Local Sustainable Resilience in Coping with Disaster

Mitigation of Sea and Land Disasters in Southeast Sulawesi

Abstract

Living in the area of the Circum-Pacific Belt and often-recurring calamities, Indonesian native people are able to endure and develop. Local knowledge plays a crucial function in this section. This study aims to explore the way in which local knowledge was used by traditional groups of Indonesia to deal with adversities during natural disasters. Historical, anthropological, and philological approaches were employed. Data in the form of manuscripts, oral traditions, and institutionalized knowledge on disaster experiences were collected and analyzed to explore how the resilience affect the local people’s lives. This study finds that local people’s resilience was formed by the internalization of local knowledge and social cohesion that developed in society. Local knowledge in disaster mitigation was contained in manuscripts, folklores, and rituals. With this knowledge, local people have effective warning system in the time of disasters, so that they could evacuate accordingly. This paper is expected to provide alternative solutions in overcoming the impact of disasters experienced by the community. The local knowledge can be utilized to prepare the community before a disaster occurs, to make accurate solutions when facing a disaster and to adapt to environmental changes post disasters.