As development pushes forward, the lives and livelihoods of indigenous communities are often affected, yet unheard. 

Dr. Masni Mat Dong is breaking through the silence to ask hard questions about spatial injustice — and aiming to answer them with evidence, empathy, and a plan.

Dr Masni, an Orang Asli from the Jakun tribe, brings lived experience to her research—exposing how geography, infrastructure, and policy trap communities in poverty, and uncovering pathways for lasting change.

From land rights to access to education, she investigates how inequality is embedded in the physical and political landscapes that shape daily life.

In 2024, she took her mission beyond the classroom with a keynote at SMK Sg Lembing through TAR UMT’s Reach & Rise programme. Her talk, “Embrace Your Journey: Proud, Resilient, and Unstoppable,” inspired a new generation of Orang Asli youth to lead with pride and purpose.

Through the Merdeka Award Grant, Dr. Masni deepened her research at Oxford’s Poverty & Human Development Initiative, merging global insight with lived experience to push for poverty policies rooted in dignity, rights, and cultural identity.

Dr. Masni received the Merdeka Award International Grant in 2023 and went to the University of Bristol to complete her attachment.