The fading of disaster memory in Pulau Sebesi: A historical construction

¹ Department of History, Faculty of Humanity, University of Indonesia
² Research Centre for Demography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences

^* Corresponding author: devichudori@gmail.com

Abstract

The island has been impacted by volcanic eruptions which led to tsunami in a different scale, where in 1883 claimed 36000 lives, subsequently in 2018 took one victim. Some island communities succeed in pertaining memory of tsunami through oral tradition, namely Simeulue, differently Sebesi communities fail to maintain its memory on tsunami. The gap of 138 years seems to bury the memory of tsunami in Sebesi island. This paper aims to explore why the Sebesi communities fail to maintain the disaster memory. To build an understanding the way in which the Sebesi forgetting their past disaster, this paper uses longue durée approach, oral history framework and archival studies to analyses the structures—both environmental structures and socio-politic and cultural structures—that play roles in the disappearance of disaster memory. The study revealed that none of survivor during its catastrophic tsunami in 1883 and repopulation of this island occurred only after 1940s. This resulted to the formation of community without disaster memory. Only after the 2018 tsunami, the community of Sebesi Island began to aware that there are hazards among their environments. Uncovering the fading of disaster memory in Pulau Sebesi elucidates lessons to pursue resilient development trajectory on the island.