‘Plates, Vol.3: Water’ | Published November 2020
The School by the Sea discusses geopolitical themes, beginning with the questions of migration, identity, belonging and human rights in the story of the unrecognised Bajau-Suluk community in Teluk Layan Village, on Sepanggar Bay in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia.
A two-week long storygathering trip to Teluk Layan and Kota Kinabalu (the closest city to the village) was made in February 2020, just before the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic was announced nationally in March.
‘The School by the Sea’ is not a story about a one-off water installation project nor is it a romanticised tale of an ethnic group. It is a story of proof, possibility and hope. It is a story of a collective of millennials doing everything their foregenerations warned them not to do: to talk to strangers, to share their privilege and to fight for those who do not have any.
