Supervised by: Dr. Wendy Erb (K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and Dr. Walker DePuy (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore)
Project Background
This project examines how Indonesia’s capital re-location from Jakarta to Nusantara on Borneo island is rapidly impacting and changing the natural landscape, native ecosystem, and Indigenous communities inhabiting the place where the new capital will be built. Using inclusive, sound-based research intertwining Western and Indigenous ways of knowing, as well as information collected during conversations with community members in Borneo, an analysis of sound recordings collected in East Kalimantan rainforests will be used to determine spatial and temporal patterns of locally identified important species. This work builds upon ongoing research between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and the Department of Forestry at Universitas Mulawarman in Samarinda, as well as community-led research in two villages, Pemaluan and Mentawir, on forest soundscapes, ethnography, and human-environment relationships.
Objectives
“What knowledge will be forgotten, what histories fragmented, what relationships lost?” - Dr. Erb, from Sonic Entanglements in Nusantara
The findings from this work will support the development of educational resources aimed at promoting awareness of biological and cultural diversity in areas experiencing extreme social and ecological change. Currently, I am in the process of creating a children’s book on biocultural species and the acoustic and cultural value they contribute to local soundscapes in collaboration with Balik and Paser indigenous communities. In the words of Lamale, a community member from Mentawir, the goal is to ensure that the book will be centered around science, so that "the content cannot be easily dismissed as a 'fairy tale.'” To achieve this, I will be conducting archival research on the Balik and Paser communities' histories, learning about the behavior and ecology of select biocultural species, and analyzing PAM (passive acoustic monitoring) recordings. In addition, my co-researcher, Kate Rodger, have begun learning Indonesian together! This summer, I cannot wait to make new connections on human-environment interaction and become one step closer to publishing the children's book!