Who Owns the Sea? Coral Divers and the Play of Property in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

To whom does the sea belong? In a world where European legal codes and juridical forms remain hegemonic, property is said to end at the coast--the geographical terminus of the legal concept of private ownership itself. Yet in reality the coast and sea are alive with the play of property. Along the shores and coastal waters of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, forms of access, belonging, rights, ownership, territory, and even legal property at sea are constantly negotiated and re-negotiated. This talk offers three cases exploring the play of property at sea in Eastern Indonesia, drawn from my book project--an ethnography of the Indonesian live coral trade and the commercial divers who supply rare and beautiful corals and fish for the global aquarium industry. Aboard a small diving boat, I watched as the divers navigated and negotiated these diverse claims of ownership and belonging to the region’s coral reefs. First, I explore indigenous and customary institutions of ownership and belonging at sea. Second, I show how divers navigate the acquisition of permits and permission to gather corals from both states and spirits. Third, I examine how divers turn their coral money into private property through coastal land reclamation projects. At the fraying edge of the legal order, I show how property relations and forms of belonging are made and remade through these everyday encounters.

Joseph Klein is a Research Associate with the Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions (SEACoast) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work explores fisheries labor, marine product supply chains, and coral reef futures in Indonesia. He is currently working on a book project about Indonesian commercial divers and the global aquarium industry, as well as a co-authored book on the colonial legacies of coastal hardening in Southeast Asia.

This event is co-sponsored by the Southeast Asia Program. Thank you!

A film screening by Cornell Cinema.

M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance. However, winning Grandma's favor is no easy feat. She proves to be a tough nut to crack—demanding, exacting, and exceedingly difficult to please. To add to the drama, he's not the only one gunning for the inheritance. M soon finds himself embroiled in a gripping competition, where he must go to great lengths to become the apple of Grandma's eye before time runs out, all in pursuit of a life-changing, multimillion-dollar inheritance.

Directed by Thai filmmaker Pat Boonnitipat, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies offers a candid and comedic take on life, love, and family affairs.

Cosponsored by the Southeast Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Special thanks to Fulbright visiting researcher Vince Ha.

Part of Cornell Cinema's "Worth a Watch" series. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment. In Thai with English subtitles.

Hot Stuff is an AIFIS film award winning documentary and part of a trio of Indonesian films that delve into energy policies in Indonesia, corporate ties to those policies, and their detrimental effects on local environments and populations.

Director Dandhy Laksono and Producer Cypri Dale will join GETSEA live from the University of Michigan’s Center for Southeast Asia Studies as 20 universities from across North America connect via Zoom to watch Hot Stuff simultaneously, followed by a discussion about the film, energy policy in Indonesia, and the new Prabowo Subianto administration’s response to local grassroots movements in the country.

A virtual-only option will be available for viewers from around the world to join as well. You can register for a remote viewing of the film & event by clicking here.

Join Kim Aris, son of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, for an important discussion on Myanmar's ongoing crisis. This event is an opportunity to come together, hear firsthand about Kim's mission and explore ways we can take action to support the people of Myanmar together.

Topics to be discussed:

The urgent need for access to his mother and concerns over her health.The worsening humanitarian crisis and ways to help those in need.Advocacy efforts to free all political prisoners and restore democracy.

Talk by Ali Houissa and Laurent Ferri (Curators of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection)

Our CMS seminar today will be led by the curator of the Middle Eastern Collection in Olin Library, who will be hosting us to see precious objects in the library's collection about Islam. We have many world-class books, some of them centuries old, which show the history and evolution of Islam over a long period, and across many cultures. This is a wonderful opportunity to see some of the treasures of Cornell’s collection that are rarely seen, and which span centuries of time and thousands of miles of geography in Islamic lands, from Morocco to Indonesia.