Papers

• Fighting for existence: Orang Woirata on Kisar Island Leolita Masnun Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  The inter-islands movement of people in Maluku province is not a new phenomenon but had been going on for centuries before the arriving of European. For example, on Kisar Island, district Maluku Barat Daya, two different language-speaking groups were formed by migrants that arrived in separate waves. The formation of each of them was stored and preserved in the local mythology. One group claimed that they were the first residents in Kisar, while the other came and settled afterward. Currently, both perceive themselves to be the first inhabitants which has an impact on construction of the minority/majority and the social and political aspects. This presentation is an initial attempt to explore the process of marginalizing a local political entity in the small islands in the southwest part of the Maluku province.

• Internal mobility and the problem of multicultural relationships in Indonesia Simona Sienkiewicz Jagiellonian University

  The problem of relationships among people in multicultural environments is usually attributed to countries that have a high proportion of migrants among their population. Meanwhile, heterogenous nations, with a great religious and ethnic variety, often promote coexistence in the spirit of “unity in diversity”. This motto has become the foundation of Indonesia but emerged as problematic when the development enabled people to move between the islands - both within government-supported transmigration and spontaneous moves. They exposed the problems of cultural differences between Indonesians and their complex, dynamic identities tied to the land and places of origin, especially on the rural territories. Lack of knowledge and education in managing interethnic or interreligious relations led to tensions and even conflicts (e.g., on Kalimantan). Clash of the values and aspirations of internal migrants and indigenous people strongly influence their everyday life. In this presentation I show the complexities of multicultural relationships, understood as relationships immersed in more than two cultures on the example of internal migrants in West Seram, Maluku. I focus on case studies from the Javanese transmigrant village and Butonese (from Southeast Sulawesi) settlements on the Buano Island. Although both groups are perceived as internal migrants, their backgrounds and origins make their impact on shaping relations with the indigenous population different. By comparing the positions of the Javanese and Butonese, I will try to reflect what factors are crucial in the renegotiation of their position on the foreign land.

• Orang Dagang (Migrant Traders) in Post-Decentralization Maluku Province Hatib Kadir Universitas Brawijaya

  In Maluku Province, Eastern Indonesia, traders are considered orang dagang (foreigners, migrants) that do not belong to the local culture, even though they have lived in the Moluccan islands for centuries. Orang dagang are mostly migrants from Sulawesi Island (Butonese, Buginese, and Makasarese). The presence of these migrants in Maluku has also influenced ethnic and cultural diversity. Most orang dagang work in the trade sector as moneylenders, middlemen, and shop owners. Although orang dagang have been disadvantaged by customary law and being seen as outsiders, they have developed strategies to offset these difficulties by managing a variety of economic exchanges to their advantage. First, is on migrant trader’s political expansion from business to politics. Secondly, from the ways of moral economy of migrant trader politicians who distribute their public goodness in order to create a sense of recognition and belonging to the place where they were born and raised.

Abstract