Judeth John Baptist was formerly Senior Curator and Head of the Research and Resource Division of the Department of Sabah Museum. Over her 37-year tenure with the Museum, she conducted extensive ethnographic research and curated numerous exhibitions on material culture in Sabah. She has spent years of research on the culture and traditional religion, cosmology and customary law of many indigenous groups, including the Dusun Lotud of Tuaran, the Kadazan of Penampang, the Rungus of Kudat, and the Sama Bajau of Semporna. In 1990, she set up the Budaya Maju Cultural Troupe, comprising mostly indigenous youth from Kota Kinabalu to promote Sabahan arts and heritage.

 

She also led the coordination of local efforts by state-run Persatuan Seni Budaya Sabah (Sabah Art and Culture Association) to participate in various international folk festivals organised by UNESCO and other international cultural agencies in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines and Cambodia. After retiring from the Museum in 2018, she founded SEAMEX (Southeast Asia Music and Dance Education Exchange) of Sabah, a NGO that aims to support cultural documentation and research on Indigenous cultural heritage in Sabah Malaysia. In 2000, she was awarded an Illustrious Orders of Kinabalu (BSK), a state Government State Award conferred by the Governor. In 2009, she was given national recognition as “The Culture-Seeker of Sabah’ by Digi Amazing Malaysian Awards for her passion and dedication to heritage conservation.

 

Currently, she is conducting a research Collaboration with the University of Leicester awarded by the British Museum’s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMPK) (2022-2025).