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- Convenors:
-
Johan Weintre
(Andalas University / International Indonesian Forum for Asian Studies (www.iifas.info))
Zannat Ferdousi (Research and Development Collective (RDC))
- Stream:
- Relational movements: Migration, Refugees and Borders/Mouvements relationnels: Migration, régugiés et frontières
- Location:
- TBT 325
- Start time:
- 2 May, 2017 at
Time zone: America/New_York
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Non-recognition by the nation-states, homogenization for 'modern mode of life', development interventions and climatic displacements have generated a lot of refugees and IDPs of IP origin. The issues may be explored to see if any particular pattern emerges across the two regions.
Long Abstract:
Indigenous Peoples live across South and South East Asia and, from pre-historic times, they have had to move from one place to another for a number of reasons that must be understood in a broader historical context. Over the last century, factors like non-recognition by the nation-states, development interventions and climatic displacements have generated a lot of refugees and IDPs of IP origin. In fact, the "modern mode of life", with its perpetual preoccupation with 'order-building' in the form of homogenization and 'economic progress' disregarding culture and identities, have produced "redundant people" who are either politically intolerable as being non-mainstream or locally unemployable as they do not subscribe to imposed occupations and, thus, are forced to seek shelter away from their homes. Land and territories comprise a crucially important place in IP lives as any forced displacement create not only impacts negatively on their economies and livelihood patterns, but that also impacts severely on the very survival of the people as a distinct cultural entity with distinct languages, institutions, beliefs, etc. Besides, the desperate plight of refugees and the indignities and insecurities that they continuously face on a daily basis, lead to the "worldlessness", as termed by Hannah Arendt to define the conditions where a person doesn't belong to a world in which they matter as human beings. It will be interesting to explore the migration, refugee and IDP issues of the indigenous peoples in South and South East Asia and see if any particular pattern emerges across the two regions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Johan Weintre (Andalas University / International Indonesian Forum for Asian Studies (www.iifas.info))
Paper short abstract:
Diversity is an enshrined element of human existence. The combination of historical tradition and intervention has created different paths of living conditions and opportunities for communities. The sum of those heritages is the enrichment of our human enrichment in the Bornean environment.
Paper long abstract:
Diversity is a historical enshrined element in Indonesia's state ideology and regional autonomy legislation. Those are aimed to raise prospects of local representation and indigenous resource access and expression. This paper is designed to explain and contribute to an understanding of the divergence between values on social political and economic theory and the perceived reality that is being experienced by Dayak communities and in particular the Dayak Kantu' and Taman communities.
The combination of specific past historical intervention, cultural tradition and local emotions, natural resources, human skills and traditional governance base, have created a different path of opportunities for the diverse communities. One of the most striking differences on the first sight was that Kantu' Dayak communities are living almost completely in single family dwellings, while the Taman Dayak have largely remained loyal to their tradition of long-house living. The government interventions of introduced family planning and introduction manufactured fertilisers have changed the agricultural tradition of shifting cultivation dramatically. However the application is not by every individual farmer the same. Empirical evidence has shown both Kantu' and Taman Dayak have commitments to tradition, but also willingness of new inputs to shape future articulations of heritage by the Dayak groups. Different steams of tradition can be discovered within the Dayak groups with a shift from heritage to heritage arts in which the element of visuality has often overtaken rituality. The dedications by small sub groups have given capacity to remain in touch with the deeper visualised meaning.
Pierre-Alexandre Paquet (McGill University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper reviews theories deployed by the modern Indian state depicting pastoralism as disorderly and a threat to nation-building and the environment. It discusses Van Gujjar herders' engagement with bureaucrats, how they maintained access to forests, and options of relocation and sedentarization.
Paper long abstract:
The modern Indian state has never been at ease with nomadic populations moving either within or across its borders. Pastoralists caused anxiety to colonial administrators starting in the 19th century, as desiccation and Himalayan degradation theories painted grazing as an ecological menace. Mobility was also deemed to provoke labor shortage and induce criminality. Thus, the colonial rulers enclosed forests, controlled cattle, and imposed strict schedules on pastoralists seen as unproductive, destructive, and putting the existence of the British Raj in jeopardy. Postindependence governments drew similar parallels between movement and disorder, and advocated for sedentarization. The Van Gujjar buffalo herders among which I have worked since 2013 are semi-nomadic buffalo herders of Muslim confession living in in present-day Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. They are fully dependent on forest resources which are under state control. Although Van Gujjars have successfully engaged with lower-rung bureaucrats to protect their access to forests, their position has recently become difficult to sustain. Forest resources are depleted, invasive species spread, and climate change looms. From the Van Gujjars' perspective, the state has nurtured a kind of nature which can no longer sustain their livelihoods. This paper reviews discourses deployed by the Indian state before and after Independence depicting the nomads as disorderly and a threat to nation-building and the environment. It then explains how Van Gujjar herders unofficially maintained access to the natural resources, at the same time as they cultivated novel representations of the state. Finally, it links questions of access, tenure, ecological change, and power, to untangle divergent state and nomadic perspectives about sedentarization.