Crossing genres, crossing spaces: the legend of La Salaga in history, art and society

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Venue
Paul Webley Wing (Senate House)
Room
Wolfson Lecture Theatre

About this event

Kathryn Wellen (Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)

Abstract

Hailing from Sulawesi, the story of La Salaga recounts the legendary family relations between Mamuju in West Sulawesi and Badung in South Bali. Whatever its historical accuracy, the story attests to the very real possibility of having a career and a family in more than one place in early modern Southeast Asia.

The La Salaga project is an initiative of Atelier KITLV which seeks to incorporate other voices and reach new audiences. It used a Balinese style of painting ( kamasan ) by I Made Sesangka Laksana to depict this legend from Sulawesi. Thereafter project partners Kathryn Wellen and Louie Buana wrote English and Indonesian poetry to accompany the traditional text in Mandarese for a trilingual children’s book, and worked with videographer Agit Primaswara to create a documentary and a children’s video. The painting was put on display in Ubud before being given to a literary organization in Polewali. Even before the book went to press, the project attracted considerable attention, including that of the Ubud Writers’ and Readers’ Festival and the Maradika (customary ruler) of Mamuju.

This paper examines the international and Indonesian intellectual and artistic spaces to which this project contributes. These include academic demands for multivocality; the political need for representing local cultures in the age of regional autonomy; the Indonesian government’s desire to promote cultural cohesion; and changes in audiences resulting from social media. The paper also touches upon the innovation entailed in producing a kamasan painting depicting a work from outside the Balinese literary canon; and the possibility of using this project as a model for financially self-perpetuating cultural activism.

Speaker Biography

Kathryn Wellen is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and University Malaya. Currently a senior researcher at the Royal (Netherlands) Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, her research focuses primarily on the history of South Sulawesi.

Registration

This event is free and open to public. If you would like to attend the event please register. Please register via Google Forms .

Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies

Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk