture is not transmitted through declarations alone. It is carried through habits, gestures and forms of attention repeated across generations.
Continuity does not require a practice to remain untouched by history.

RESEARCH NOTES

[1] THE LOTUS IN KHMER BUDDHIST ART

The National Museum of Cambodia identifies the lotus bud among the attributes of sacred Buddhist figures in historic Khmer sculpture and describes the lotus as signifying the purification of human life.

https://nmc.gov.kh/index.php/post-formats/bronze/192-material-bronze-9

This historical symbolism provides cultural context. It does not imply that every contemporary participant assigns one fixed meaning to every lotus offering.

[2] RELIGION UNDER THE CAMBODIAN CONSTITUTION

Article 43 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia protects freedom of belief and religious worship, subject to public-order conditions, and declares Buddhism the religion of the State.

https://pressocm.gov.kh/en/archives/9539

[3] THE LOTUS IN THAI BUDDHIST PRACTICE

The Thailand Foundation identifies flowers, incense and candles as common offerings made to Buddhist monks and Buddha images in Thailand.

https://thailandfoundation.or.th/thai-style-offerings/

At Bang Phli in Samut Prakan, the annual Rab Bua, or Lotus-Receiving Festival, centres upon the offering of lotus flowers to the revered Buddha image Luang Pho To. The lotus is associated with devotion, purity, spiritual awakening and merit-making.

https://thailandfoundation.or.th/rab-bua-thailands-lotus-throwing-festival/

Lotus forms are also prominent in Thai Buddhist architecture, including the lotus-bud stupas associated with Sukhothai art.

https://thailandfoundation.or.th/understanding-thai-buddhist-architecture/

SELECTED RECOGNITION

This photograph forms part of the following recognised series:

Tonlé Sap — Bronze
Press / General News
Prix de la Photographie Paris — PX3, 2025
https://px3.fr/winners/px3/2025/15578/
The PX3 recognition applies to the Tonlé Sap series in which this photograph was included.

FEATURE / READ MORE

Read the FMT feature on La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion:
“Documenting humanity across borders with his pictures”
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2026/06/06/documenting-humanity-across-borders-with-his-pictures/

From La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion, an ongoing photographic and moving-image project by Shukri Zali, begun in 2004.

Photography and text © Shukri Zali. All rights reserved.

Editorial note: AI-assisted tools supported research organisation and language refinement. The concept, selection of facts, interpretation and final editorial decisions are the author’s own. All sources and final wording were reviewed and approved by the author.

01/08/2026

A VISUAL OVERVIEW OF LA MARCHE DE L’HUMANITÉ / HUMANITY IN MOTION

Nine photographs drawn from the current 25-image sequence. This overview image sits outside the numbered sequence.

LA MARCHE DE L’HUMANITÉ / HUMANITY IN MOTION is An ongoing authorial documentary project begun in Borneo in 2004 and later extended across Southeast Asia, France and Europe. It examines migration, culture, dignity, memory, labour, faith and belonging.

— ONE HUMANITY —

The project begins from a simple conviction: humanity is one, but never uniform.
In moral and poetic terms, it speaks of one human race; scientifically, of one living human species, Homo sapiens. Differences of appearance, language, faith, culture, nationality and history exist within one human family.
Modern biological anthropology does not support dividing humanity into separate, fixed biological races, although racial categories and racism remain socially and politically consequential. [1]

— CITOYEN DU MONDE —

From this follows the idea of the citoyen du monde—the citizen of the world.
It is not a legal nationality and does not erase attachment to a country, community or culture. It is an ethical position: people can remain rooted in particular places while recognising responsibilities towards a common humanity.

The United Nations associates global citizenship with human dignity, cultural diversity and a sense of belonging beyond national boundaries. [2]

— HUMANITY IN MIGRATION —

As far back as archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence allows us to see, human history is also a history of migration.

Human populations moved across continents and seas, adapted to new environments and carried languages, knowledge, beliefs and practices with them. Later movements followed coastlines, rivers, mountain passages and maritime routes through trade, agriculture, kinship, labour, conflict, displacement, faith and the search for safety or opportunity.

Migration is not an interruption of human history; it is one of the processes through which societies and cultures were formed. [3]

This does not mean that everyone migrates or that all movement is voluntary. It means that human mobility predates the borders that now classify people as citizens, foreigners, immigrants, refugees or stateless persons.

Immigration is a legal category defined by states; human movement is much older than the modern state.

— FROM BORNEO TO INDOCHINA —

The project’s first principal chapter, From Borneo to Indochina, moves through Sabah—The Land Below the Wind, formerly North Borneo—and Sarawak—Land of the Hornbills—before continuing to Cebu in the Philippines, Siam or present-day Thailand, Cambodia and Việt Nam.

It follows cultures and relationships shaped by seas, rivers, mountains, migration, trade, kinship, language, ritual, foodways and material knowledge.

In Borneo, languages spoken by Kayan, Kenyah, Dusun and Murut communities belong to the extensive Austronesian family. The prevailing archaeological and linguistic model traces a major prehistoric expansion from Taiwan through the Philippines and into Island Southeast Asia.

This does not mean that today’s Bornean communities arrived unchanged from Taiwan. Their cultures developed through long histories of movement, intermarriage, exchange and differentiation within Borneo itself. [4]

European expansion later divided the island politically. British and Dutch spheres and boundary agreements contributed to the territorial divisions inherited by the three modern states that now share Borneo: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Colonial lines divided administrations and later nation-states, but languages, cultures, kinship networks and routes of movement had long crossed the island’s interior and coasts. [5]

On the mainland, the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 transferred Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu from Siamese to British suzerainty, contributing to the present border between northern Malaysia and southern Thailand.
Franco-Siamese settlements of 1893, 1904 and 1907 forced Siam to surrender territories and helped shape its later frontiers with French-controlled Laos and Cambodia. Siam remained formally independent, but not untouched by European imperial pressure. [5]

These borders did not create the region’s cultures. They placed modern political lines across older geographies of mobility and exchange.
The project therefore approaches Borneo, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Việt Nam not only as separate national territories, but as parts of a connected human and cultural landscape.

— CHAMPA AND THE CHAM —

The Cham provide another history of migration and cultural continuity.
The civilisation of Champa left major architectural and religious traces, including Mỹ Sơn in present-day Việt Nam. Cham languages belong to the Austronesian family, connecting them linguistically to the wider maritime world.
Political upheaval and territorial loss later carried Cham communities into Cambodia, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, where culture continued through language, religion, kinship and adaptation. [6]

— FRANCE AND EUROPE —

The second principal chapter, Where Ideals and Hope Collide, turns towards France and Europe.
France and former French Indochina are connected through colonisation, war, education, labour and migration. France transported soldiers and workers from Indochina during the colonial period and the world wars.

Decolonisation and later conflicts brought Hmong, Khmer, Lao and Vietnamese people to France and elsewhere in Europe, carrying memory and culture across continents. [7]

Movement now also occurs in the other direction. French administrative records document established French populations in Thailand, Việt Nam and Cambodia, while scholarship describes European retirement migration, employment and newer forms of long-term mobility in Southeast Asia. [8]

These contemporary movements are not equivalent to colonial conquest, forced labour or refugee displacement. They nevertheless show that connections between Europe and Southeast Asia remain active and multidirectional.

— CULTURE IN MOTION —

Migration is a foundation of the project, but migrants are not treated as a separate category of humanity.
Those who move and those who remain share needs for dignity, security, attachment, recognition and culture.
Culture travels through language, food, music, belief, craftsmanship, family memory and everyday practice. It is not transported unchanged: it can be preserved, lost, recovered, shared or transformed.

UNESCO similarly understands living cultural heritage as something transmitted between generations while being continually recreated through history, environment and interaction with others. [9]

— THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT —

This is neither a travel record nor a humanitarian catalogue. It does not claim to speak on behalf of every person or culture represented.
It is a long-form visual essay on migration and rootedness, cultural continuity and transformation, common humanity, visibility and exclusion.
Black and white brings different places, years and generations into a shared visual register without erasing their distinctions.

It does not deny colour or cultural identity; it resists allowing skin colour to become the first or final explanation of a human being.
Shadow and light become questions of visibility: what societies illuminate, what they overlook and what emerges when we look longer.
At present, the album comprises 23 photographs, but the project remains open.

— SELECTED RECOGNITION, PUBLICATION AND EXHIBITIONS —

Photographs and separately edited series drawn from La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion have received international recognition and publication.

THE EARTH REMEMBERS THROUGH US
Official Selection — International Photography Awards, 2026
https://www.photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1722625557-26

Selected and published — FotoDoc Portfolio Award, 2026
https://fotodoc.com.br/en/ensaio/the-earth-remembers-through-us/

SŪTRADHĀRA
Selected — FotoDoc Portfolio Award, 2026
https://fotodoc.com.br/en/imagem-destacada/sutradhara/

Official Selection — International Photography Awards, 2026
https://www.photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1722627451-26

TONLÉ SAP
Bronze, Press / General News — Prix de la Photographie Paris, 2025
https://px3.fr/winners/px3/2025/15578/

THE GREAT LAKE OF HOPE
Honorable Mention — Budapest International Foto Awards, 2025
https://budapestfotoawards.com/winners/social/2025/93-38299-25/1779804581/

SUGBO
3rd Place, Editorial / Press / Other — International Photography Awards, 2024
https://photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1717190874-24

Honorable Mention — Budapest International Foto Awards, 2023
https://budapestfotoawards.com/winners/hm/2023/93-29955-23/

WORRIED FOR THE YOUNG ONE’S FUTURE
3rd Place — Prix de la Photographie Paris, 2009
https://px3.fr/winners/px3/2009/1276/

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Black & White
Blank Wall Gallery, Athens, Greece, 2017

The Essence of Monochrome
Ferencvárosi Művelődési Központ, Budapest, Hungary, 2017

International Exhibition of Art Photography
Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013

— RESEARCH NOTES —

[1] ONE HUMAN SPECIES AND THE “HUMAN RACE”

The phrase “one human race” is used in its moral and literary sense. The scientifically precise formulation is one living human species, Homo sapiens.

UNESCO — Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights
https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/universal-declaration-human-genome-and-human-rights

American Association of Biological Anthropologists — Statement on Race and Racism
https://bioanth.org/about/aaba-statement-on-race-racism/

Smithsonian Human Origins Program — One Species, Living Worldwide
https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/one-species-living-worldwide

[2] CITOYEN DU MONDE AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Citoyen du monde is used as an ethical idea, not a formal legal status. United Nations material connects global citizenship with belonging to a common humanity, cultural diversity, human rights and responsibilities across borders.

United Nations Academic Impact — Global Citizenship
https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/global-citizenship

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Cosmopolitanism
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/

[3] MIGRATION THROUGH HUMAN HISTORY

Archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence shows that migration has been a recurrent part of human prehistory and history.

Peter Bellwood — First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective
https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/publications/first-migrants-ancient-migration-in-global-perspective/

Patrick Manning and Tiffany Trimmer — Migration in World History
https://www.routledge.com/Migration-in-World-History/Manning-Trimmer/p/book/9781138295841

[4] AUSTRONESIAN DISPERSAL AND BORNEO

The broad Taiwan–Philippines–Island Southeast Asia model concerns prehistoric linguistic and population movement. It should not be interpreted as a simple or unmixed genealogy for present-day Kayan, Kenyah, Dusun or Murut communities.

Peter Bellwood — First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective
https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/publications/first-migrants-ancient-migration-in-global-perspective/

Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus Himmelmann, eds. — The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar
https://www.routledge.com/The-Austronesian-Languages-of-Asia-and-Madagascar/Adelaar-Himmelmann/p/book/9780415681537

[5] COLONIAL BOUNDARIES IN BORNEO AND SIAM

British and Dutch expansion contributed to borders later inherited by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 and the Franco-Siamese settlements of 1893, 1904 and 1907 helped shape modern boundaries around Siam, British Malaya and French Indochina.

D. S. Ranjit Singh — The Resolution of Anglo-Spanish Claims and the Anglo-Dutch Boundary in North Borneo, 1878–1915
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/indonesiamalaysia-dispute-concerning-sovereignty-over-sipadan-and-ligitan-islands/resolution-of-anglospanish-claims-and-the-anglodutch-boundary-in-north-borneo-18781915/1A51DF91BDB086FBFDA83133D4823009

Thamsook Numnonda — The Anglo-Siamese Negotiations, 1900–1909
https://image.mfa.go.th/mfa/0/4OJCTby7gE/The_Anglo-Siamese_Negotiations_1900-1909.pdf

[6] CHAMPA, MỸ SƠN AND CHAM MIGRATION

Mỹ Sơn preserves material evidence of Champa’s religious and political history. Scholarship records later Cham migrations into Cambodia, Malaysia and the wider Malay world.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/949/

Philip Taylor, ed. — Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta
https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/cham-muslims-of-the-mekong-delta

[7] FROM INDOCHINA TO FRANCE AND EUROPE

Research documents the recruitment and transportation of Vietnamese workers and soldiers to France, followed by later Hmong, Khmer, Lao and Vietnamese migration associated with decolonisation and conflict.

Colonial Labour in French Policy: The Lính Thợ Sent from Vietnam to France, 1939–1950s
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/article/colonial-labour-in-french-policy-a-case-study-of-the-linh-tho-sent-from-vietnam-to-france-19391950s/68E560C37B161F5071F66B05E99D8A80

[8] CONTEMPORARY MOVEMENT TOWARDS SOUTHEAST ASIA

At the end of 2023, France’s voluntary consular register recorded:
Thailand: 14,954 French residents
Việt Nam: 7,163 French residents
Cambodia: 4,967 French residents
These figures are not exhaustive because registration is voluntary.

French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs — Report on French Citizens Abroad
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/files/files/le-ministere/rapports-plans-et-publications/documents-institutionnels/rapport_gouvernement_2024_fae.pdf

[9] CULTURE AS LIVING HERITAGE
UNESCO defines intangible cultural heritage as culture transmitted between generations and continually recreated by communities in relation to their environment, history and social interaction.

UNESCO — Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention

— FEATURE / READ MORE —

Read the FMT Lifestyle feature on La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion:

“Documenting humanity across borders with his pictures”
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2026/06/06/documenting-humanity-across-borders-with-his-pictures

From La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion, an ongoing photographic and moving-image project by Shukri Zali, begun in 2004.

Photography and text © Shukri Zali. All rights reserved.

Editorial note: AI-assisted tools supported research organisation, source verification and language refinement. The concept, field observations, interpretation, image selection and final editorial decisions are the author’s own. All sources and final wording were reviewed and approved by the author.

01/08/2026

This album presents the complete early silver-gelatin archive from Shukri Zali’s Sa Pa body of work: 10 black-and-white silver-gelatin prints representing 9 unique photographs, photographed in Sa Pa, Việt Nam, in 2006 and printed professionally in a darkroom no later than 2010.

The photographs belong to Beyond the Red River Delta — Sa Pa Before Mass Tourism, a subchapter within From Borneo to Indochina, the first principal chapter of La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion.

La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion is Shukri Zali’s long-term authorial photographic project, begun in 2004, tracing ordinary lives, cultural memory, minority presence, faith, labour, movement, and the relationship between humanity and the living world across Southeast Asia and Europe.

These ten prints comprise the complete early silver-gelatin archive currently offered from this Sa Pa body of work. They were printed professionally no later than 2010 and were not issued as a formal numbered edition.

Throughout the album, each photograph is also presented alongside documentary photographs of the corresponding physical silver-gelatin print or prints.

— RECOGNITION CONNECTED TO THE SA PA ARCHIVE —

Worried for the Young One’s Future received 3rd Place at the Prix de la Photographie Paris in 2009.
Official PX3 2009 archive:
https://www.px3.fr/winners/winners.php?compName=PX3+2009

The Lines of a Life was exhibited at Blank Wall Gallery, Athens, and at Ferencvárosi Művelődési Központ, Budapest, in 2017.

The exhibition prints were produced locally from submitted digital files and are distinct from the early silver-gelatin print included in this archive.

One photograph from the archive, titled The Work Ahead, now forms part of the current 23-image sequence of La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion.

The Work Ahead:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1533730945436640&set=a.1533736982102703

— SELECTED RECOGNITION OF THE WIDER PROJECT —

Work drawn from La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion and its related series has subsequently received:

Bronze — Prix de la Photographie Paris, 2025
Press / General News
https://px3.fr/winners/px3/2025/15578/

3rd Place and Official Selection — International Photography Awards, 2024
Editorial / Press
https://www.photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1717190874-24

Official Selection — International Photography Awards, 2026
The Earth Remembers Through Us
https://www.photoawards.com/social/zoom.php?eid=8-1722625557-26

Selected and published — FotoDoc Portfolio Award, 2026
The Earth Remembers Through Us
https://fotodoc.com.br/en/ensaio/the-earth-remembers-through-us/

The wider project was featured by FMT Lifestyle in June 2026:

“Documenting humanity across borders with his pictures”
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2026/06/06/documenting-humanity-across-borders-with-his-pictures

— AVAILABLE FOR ACQUISITION —

The 10 prints are offered only as one complete archive set. Individual prints are not offered separately.
The price and private acquisition dossier are available upon serious acquisition enquiry.

Acquisition enquiries: send a Facebook message or email [email protected]

Photography and prints © Shukri Zali. All rights reserved.

31/07/2026

02/25 — BEFORE THE BORDER

Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia, 2005

Previously unpublished, this photograph belongs to From Borneo to Indochina, one of the two principal chapters of La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion.

The photograph appears to bring together two performers from communities commonly grouped in Sarawak under the wider name Orang Ulu, or “upriver people.” Orang Ulu is an umbrella designation rather than the name of one people; it includes Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Punan and several other distinct communities, although classifications vary. [1]

Based on the photographer’s recollection, the performer on the left may be Penan or Punan, while the performer on the right may be Kenyah or Kayan. Their precise identities can no longer be confirmed and therefore remain provisional.
Across the front of the stage, a sweeping kalong- or kalung-style ornament appears to draw on Kayan–Kenyah visual traditions. Curling vegetal forms surround an elongated creature that may incorporate an aso’, the dog-dragon figure found in Orang Ulu art. Because the panel may be contemporary stage scenery combining several decorative forms, the exact motif cannot be established from the photograph alone. [2]

The communities associated with these traditions are not confined to one modern country. Kayan and Kenyah histories extend through the interior river systems of Sarawak and Indonesian Borneo, including the Baram, Balui–Belaga and upper Rajang regions and, across the present international frontier, the Apo Kayan, upper Kayan and Mahakam areas. Rivers, watersheds, marriage, trade and migration connected this interior before it was divided between colonial administrations. [3]

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European expansion fragmented Borneo into several political units: Dutch Borneo; British North Borneo; Sarawak under the Brooke dynasty and later British rule; and Brunei under British protection. The Dutch and British became the island’s principal colonial powers, although the forms of rule differed from one territory to another. [4]

The Anglo-Dutch Boundary Convention of 1891, followed by surveys and further agreements culminating in 1915, fixed a colonial line through Borneo’s interior. After decolonisation, Dutch Borneo became part of Indonesia, while Sarawak and North Borneo became part of Malaysia. Brunei followed a separate path to independence. The present Sarawak–Kalimantan frontier therefore descends substantially from a boundary negotiated between European powers across an older Indigenous geography. [4]

Borneo’s human history reaches much further into the past. The Niah Caves preserve evidence of human interaction with the rainforest extending over at least 50,000 years. Present-day ethnic names cannot, however, simply be attached to those prehistoric populations. [5]

Recent genetic research found ancestry among the northeastern Bornean Punan Batu, Punan Tubu and Punan Aput with a time depth exceeding 7,500 years, supporting exceptionally deep local continuity among these particular communities. That finding should not be extended automatically to all peoples called Punan or to the Penan, Kenyah, Kayan or Orang Ulu collectively. [5]

RESEARCH NOTES

[1] ORANG ULU AND THE PROVISIONAL IDENTIFICATIONS

Scholarly and institutional usage describes Orang Ulu as an umbrella category encompassing numerous upriver communities in Sarawak. Lists vary, but commonly include Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Punan, Kelabit, Lun Bawang and other smaller communities.
The identifications retained for this photograph are based on the photographer’s memory:
left: possibly Penan or Punan;
right: possibly Kenyah or Kayan.
Penan and Punan are not interchangeable names, nor are Kenyah and Kayan.
Journal of Borneo–Kalimantan — discussion of Orang Ulu as an umbrella category
https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/BJK/article/view/9570/2676
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak — classification of Orang Ulu communities
https://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/1268/

[2] KALONG, KALUNG AND THE ASO’

Research on Orang Ulu and wider Dayak ornament describes compositions built from curling, interlocking and vegetal forms, frequently incorporating animal and guardian figures.
The stage panel appears consistent with this visual language, but its precise identification remains provisional.
Ringah Kanyan and Zainurul Aniza A. Rahman — “Exploring the Semiotics of the Dayak Motifs in Sarawak”
https://eprints.usm.my/37582/1/sspis_2015_ms167_-_175.pdf
Ringah Kanyan — The Semiotics Aspect in the Dayak Motif Design
https://eprints.usm.my/59227/1/RINGAH%20ANAK%20KANYAN%20-%20TESIS%20cut.pdf

[3] THE TRANSBOUNDARY INTERIOR

Cristina Eghenter’s research on the Apo Kayan region describes a Kenyah interior centred on the headwaters of the Kayan River near the present border between Indonesian Kalimantan and Sarawak. The article examines how contemporary border practices intersect with older mobility, social relationships and understandings of territory.
Cristina Eghenter — “Practices and Views of the Border in the Apo Kayan Region of Indonesian Borneo”
https://journals.openedition.org/moussons/1794?lang=en

[4] THE COLONIAL PARTITION OF BORNEO

Nineteenth-century European expansion divided Borneo into Brunei, Sarawak, North Borneo and Dutch Borneo. The northern territories fell within the British imperial sphere, while the larger southern and eastern territory was incorporated into the Netherlands East Indies.
Negotiations between Britain and the Netherlands produced the Anglo-Dutch Boundary Convention of 1891. Physical delimitation followed between 1912 and 1914 and culminated in the 1915 boundary settlement.
D**g Jung Kim — “Colonial Oil and Decolonization in Borneo”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/fueling-sovereignty/colonial-oil-and-decolonization-in-borneo/D1935B1FC4BDE6B9FCA7606069F81DB6
D. S. Ranjit Singh — “The Resolution of Anglo-Spanish Claims and the Anglo-Dutch Boundary in North Borneo, 1878–1915”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/indonesiamalaysia-dispute-concerning-sovereignty-over-sipadan-and-ligitan-islands/resolution-of-anglospanish-claims-and-the-anglodutch-boundary-in-north-borneo-18781915/1A51DF91BDB086FBFDA83133D4823009
Eric Tagliacozzo — “Borneo in Fragments: Geology, Biota, and Contraband in Trans-national Circuits”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/trans-trans-regional-and-national-studies-of-southeast-asia/article/abs/borneo-in-fragments-geology-biota-and-contraband-in-transnational-circuits/096376185E28579D3B444B41D6418CEE

[5] DEEP HUMAN HISTORY AND PUNAN ANCESTRY
The Niah Caves contain records of human interaction with Borneo’s rainforest extending over at least 50,000 years. Archaeological evidence of this depth cannot by itself identify those populations with present-day ethnic communities.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre — The Archaeological Heritage of Niah National Park’s Caves Complex
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1014/
A 2023 genetic study of the Punan Batu, Punan Tubu and Punan Aput found deep shared ancestry with a time depth exceeding 7,500 years. The result concerns these studied populations and should not be generalised to all Orang Ulu communities.
Pradiptajati Kusuma et al. — “Deep Ancestry of Bornean Hunter-Gatherers Supports Long-Term Local Ancestry Dynamics”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221112472301358X

FEATURE / READ MORE

Read the FMT Lifestyle feature on La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion:
“Documenting humanity across borders with his pictures”
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2026/06/06/documenting-humanity-across-borders-with-his-pictures

From La Marche de l’humanité / Humanity in Motion, an ongoing photographic and moving-image project by Shukri Zali, begun in 2004.
Photography and text © Shukri Zali. All rights reserved.

Editorial note: AI-assisted tools supported research organisation and language refinement. The concept, selection of facts, interpretation and final editorial decisions are the author’s own. All sources and final wording were reviewed and approved by the author.