The Serumpun Leadership Series
Recorded conversations with leaders whose vision and hopes match Serumpun Sarawak's conservation work. Curated by Atlas Collective. Every conversation is on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel.
What the series is for
The Serumpun Leadership Series records conversations Serumpun Sarawak has been lucky enough to have. Each guest has reached, through their own field, the same long-term conclusions about heritage, conservation and cultural diplomacy that guide Serumpun. We do not make them as marketing.
Each conversation is short and carefully made, and each is shared publicly. The reels are on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel, @serumpunsarawak, where the series will keep growing.
Atlas Collective curates and produces the series as part of its role in telling Serumpun’s story. The recordings are public, for anyone who wants to know the people Serumpun keeps company with.
Maria Porro
President of Assarredo; Marketing and Communications Director of Porro S.p.A.; President of the Salone del Mobile, Milan. She speaks for Italian craft and design heritage, at a scale that shows how a creative tradition can be kept going over generations.
Lady Linda Wong Davies
Founder and Chairperson of the KT Wong Foundation. Her philanthropy supports cultural continuity, and she is one of the funders who back the long view over the immediate.
H.E. Axel Cruau
Former French Ambassador to Malaysia. His conversation links France’s culinary tradition to Sarawak’s indigenous knowledge, the kind of exchange only a senior career diplomat can host.
Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz
Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry from 1987 to 2008, and Chairman of MATRADE from 1991. It was Tan Sri Rafidah’s introduction that first brought Serumpun into formal contact with the State of Sarawak, a kindness the project also records on its cornerstone.
Professor Gerard Bodeker
Serumpun’s scientific advisor, an international authority on traditional and indigenous medicine, and the on-stage narrator at Expo 2025 Osaka. His three conversations cover traditional medicine, indigenous knowledge and the scholarship the platform is built on.
Conversation I → Conversation II → Conversation III →
James Won
Co-founder and custodian of Serumpun Sarawak. Three conversations about how conservation works in practice, what it means to be a temporary custodian, and the work that has to last beyond its founder.
Conversation I → Conversation II → Conversation III →
Datin’ Sri Dona Drury-Wee
President of the Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) and Chairperson of the Culinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak (CHASS). Datin’ Sri Dona played a key part in Kuching’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, the moment the rest of Serumpun’s story starts from.
Dato’ Jacqueline Fong
Principal founder and CEO of Tanoti Crafts, the award-winning Sarawak social enterprise set up in 2012 to support rural women artisans and keep traditional songket weaving alive. She brings to Sarawak’s textile heritage the same conservation thinking Serumpun brings to its food.
Conversation I → Conversation II →
Zee Avi (PBK)
Sarawakian singer-songwriter Zee Avi, holder of the Pingat Bintang Kenyalang, a Sarawak state honour. Hers is the voice of contemporary Sarawak finding its way into the global conversation.
Raven Kwok
Earthlings Coffee Workshop. Its Coffee Blossom Tea programme strengthens communities through innovation, and the Minister named it in the launch speech as one of Serumpun’s anchor partnerships.
More to come
The series is ongoing, and new conversations will be added as Serumpun goes on. The Instagram channel, @serumpunsarawak, is its main home; this page lists what has been recorded so far.
The series is curated and produced by Atlas Collective.
Questions answered
What is the Serumpun Leadership Series?
A series of short recorded conversations with leaders who have reached, through their own fields, the same long-term conclusions about heritage, conservation and cultural diplomacy that guide Serumpun Sarawak. They are not made as marketing.
Who has appeared in the Serumpun Leadership Series?
Maria Porro, Lady Linda Wong Davies, H.E. Axel Cruau, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Professor Gerard Bodeker, James Won, Datin’ Sri Dona Drury-Wee, Dato’ Jacqueline Fong, Zee Avi and Raven Kwok, with more to come.
Where can I watch the conversations?
All conversations are public and free to watch on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel, @serumpunsarawak. Each one is linked on this page.
How can I suggest a conversation or take part?
Write to connect@chefjameswon.com. The series is ongoing, and new conversations are added as Serumpun goes on.
A movement outlasts its founder through the people who stand with it.
James Won
You can tell a lot about a movement from the company it keeps. This series is a record of ours.