Who Owns the Sea? Coral Divers and the Play of Property in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

To whom does the sea belong? In a world where European legal codes and juridical forms remain hegemonic, property is said to end at the coast--the geographical terminus of the legal concept of private ownership itself. Yet in reality the coast and sea are alive with the play of property. Along the shores and coastal waters of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, forms of access, belonging, rights, ownership, territory, and even legal property at sea are constantly negotiated and re-negotiated. This talk offers three cases exploring the play of property at sea in Eastern Indonesia, drawn from my book project--an ethnography of the Indonesian live coral trade and the commercial divers who supply rare and beautiful corals and fish for the global aquarium industry. Aboard a small diving boat, I watched as the divers navigated and negotiated these diverse claims of ownership and belonging to the region’s coral reefs. First, I explore indigenous and customary institutions of ownership and belonging at sea. Second, I show how divers navigate the acquisition of permits and permission to gather corals from both states and spirits. Third, I examine how divers turn their coral money into private property through coastal land reclamation projects. At the fraying edge of the legal order, I show how property relations and forms of belonging are made and remade through these everyday encounters. 

Joseph Klein is a Research Associate with the Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions (SEACoast) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work explores fisheries labor, marine product supply chains, and coral reef futures in Indonesia. He is currently working on a book project about Indonesian commercial divers and the global aquarium industry, as well as a co-authored book on the colonial legacies of coastal hardening in Southeast Asia. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Southeast Asia Program.  Thank you!