BulanLifestyle.com

Shaq Koyok, was born in 1985 in a ‘orang asli’ or ‘aboriginal’ village called Kampung Pulau Kempas, Banting, Selangor, Malaysia He has painted ever since he was a child and he uses his art to express his experiences and to raise awareness of the plight of his people and the rainforest which he grew up in.

I met Shaq last Friday at the launch of his first solo exhibition in Malaysia. He has exhibited in Australia previously. Shaq, a talented, passionate yet humble young artist is interesting and approachable. He answered all my questions patiently and with sincerity. I immediately fell in love with his work.

Shaq starts with abstract colours and writing before he goes into the detailing. It’s really interesting to watch because you don’t know what he is painting until the end. This piece invilved the public. We were all asked to write a word on the canvas describing how we felt about the ‘Orang Asli” He then painted on the same canvas, keeping the words as transparent as possible. You can still see some words we wrote such as beautiful, Adam and disappearing

Shaq has illustrated a children’s book which is about his childhood  growing up in the jungles of Malaysia. The volunteers from the Historic Vessel Vega were still around so I donated a copy of Shaqs book for them to give to the children in Indonesia when they do the donation drop off to the kids. Meggi, the founder of the Vega humanitarian project was telling me how it was quite hard to find books on the environment in Bahasa Indonesia. Shaq’s book is in 3 languages. English, Bahasa Malayu (similar to Bahasa Indonesia) and Temuan (Shaq’s indigenous dialect)

Shaq works closely with Kids in schools because he believes that they are our future. He brings awareness to them about his people and shares with them the importance of protecting our forests.