Our Story
How Legacy Loom came to be
Legacy Loom began in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, when two practitioners who had worked separately in archives and in family counselling found themselves describing the same recurring problem. Families who had every intention of preserving their records were not doing it — not because they lacked care, but because they lacked a starting point, a method and, often, time.
The name is deliberate. A loom holds threads in fixed, visible positions so that the pattern emerging from them can be seen and extended by another hand. A family record works the same way: when documents, photographs and objects are properly described and indexed, a relative who was not present at the founding can still read the record and understand what they are looking at.
We operate as a small practice, intentionally. Workshops run to twelve participants. Programmes are taken by one household at a time. Institutional engagements are undertaken one at a time, given the level of attention each requires. We do not expand the practice faster than we can maintain the quality of the work.
Our Mission
What we are here to do
We teach families and institutions how to gather and index what they already hold, and how to write descriptions that will remain useful to the people who come after them. We do not value, advise on inheritance, or interpret legal documents. Where those questions arise — and they always do — we refer families to the professionals who are equipped to answer them.
Our work is shaped by a conviction that archiving is a form of consideration for others. A document filed without a description is a document that may not be found. A photograph without a date or a name is a face that may not be recognised. The practice of writing a provenance note — a short, factual account of what an object is, where it came from and what is known about it — is simple to learn and has a long reach.
We work in English and can accommodate sessions conducted partially in Bahasa Malaysia or Mandarin where a participant group requires this. Our storage and preservation guidance is adapted to the humidity and heat conditions of Peninsular Malaysia rather than taken from guides written for temperate climates.
Our People
The team
Suraya Rashid
Co-founder, Archival Practice
Suraya holds a postgraduate qualification in archival studies and spent eight years working with institutional collections before co-founding Legacy Loom. She leads the institutional consulting engagements and curriculum design.
Lim Wei Jian
Co-founder, Education
Wei Jian worked as a family mediator before turning his attention to the practical side of how families preserve their records. He designs and delivers the workshops and household programme, and writes the educational materials.
Nadia Krishnamurthy
Digitisation and Records
Nadia manages the digitisation and backup guidance within both the household programme and institutional engagements. She has a background in information management and works across all three service offerings.
How We Work
Standards and protocols
Published description standards
Institutional catalogue work is aligned to recognised archival description standards so that the catalogue remains usable and portable beyond the engagement.
Tropical climate guidance
All storage recommendations account for the temperature and humidity ranges common across Peninsular Malaysia — not generic guidance translated from temperate-climate archives.
Data handling and privacy
Information shared in sessions is used only for the work at hand and is not passed to third parties. Full details are in our Privacy Policy, in line with Malaysian personal data legislation.
Clear scope discipline
We hold a firm line between what we do — archiving and education — and what we refer. No valuation, legal interpretation or inheritance advice is offered in any offering.
Photographic documentation standard
A written standard for photographing documents and objects at home is included in every offering, specifying resolution, format, naming convention and backup approach.
Continuing professional development
Team members maintain familiarity with developments in archival description practice, digital preservation standards and Malaysian regulatory frameworks through regular reading and professional engagement.
Our Approach
What guides the work
Family archive work sits at the point where the domestic and the historical meet. A household that gathers and indexes its documents is doing something that will matter to people who have not yet been born. That responsibility shapes how we approach every session.
We do not use urgency as a tool. A family deciding whether to begin archiving its records is making a considered decision, not responding to a sale. Our role is to present the options clearly, describe what each involves in practical terms, and leave the family to decide at its own pace. If the time is not right, we say so.
We also hold that plain language is a form of respect. Archival vocabulary exists for good reasons, and we use it where it helps — but every term is accompanied by a plain explanation. Families working through a box of inherited papers should not need a glossary to follow the guidance they have paid for.
Our referral sheet is a standard part of every offering. It names the categories of qualified professional — solicitors, estate planners, probate specialists, valuers — who handle the questions that fall outside our scope. We do not name individual practitioners or recommend between them. The sheet is a direction, not an endorsement.
Legacy Loom operates from Kuala Lumpur and takes enquiries from across Peninsular Malaysia. The household programme and workshops are primarily conducted in person at our premises at Menara Seri Anggerik. Institutional consulting engagements are conducted at the client's site. Remote sessions are possible for some elements of the programme where a household is not able to attend in person.
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