I think about this question a lot. Growing up in hyper-urban Singapore, we don’t so much think about land as we do country. Land is perceived by many states as a resource first, even though it encompasses and offers much more than that—a primordial and more holistic sense of belonging, a connection to the humans and non-humans in our midst, and an eternal slate on which our histories are written.
I’ve been driven by an urge in recent years to learn about the histories of my land. I don’t think I was exposed to enough of it in school. Studying abroad later on further made me realise how the stories we were told about non-Western cultures promoted a limited, colonial understanding of the world and just how much I had ingested from Eurocentrism.
Long before colonialism and the advent of the nation state separated and subjugated peoples and nature, humans had a deeper, more sacred relationship with their environment. Today, indigenous people are among those who still cherish these natural threads. Despite extreme oppression and the continued plundering of their traditional homelands, indigenous communities are fighting to preserve the traditions that have long protected the Earth.
To our loss, there remains a sore lack of stories about and by indigenous people in Asia. But we’re glad to be able to bring some of these stories to light, and learn about ourselves in the process! After all, place—or, in other words, land—determines who and what we are.
If this issue speaks to you, don’t be shy to reach out to us at hello@kontinentalist.com.We’d love to hear from you.
Featured Story
Many people might remember human zoos as a dark, disturbing part of colonial history. But the rise of indigenous tourism begs an uncomfortable question: Do such tours perpetuate colonial narratives, or do they benefit indigenous communities? Let’s unravel the answers to these questions through our data story on the colonial roots of indigenous tourism in Asia.
In this word cloud, we showcased specific google queries on indigenous tourism in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Thailand. The query string used to generate this visualisation was limited to “indigenous tours <Country>”. The word “indigenous” was occasionally switched around with “cultural”, “native”, and “tribal”.
A typical word cloud is not displayed in an orderly manner, which can be difficult for viewers to see which word is at the top of the hierarchy. Thus we arranged the words from the highest to lowest occurrence for faster visual understanding.
In the introduction of indigenous people in Asia, we visualised areas where these communities live in specific countries by highlighting concentrated areas or provinces. We created the slides using the Flourish story function.
We wanted to end the story with an impactful data viz, by using concentric circles to visually represent planet Earth. The quote on “10% of the world’s land legally recognised as belonging to indigenous communities” was purposefully separated from the data viz above as it would be confusing and inaccurate to combine both data.
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Did you know?
New Khmer architecture combines modern and vernacular Cambodian architecture, breaking free from the French colonial style of the 1960s. The architects of this era were visionary in their use of modern construction materials while paying homage to Cambodian heritage. Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann once regarded the country as one made of “half-earth, half-water”. His designs paid tribute to the natural elements of water, air, and light.
“I have learned the names of all the bushes, but I have yet to learn their songs.” These past months, the Kontinentalist team has been deep in learning and reflection. We started our “Decolonial Reading Club”: bi-monthly sessions breaking down coloniality, knowledge, and being. This quote from Braiding Sweetgrass, recounting
2022, Doha Airport. I am catching a flight back to Singapore, but there are other pressing matters in the transit area. Morocco is playing Portugal for a spot in the World Cup semi-finals, and is one goal up at the 90th minute. Behind me, an Arab auntie is saying a
