Borneo Cultures Museum

Located in Kuching, capital of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, the Borneo Cultures Museum is South East Asia’s second largest museum to date with galleries sprawling 30,000m2 and spanning multiple levels. Home to diverse collections ranging from archaeological artefacts to natural specimens and material culture, the Museum showcases the heritage of the indigenous communities of Borneo.

To completely redefine the visitor experience of Sarawak State Museum, the former name of an institution with over a hundred years of history, the Museum selected GSM Project after a global search for the right experts. Our team worked hand-in-hand with the museum's curators, experts and scholars for 4 years to reveal the intangible connections between objects and their stories.

Interpretation of the peoples and cultures of Sarawak and their interactions with nature from the pre-history of Borneo up to the formation of the state of Malaysia in the 60’s is the experience storyline that linked together collections, new media and oral history.

Visitors get to engage with Sarawak’s immemorial knowledge through a multisensorial experience scenario and learn how to protect and preserve Sarawak’s living legacy, its age-old traditions and unique biodiversity.

Our team specially designed the ‘In Harmony with Nature’ permanent gallery as an immersive journey from the riveting landscape of the Bornean riverine coast, through dense rainforests brimming with life to the exhilarating exploration of lofty highlands.

The creation of large environments, using cinematic footage or graphic installations, combined with hands-on interactives and layered content serve a strong visitor engagement and in-depth discovery of the island. Content encourages further exploration of the region —beyond the visit— to heritage and natural sites part of the Museum network.

Celebrating key personalities, communities, and social changes that led to the formation of Sarawak today, ‘Time Changes’ gallery teleports visitors back into the state’s history and its social evolutions.

From the prehistoric Niah's Great Cave archaeological remains to modern times and colonisation period, this thematic gallery tells how human presence on the island has evolved over 40,000 years. Rare artefacts and oral testimonies are displayed along large projections, immersive graphics and archival images.

Moving up to the ‘Objects of Desire’ gallery, colour-rich atmospheres and dynamic arrangement of showcases highlights the aesthetics of some Sarawak’s masterpieces, as well as their spiritual and political dimensions.

Magnifying pieces of ceramics, textiles and ornaments on display, visitors can fully appreciate the traditional craftsmanship of indigenous communities.

The multitude of stories and media presented in the exhibit galleries conveys the message that the past and present cultures of Sarawak are inseparable from their natural environments they flourished in, inviting to a deeper, complex, and more nuanced understanding of changes and human relations to nature on the island of Borneo.

Since its doors opened in 2022, the Museum received extremely high visitorship with over 70,000 visitors per month from local school groups to international tourists discovering Sarawak in visual and emotional ways.