Cross-Cultural Voices Project
In collaboration with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (CSEAS UHM), the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University has completed one documentary film and is currently filming another that explores religious life in communities across Indonesia. Supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Center’s Religion and Cross-Cultural Initiative, this project aims to develop educational resources on religion and society in Southeast Asia for use in classrooms in both the U.S. and Indonesia. The completed materials—hosted on both the CRCS and CSEAS websites—include teaching resources to support lesson planning and public discussions using the documentary films.
The first episode of the film series, Our Land is the Sea, premiered at the US Embassy Jakarta’s @america center in August 2018. This production was filmed in Wakatobi National Park, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Video journalist and creator of the Global Workshop, Matt Colaciello, and CRCS-CSEAS Cross-Cultural Voices Project project director, CRCS faculty member, and UH alum Dr. Kelli Swazey (Anthropology) worked together with the Bajau village of Sampelato document how the community’s Islamic identity and their indigenous religious practices informs their relationship with the ocean environment of their home in the Tukang Besi archipelago. The film is scheduled for its world film festival premiere at the Bali International Film Festival running from September 24-30, 2018. The film will be posted on our website in October.
– Last updated October 19, 2018
Adat Maluku (2019)
This is the second film in the two-film series. (Adat Maluku is a working title.) The crew is currently on location filming in Maluku. Via an Instagram post by project director Dr. Kelli Swazey:
Next stop #Maluku! We’ve started preliminary shooting on the second short #documentary for the Cross-Cultural Voices project with @uhcseas. This time we’ll be looking at how adat and religion influence people’s relationship with their environment and cultural forms of resource management in the Lease Islands.
Our Land is the Sea (2018)
This is the first film in the two-film series. Read more about it and watch the full documentary here!