ABSTRACT
The Orang Seletar Cultural Centre presents a case study of a cultural project which has been mobilised for Indigenous activism and self-determination to resist a threat to their livelihoods and an encroachment to their native customary lands and waters. While the Orang Seletar villagers have full ownership and management rights of the cultural centre, the project did not emerge organically from within the villagers themselves. Rather, an external broker initiated and set up the cultural centre. The Orang Seletar villagers also rely on another external broker – the owner of an eco-tourism business – to bring tourists to the cultural centre and realise the benefits of this cultural project. By highlighting the prominent roles brokers play in the mediation of these community-based cultural projects, I demonstrate how cultural projects, including those owned and managed by the local communities themselves, can still cultivate a culture of dependency between the external brokers and the intended beneficiaries.
