Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: At the core of this contribution are reflections about catastrophe in the context of the coral reef communities of eastern Sulawesi, and about modes of thinking, imagining, understanding, and being-in-relation. To that end, the writing unsettles and challenges expectations of a stable point of view from which catastrophic events, which are inseparable from how they are conceived, might be overseen. Local sayings and transregional scholarship regarding those say-ings offer a vital repository of knowledge and ways of knowing that is integral to this work. A proverb, Sama tales, and multiple narratives of the volcanic eruptions on the island of Una-Una foreground the navigation of change and impermanence by the communities and creatures of land and sea that inhabit the surrounding waters. The author, a philosopher, poet, and diver, begins the composition gazing upward from within the currents, as the reef awakens just before dawn. Keywords: reef communities; Sulawesi; proverb; volcanic eruption; living-through
DOI: 10.11157/sites-id522
Author: Jeffner Allen
Institution: Binghamton University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4323539746