Tufan Chakma

Tufan Chakma is an Indigenous visual artist from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in southeastern Bangladesh—a region home to several Indigenous peoples, including the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Mro, and Bawm. Each community holds distinct languages, cultures, and deep ties to ancestral lands. Despite this diversity, the Indigenous peoples of the CHT have long faced displacement, land conflicts, and pressures on their cultural and linguistic identity.

Tufan’s practice grew from a desire to understand, preserve, and represent a culture and history too often overlooked or distorted in mainstream narratives. Beginning with painting and illustration, his work explores Indigenous identity, cultural memory, land, environmental destruction, displacement, and the struggles of Indigenous communities.

After completing his BFA at Jahangirnagar University, he was selected for the fully funded Erasmus Mundus Re:Anima master’s programme in animation, moving to Belgium in September 2024. The programme took him through Belgium, Finland, and Portugal, where he developed his practice from still images into moving-image storytelling. His master’s project, Lullaby of the Fireflies—forthcoming—brings CHT stories into a new visual language for a wider audience. He completed his master’s in June 2026.

As a recent graduate seeking to continue his artistic career in Europe, Tufan faced complications with his residence application.  ILA connected him with pro bono legal support, and with this assistance his application was successfully resolved—allowing him to keep developing his practice abroad.