Meet Lima Maula
Photography by MyTiger Productions
Lia "Lima" Maula is a Muslim Indonesian illustrator based in Sydney. Their body of work draws from their lived experience as a third culture kid, feelings of hiraeth and longing; resulting in illustrations that are wistful and nostalgic created using a mix of traditional and digital techniques.
Lima worked alongside her mentor, Sher Rill Ng. Lima's leporello works around key Arabic terms which have been absorbed into the daily lexicon of Indonesian Muslims. She reflects:
“When The Adzan Calls is my interpretation of congregation in the mosque during prayer times. My leporello invites the reader into a close-up experience of not only gathering in the mosque, but also the initiation of that moment as the Adzan berkumandang (reverberates) which we may not experience in a Western society.”
I applied to the Mirror Mentorship Program in 2022, at the time more focused on developing my illustrations rather than my writing. This time around, I'd like to focus on the writing side of a story. So far, I have only had experience illustrating stories from other authors. I am hoping to develop my own story concepts into complete picture books. I am interested in learning to develop a bilingual manuscript and/or work on a wordless picture book that can transcend language barriers. Other than that I would also like to connect with more communities whose stories I can preserve through illustrations.
The MIRROR Mentorship program is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia.