The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has three main pillars with different focuses and functions. They are namely the Indian Ocean Region-Business Forum (IOR-BF), the Working Group on Trade and Investment (WGTI), and the Indian Ocean Rim-Academic Group (IOR-AG). During 2015–2017, Indonesia has been the Chair of IORA, and successfully implanted a new initiative to help IORA to promote more solid economic integration in the Indian Ocean region. Indonesia hosted the first IORA Summit where the IORA Concord was also first announced in March 2017. It was a very historical moment when Indonesia’s initiative was undertaken during the 20th anniversary of IORA.
In order to support the Indonesian chairmanship, the Focal Point of the IOR-AG conducted the first regional workshop, which specifically discussed topics and sub-topics on civilization and cultural intersections in Indian Ocean. The regional workshop was held in October 2016 in Jakarta. There were 11 member countries that attended and discussed cultural aspects and related topics from anthropology, archeology, history, economy and migration, political and security, and regionalism. The participants were mostly came from universities, government think tanks, and some officials.
The regional workshop was inspired from the reality that the IOR-AG annual meeting was usually a similar format, with a reporting forum of activities from each member country. This meant the regional scholars had almost no proper opportunity to share and discussed regional issues or in specific current issues that needed probably more urgent response from IORA in general and IOR-AG in particular. During and after the regional workshop, there were many appreciations from the participants and also from the IORA Secretariat and other government institutions in Jakarta about the significance of the workshop.
The substance of the workshop
The Indian Ocean, which is the third largest ocean in the world, can be seen as a living space, and as a medium of interaction. The Indian Ocean region covers a vast area ranging from Africa, Middle East, South Asia, to Southeast Asia and Australia. The Indian Ocean region has great physical potential, such as demography, natural resources, and economy. As the medium of interaction, the Indian Ocean has been playing an important role in facilitating world trade. In addition to its physical potential, the countries in the Indian Ocean region have a high cultural diversity. In addition to promoting trade, the Indian Ocean has also become a medium of interaction between multicultural societies and facilitates cultural intersection, such as the spread of religions, international migration, and cultural exchange. With the physical potential and cultural diversity of its people, interactions among countries in the Indian Ocean region must be well managed to create harmony as the foundation of cooperation. Otherwise, it could be a source of conflict.
Intercultural understanding can be the foundation of cooperation and increased resilience to the challenges that society may face in a multicultural region. Deepening our knowledge on the social and cultural relationships between nations connected by the Indian Ocean is a necessity. Not only because we have almost forgotten that reality as we tend to see ourselves in the formal perspective of citizenship, but also because of the future challenges that demand more collaboration than competition. Understanding of this knowledge is essential because the cross-cultural process that has been going on for thousands of years has intensively facilitated the mutual adoption of various cultural elements by different societies. This process means that the nations that are now insulated by state borders, are basically not total strangers to each other. In fact, the history of the interaction bridged by the Indian Ocean has created groups of people who share similar socio-cultural elements. The similarity of these cultural elements can be used as a steppingstone in increasing cooperation, especially in dealing with development challenges both in regional and global scope.
Despite its importance for the stability and economic development of the region, the topic of cultural intersection in the Indian Ocean region has not received equal attention. Although the Indian Ocean has facilitated the interaction of nations for thousands of years, the Indian Ocean does not yet have a strong identity as a region, thus the development of regional cooperation in the region has not been significant. The Indian Ocean region has great potential to build a stable and prosper multicultural society, but it depends on how each country can manage multiculturalism and reduce cultural differences. It is also within IORA concern to foster the culture of ‘we-ness over Indian Ocean’ and raise collective awareness to address common concerns and interests.
The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), which is the chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group (IOR-AG) during Indonesia’s Chairmanship in IORA, tries to raise the issue of cultural intersections in the Indian Ocean region to strengthen the identity of the region as a modality of cooperation among countries in the Indian Ocean region. On 10–11 October 2016 in Jakarta, LIPI initiated and organized the Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group Regional Workshop with the main theme ‘Intersection of Culture in the Indian Ocean Region.’ The discussion on cultural intersection included several subtopics, including maritime community, networks and diaspora, history of maritime culture, norms-building, culture and politics, multiculturalism, maritime economy, culture and woman empowerment, culture and gender equality. Almost all member states representatives attended this workshop to present their research findings. Some of the papers submitted and presented in the IOR-AG Regional Workshop are part of this Journal of the Indian Ocean Region edition.
The publication of this Journal of Indian Ocean Region edition with the theme ‘Diversity, community, cooperation: Cultural Intersections in the Indian Ocean Region’ is aimed to raise the issue of cultural intersection in the dynamics of research on Indian Ocean region. Furthermore, this special edition of the journal can provide a comprehensive understanding of cultural intersections in the Ocean region. A better and more thorough understanding of the intersection of culture in the Indian Ocean region is ultimately expected to create harmonious interactions in the Indian Ocean region and enhance the cooperation of countries to achieve the welfare and stability of the Indian Ocean region.
Academic contribution to IORA
The topic of the regional workshop referred to one of the IORA priority areas that include (1) maritime safety and security, (2) fisheries management, (3) trade and investment facilitation, (4) disaster risk management, (5) science and academic cooperation, (6) cultural exchanges and tourism. The others are blue economy and women’s empowerment. Since the establishment of IORA in 1997, cultural issues had never been academically discussed. However, reality does not suggest that the region has awareness of cultural differences, which can have positive or negative elements for developing the regional economic integration in Indian Ocean. Moreover, the region has been facing big economic gaps and regional development from one country or area to the others.
Having a good or better understanding about regional culture in the Indian Ocean will be a good way to improve opportunities to create and develop closer cooperation among the 21 member states as well as the 6 dialogue partners of IORA. From positive perspectives, cultural differences show the richness of IORA. This at the same time can be explored as part of regional efforts in building economic equality within the region. In other words, regional economic development is not only based on transactional interactions and short-term projection, but also in order to reduce economic gaps and for a more solid regional integration with equality.
As we approach the end of the Indonesian chairmanship, the Journal of Indian Ocean Region’s special edition on cultural aspects picks contributions from the papers that had been presented during the first regional workshop. Beginning a new initiative was not always easy, but continuing or even maintaining good and productive activities seems to be much more difficult. However, the Focal Point of IOR-AG Indonesia has started it, and under the chairmanship of South Africa in 2017–-2019, this effort will be continued. Therefore, the regional scholars are able to have their own forum to share knowledge and to discuss relevant issues with IORA. The regional scholars need to have a similar forum in the future to contribute more on academic frameworks for the bases of regional policy.
Finally, the Focal Point of IOR-AG Indonesia expresses its thanks for the consistent help in the whole process of publishing this special edition, especially to the journal Chief Editor, Prof. Timothy Doyle and the Commissioning Editor, Dr Adela Alfonsi. Last but not least, we also thank all the authors and contributors to the special edition of JIOR.
Acknowledgements
The Chief Editor would specifically like to give thanks to the Indonesian Institute for Science (LIPI) for both initiating this exciting ‘Cultural Intersections’ research theme during Indonesia’s term as Chair of IORA’s Academic Group; and for providing generous financial assistance to the production costs of this special edition.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Adriana Elisabeth graduated from University of Wollongong, NSW Australia in 2008. Her PhD was about the dynamics of ASEAN political economy in relation with BIMP-EAGA from Philippines' perspective as the initiator. She has been working as researcher at the Center for Political Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences known as P2P LIPI since 1989. She was the Head of Center from 2014 to 2017. Adriana was the Focal Point of IOR-AG Indonesia from 2015 to 2016. Besides her structural function, she has been producing number of academic reports and policy briefs, in particular about ASEAN and related issues, foreign policy and diplomacy, peace and conflict analysis regarding peace process in Papua since 2004 up to now.