The (Pre-)History of AIIOC
Surabaya is one of Indonesia's largest cities, yet it is understudied. That's what I realized when I first got involved in the preparation of the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) symposium in 2017. In contrast to other Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, and even Solo, which is not the provincial capital, Surabaya has relatively few internationally recognized studies. At least that was my impression when I exchanged ideas with almost all of the participants in the symposium. In my field of study (history), I know of only a few works by authors like Howard Dick, William Frederick, and most recently Freek Colombijn, among others. Therefore, I believe it was a great opportunity to host the UKNA symposium to push Surabaya into an intensive discussion with other cities in Asia.
The choice of location for the symposium in Surabaya was neither coincidental nor arbitrary. Surabaya was a part of the Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET), which was another program of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) that took place during the same time period. It was with the strong backing of Rita Padawangi, the principle investigator and coordinator of SEANNET, that she and Paul Rabé, the co-coordinator of that network and the coordinator of UKNA, agreed to hold the symposium in conjunction with the launch of the SEANNET program. As the local primary investigator, I recommended Kampung Peneleh as a neighborhood that could be included in the program for several years to come. Historically, the origin of this kampung can be traced back to the 15th century.
Even so many centuries ago, Surabaya emerged as a major urban settlement, which subsequently developed into Indonesia's second-biggest city today. The rapid urbanization and industrialization during the colonial period created complex legacies which affected but were not limited to the position of kampungs or neighborhoods. The term kampung in Indonesia received a more derogatory meaning and became a place where the authorities wanted to exert their power. As a distinct urban feature associated with elements of rurality (i.e., village-community), the notion of kampungs flourished in many parts of Asia, especially in Southeast Asia. Even in the Khmer language, the term is identical to that for ‘port’ or ‘haven,’ indicating the intensive and dynamic relations between many cities at the dawn of the age of commerce in this region. With this background, a kampung is not only a site but also a communal way to see the world and to be in the world. Attempts at molding collective human settlements into functional, class-based, ethnic compartmentalizations imposed by state and corporate norms that have elsewhere succeeded in fragmenting societies have so far failed to fully obliterate this truly Indonesian but also Southeast Asian way of living in society.
Fig. 1: Issue #9 of The Newsletter (Summer 1996), an early point of connection between IIAS and Universitas Airlangga.
Since joining SEANNET's project in 2017, a number of staff and students at Universitas Airlangga, particularly in the Faculty of Humanities, have gained experience in interdisciplinary thinking and working on a local and worldwide scale. Our group uses SEANNET's community-engaged research paradigm to investigate various approaches to understanding urbanism, particularly in the neighborhood setting. In this initiative, we collaborated with Arsitek Komunitas Surabaya (‘Surabaya Community Architects'), to conduct participatory mapping with Kampung Peneleh locals. In addition, we invited Urban Sketchers Surabaya to host public sketching workshops in this neighborhood. Drawing, as stated in a number of works, serves a variety of objectives by distinguishing and assisting us in comprehending our complex environment. It may also enable us to discover, either via our personal experience of seeing, observing, and documenting, or through the shared experience of viewing another's drawn record of an event, by employing signs and symbols, mapping, and labeling our experience.
Furthermore, being involved in the SEANNET program provides many privileges for all members of the group to collaborate with and learn from various international scholars, artists, and communities. The students and a member of the local neighborhood association in Kampung Peneleh participated in workshops in several countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Participating in the SEANNET program exposed me to a variety of IIAS activities. Prior to my appointment as a lecturer at Universitas Airlangga, I had only established a connection with the institute once. I visited Rapenburg 59 together with several Indonesian officials during a heritage workshop in 2013. On that occasion, I was really impressed with how IIAS, under the directorship of Philippe Peycam, created various programs related to Asia. Subsequently, the acceptance of the paper I co-authored with Rita Padawangi into a seminar that IIAS co-organized in Taiwan provided me with an opportunity to learn more about the institute. I met with several figures who have been in this institute's network for several years. Philippe's invitation to attend a workshop in Zanzibar, just days before the Africa-Asia Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, heightened my interest in such activities. In fact, IIAS also invited the director of Airlangga Global Engagement, Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, to the event. However, due to several issues, only I could join that inspirational event from Surabaya.
Fig. 2: A note from Chief Librarian Endang Sumarsih at Universitas Airlangga to IIAS, confirming receipt of The Newsletter in 1996 (Photo courtesy of IIAS).
The relationship of Airlangga with IIAS actually originated during the early years of the institute. In 1996, IIAS sent a current copy of The Newsletter to the Universitas Airlangga’s library [Fig. 1-2]. After two subsequent decades of no significant collaboration, the relationship between Universitas Airlangga and IIAS has now grown stronger than ever. This was accelerated by the embryonic period of the newly established Airlangga Institute of Indian Ocean Crossroads. This partnership and mutual support has provided a model that we all hope will endure for many years into the future.
Adrian Perkasa is a PhD candidate at Leiden University, and a lecturer in the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga. Email: adrianperkasa@fib.unair.ac.id