Project I: 

The Upper Mahakam Region in Central Borneo: Culture, Society and Development in a Frontier Region

Christian Oesterheld / Bernard Sellato / Jesper Döpping

Being one of the latest regions to obtain the status of ‘regency’ (kabupaten) within Indonesia’s decentralization process, the upper Mahakam (Mahakam Ulu) is situated in the north-western corner of East Kalimantan province, right at the heart of Borneo – a dynamic frontier space with borders to the Malaysian territory of Sarawak and to the provinces of North, Central and West Kalimantan. The area was amongst the last to be added to the Dutch colonial possessions in the East Indies and had remained terra incognita until the late 19th century, allowing for the development of a distinct regional identity in an ethnically diverse setting.

This cross-disciplinary research project investigates processes of socio-cultural and socio-economic change in connection to the “transformation of marginal space into frontier zone” (Cons and Eilenberg 2019), focusing on the “assemblage” character of such spatial and temporal zones of convergence. As such the project connects historical and contemporary perspectives when engaging with the process of the area’s (re)frontierization dynamics. We address the question of how frontiers are made at specific moments in history and discuss the lifecycle of such frontierization – as well as the frontier’s “afterlife”: the occasional reemergence of a geographic area as a frontier. We are also interested in vestiges of “frontier heritage” that emerge when frontiers disappear: public memory, social adjustments, economic adaptation or legacies of political suzerainty.

The project has initiated a loose cooperation with the government of Mahakam Ulu Regency, which is currently in the process of formalization. Our international team of researches also cooperates with local scholars in East Kalimantan to foster a collaborative network of exchange and mutual inspiration.

Recent Project Publications:

Christian Oesterheld

A Past for the Future: Frontier Heritage on the Upper Mahakam (East Kalimantan, Indonesia)

This article reviews historical processes of frontier-making (and re-making) in a region of central Borneo that was and still is on the margins of state control. Contributing to discussions about the ‘assemblage’ character of frontiers as zones of the ‘not yet’, this case study demonstrates how complex and eclectic historical legacies have gone on to produce a palimpsest of experiences and public memories that are currently being reinscribed in the context of ‘frontierisation in the second degree’. This ‘afterlife’ of the historical frontier zone is discussed in relation to its significance for competing visions of regional identity-building and claims of political suzerainty.