This week (week 11), I came across Lance Nolde's article entitled “Great is our relationship with the sea.” For my cultural project I wanted to explore the relationship between Indonesians and their seascape. My interest in seascapes and the communities that belong to these seascapes was initially sparked as a result of my cultural goal of understanding Indonesian surfing culture. Learning about this topic has allowed me to pick up Indonesian words that related to the sea such as trepang (sea cucumber) and kura-kura (tortoise). Where my thoughts on the relationship between the Indonesians and their seascape were previously greatly influenced by experiences that I had while in Indonesia (such as noticing people on a boat waiting to get far from the shore before dumping any garbage that they were carrying), this article by the University of Hawai'i historian on the Sama people of Sulawesi that raises and answers key anthropological questions about them has provided me with a verifiable case study of a people with a historic relationship with the sea.
The presentation will cover four important questions. First, what is the “settlement narrative” for the initial migration of the Sama people of Tukung Besi. Second, what is the day to day relationship of the Sama people with their seascapes. Third, what caused the Sama people to journey for months to collect and trade for sea resources. Four, how has trade effected Sama society?
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