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Melbourne Asia Review is an initiative of the Asia Institute. Any inquiries about Melbourne Asia Review should be directed to the Managing Editor, Cathy Harper.
Edition 23, September 2025 Islam and minorities’ rights
INTRODUCTION: How creative art helps us understand & represent nature & climate change
Southeast Asian visual art, film, literature, photography and design help us grapple with the slow unfolding of crises such as rising sea levels, pollution and drought.
Museum climate requirements raise issues of fairness and access in Southeast Asia
'Universal' assumptions about suitable climates for collections usually represent particular ideas about cultural preservation and overlook others.
The myth and politics of nature in Laksmi Pamuntjak’s novel Amba
Amba presents political events as unfolding within the more enduring cycles of nature, and of myth.
Re-examining colonial-era maritime pictures of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore can help shift attitudes about the climate
An eco-critical re-examination of colonial-era maritime pictures within public institutions can help prompt the attitude shifts necessary for action.
Global environmental problems: Reflections on selected Malaysian contemporary artworks
Malaysian art is gaining international recognition for its focus on climate change and as a tool for social change.
Edition 24, November 2025
Environmental creativity in Southeast Asia
Land and water: Seeing Southeast Asian landscapes with a ‘regional eye’
Towards understanding the natural world not as eternal, fixed and stable, but as constantly transforming with monsoon rains.
INTERVIEW: You are what you eat—Representing the politics and privilege of palm oil production and consumption
"My main goal is for people to see the complexity of consumption and globalisation and not take their privilege for granted."
Art as intervention: Environmental creativity in Kachin State, Myanmar
Creative activists continue to inspire environmental resistance in Myanmar.
The potential and risks of environmental storytelling in Southeast Asia
Deeper understanding of planetary crises requires the insights from the arts and Humanities and Social Sciences.
How Indonesian creativity can influence dominant ideas of design and sustainability
Fresh Indonesian approaches to design, such as repair, are helping address urgent issues caused by climate breakdown.
Indigenous voices against the Kaliwa dam in the Philippines: Short video documentaries
These films raise awareness of the environmental destruction caused by the dam and the impact on Indigenous communities.
‘A Malaysian Ecocriticism Reader: Considerations of Nature, Culture, Place and Identities’, edited by Agnes S.K. Yeow and Wai
This book reminds us that the stories we tell about nature are inextricable from how we imagine the future of culture.
