Animating the Ancestors: Participatory Animation for Indigenous Folktale Preservation

Author Information

Suraya Md Nasir, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
Yakup Mohd Rafie, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
Nor Hazlen Kamaruddin, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
Catherina Anak Ugap, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
Ekram Al Hafis Hashim, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia
Muhammad Aizat Ahmad Rushdan, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia

Abstract

This paper explores participatory animation as a method for preserving Indigenous folktales among Ukit people in Belaga, Sarawak. While animation is widely used in education and creative media, few projects engage Indigenous communities directly in co-creating stories that reflect their own cultural knowledge, visual traditions, and oral storytelling practices. Through community-based participatory research (CBPR) involving community elders and youth, ancestral narratives were adapted into animated sequences using drawing-based storyboarding, character design rooted in local symbolism, and voice recordings in native dialects. The project resulted in a four-phase framework—cultural grounding, co-design, animation production, and reflection—which emphasizes ethical collaboration, intergenerational learning, and culturally specific visual storytelling. The findings show how the visual translation of oral folktales not only fosters intergenerational knowledge transmission but also enables creative ownership among youth participants. The animations produced reflect traditional beliefs, landscapes, and values, while also incorporating contemporary perspectives from the younger generation. By centering local knowledge systems and inclusive co-creation processes, this study contributes to animation studies, Indigenous media, and community-based heritage work. It presents animation not merely as a tool for documentation, but as a living cultural practice—one that sustains tradition through youth-led reinterpretation, visual innovation, and shared authorship.

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• Category: Cultural Studies

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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