Disaster*Cultures – Indonesia and its Tsunami Warning System

Abstract

Much literature on the disaster-culture nexus focuses on tangible elements such as demograpics or geography and adopts an anthropocentric Western and positivistic mindset. In contrast, this Working Paper applies an epistemological ‘disaster*cultures’ approach to Indonesia. We put the onus on construction processes, interpreting and finding meaning rather than on identifying set patterns, and highlight how culture does not refer to ‘exotic’ processes that can only be studied at the community level. Researchers, practitioners and policy-makers all approach disasters and risks through their own specific (disciplinary) lenses. The first part of thiw Working Paper will introduce our disaster*cultures-approach. Subsequently, analysing academic literature in English and Bahasa Indonesia, but also poems, art, toponyms, grey literature and selected exchanges conducted with Indonesian tsunami scientists and disaster management officials in 2022 as part of the TSUNAMI_RISK research project, we review the socio-historical ways through which multi-ple disaster*cultures have formed in Indonesia. The remainder of the Working Paper details the main disaster stakeholders, policies and practices at play in Indonesia today, particularly in re-gard to the Indonesian Tsunami Warning System (InaTEWS) and efforts to detect non-seismically induced tsunamis. As such, we aim to provide disaster scholars and practitioners with a holistic overview of the Indonesian contexts in which they operate, and to facilitate more socio-culturally sensitive technology and warning system development.