The Northwest Asian Weekly reported on an online panel held on 23 January 2026 featuring diasporic Malays in the Pacific Northwest deliberating on their lived experiences maneuvering through issues of cultural heritage in North America.
Panelists explore language loss, food pathways, diverse ethnicities and speculative futurisms. Asian Languages and Literature’s Prof. Nazry Bahrawi, one of the panelists, brings attention to the idea that Malayness could be defined by a sense of regional indigeneity to maritime Southeast Asia that stems out of a land-water (‘tanah air’) imaginary.
The panel also features Nadia Mahamoor, a Sri Lanka Malay artist based in Richmond, British Columbia, Azlan Nur Saidy, an arts organizer and Syahidah Ismail, a creative writer, both of whom reside in Vancouver, British Columbia. The panel was moderated by Yulianna Frederika, founder of the Singapore-based Malay cultural non-profit organization Lepak Conversations, which had organized the panel.
Read the article here: North West Asian Weekly