Oxford Brookes Students Bring EWAP Ethnographic Data to Life

This summer, two Oxford Brookes students joined the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme

(EWAP) as summer interns to creatively engage with its extensive ethnographic archive. Their mission: to produce two short films that visually communicate the stories and significance of endangered wooden architectural traditions documented by EWAP researchers.

One of the videos focuses on the project Afloat for Centuries: The Flat-bottomed Indus Boats, led by Anila Naeem and Farida A. Ghaffar, N.E.D University of Engineering and Technology. This research, carried out in Pakistan, documents the houseboats of the Mohanna community - an indigenous group of fishermen living along the Indus River. These intricately designed, flat-bottomed boats are not only homes but the heart of a river-based cultural landscape that is rapidly vanishing due to ecological degradation, reduced freshwater flows, and industrial encroachment. The student-produced video weaves together footage and interviews to highlight the construction, symbolism, and fragility of this unique heritage.

The second video is based on the project Documentation of the Bajau Laut’s lepa in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia, led by Keng-Khoon Ng, National University of Singapore. The Bajau Laut are one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining seaborne communities, historically living entirely on their houseboats, known as lepa. These vessels served both as homes and essential economic tools. However, land resettlement, limited access to traditional materials, and environmental pressures are contributing to the erosion of this maritime culture. Through archival material, ranging from drone footage and interviews to maps and photographs, the students’ film explores the deep cultural meanings of the lepa and the urgent need to preserve the knowledge systems associated with them.

By blending documentary storytelling with creative editing and visual interpretation, the two videos make EWAP’s research more accessible to a broader audience. They offer a moving reflection on the intimate relationship between people, place, and material culture that is now under threat in both riverine and maritime contexts.

A Note of Thanks

We are grateful to the two students for their thoughtfulness, creativity, and commitment throughout the summer. Their videos are now part of the growing EWAP archive, offering new ways for both academic and public audiences to engage with the disappearing architectural traditions.

Image: Naeem, A and N.E.D University of Engineering and Technology (2023). Photos of the exterior of STR-048. | EWAP1011SG-STA-0936. Flat-bottomed Indus Boats (Pakistan) collection. Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme. https://doi.org/10.60491/ewap1011sg022024049