UUKS Seminar | Between tradition and transformation: Sea nomads ecological knowledge in Southeast Asia | Wengki Ariando

The term “sea nomads” is an academic exonym for categorizing a distinct Austronesian group comprised of three primary communities: the Orang Laut, Sama-Bajau, and Moken/Moklen in Southeast Asia. These groups maintain a profound connection to marine environments, relying on them for subsistence, economy, cultural identity, and living space. It is urgent to explore how their understanding of marine environments has been shaped over centuries, how traditional ecological knowledge adapts to contemporary development discourses, and their potential contribution to feeding into planetary challenges.

Speaker

Wengki Ariando is an activist-researcher who primarily conducts research in participatory action research settings. His main research interests include coastal and small island development, political ecology, marine conservation, climate change adaptation, and indigenous resource governance, with a particular focus on Sea Nomadic Communities in Insular Southeast Asia. His PhD research involved an ethnographic study during which he lived with the Sama-Bajau People in Wakatobi National Park for 14 months. Currently, Wengki is researching the intersectionality issues of political ecology, marine resource governance, and traditional ecological knowledge of Sea Nomads and related indigenous groups for his tenure at KITLV.

Moderator

Tom Hoogervorst is a senior researcher at KITLV and an adjunct professor at the Department of Indonesian at the State University of Malang. As a historical linguist, Tom has focused on language contact in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, viewing the past through the lens of language.

Format, date, time & venue

This seminar is a hybrid event and will be held in the conference room of KITLV, Herta Mohr building, room 1.30, Witte Singel 27 A, Leiden and online via Zoom, on Thursday 28 November from 15.30 – 17.00 PM (CET).

Registration

If you want to join this seminar on location, please register via: [email protected].

If you wish to join this seminar online, please register here.

UUKS

This seminar is part of the monthly Unraveling Unconventional Knowledge Systems (UUKS) seminar series.

Image

Spearfishing activity of Sama-Bajau Man from Sampela, Wakatobi, Indonesia. Photographer: Wengki Ariando (Wakatobi, November 2020).