Paper short abstract

Drawing on recent ethnographic research carried out amongst the Bajo of Nain Island in North Sulawesi (Indonesia), this paper will explore the role of water and wind dynamics when negotiating socio-ecological relations and de-constructing spaces.

Paper long abstract

Water-wind hierarchies and dependencies are crucial when approaching Bajo environmental perceptions and notions of the spatial other. Different wind directions intersect on a daily basis and waves can function as weather vanes for speculation. Based on the use of specific colour codes to predict the severity of certain winds, the Bajo expand their presence from the coast to the deep sea, through narratives of hybrid white waves forming and re-forming where wind directions concur. Water (s) can't possibly be detached from wind (s) and vice versa and understanding the shifting aspects of daily weather rests heavily on air's capacity to move in balance with water. Thus, the confluence of different wind/water directions is often experienced through vernacular senses of change, where the temporal and unpredictable aspects of weather's symbioses identify with what the Bajo understand as the key to foster socio-ecological cohesion: the continuity, fluidity and non-detachability of presences.

For the Bajo, water/wind dynamics go beyond proportionality, positionality and confluence, and challenge dichotomies and divisions of the social and the environmental.