Dome Nikong

Born in 1976 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, I grew up in this state ,known for its beautiful beaches and islands . i have been exposed to photography world since 1996 and made it serious in 2004 when i stayed and worked at Redang Island. From 2009 until now, I've pioneered a special project to record the life of indigenous communities in my country. This is my own personal project and is not sponsored by any party. Currently, I am closely involved capturing the lifestyle of the people of “Bateq”. In Peninsular Malaysia, there are about 18 indigenous community , mostly had began leading the modernized lifestyle, however, there are still many of the indigenous people remained with their traditional way of life like the Bateq people. Bearing a similar character such as the African indigenous people ,they are still leading a half-nomadic lifestyle, hunting using blowpipes and lived in forests where they make a living. In the event of death, the dead bodies will be placed on top of trees and they (living nomads) in turn will move to other places. Other than the Bateq people, i also had captured the pictures of other indigenous communities from other states in West Malaysia. Amongs them are Semoq Beri, Jahai, Semai, Mah Meri Che Wong & Temuan. Capturing their pictures had been a challenging task especially those who live in the outskirt of town where we had to literally walk for hours into the forest in order to reach their shelters. Sometimes we had to use boats and other mean of transportation. There are some of these nomadic people who have moved and lived in town, but for my photography project, i prefer to capture them in their natural habitat and way of living since their lifestyle keeps slowly changing with time. If we don't record them, there is a possibility in the future that our young generation will not know the actual lifestyle of these aboriginal people. I had also won numerous awards in photography competitions both locally or internationally . I had participated in more than 10 photography exhibitions in Malaysia since 2007. Many of my works appeared, in the local tourism sector. Currently, I am one of the regular writer for a photography magazine in Malaysia, Fotografika. My other emerging interest include travel photography , especially in Asian countries focusing on the minority population in the countries.