Airien Ludin

The Sun Bird

My thesis explores bird-human relationships and what it means to live alongside one another, subverting hierarchical views of birds inherited through colonial history. It asks how illustration can function as a site of Two-Eyed Seeing, where science and local knowledge are held together as an entangled narrative, and how mendongeng, the Indonesian practice of storytelling, can help us understand birds as companion species with their own agency.

The project takes two forms: a picture book, Sun Bird, an original fable inspired by Indonesian folktales, and a thesis book that explores the cultural and historical contexts surrounding these relationships. Each chapter centers on an Indonesian bird – the Perkutut, Raja Udang, Cenderawasih, Jalak Bali, and Merpati – and offers a different way of seeing, knowing, and being with them.

Through acts of care, naming, and storytelling, my work explores the relationship between language, local knowledge, and reciprocity. The project chooses to sit within the entangled middle ground where humans and non-humans share space in the world.

The Sun Bird Picture Book, Pages 1 & 2

A Home for the Pigeons

Girl and Birds

Process of The Sun Bird Picture Book