Point Zero?: Geographies of Heritage on the Maritime Spice Routes

Talk followed by a film
 

Illustrated lecture by Marina Kaneti, Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her research explores questions of global governance, diplomacy, and migration. She is currently finalizing a book manuscript on diplomacy, power, and legitimacy in the age of the Belt and Road

 

Introduction: Haojun See
 

Responses to the Chinese Belt Road initiative are often presented as corresponding state-led geopolitical and geocultural reactions. Yet, how are narratives and memories of connectivity activated at the level of local communities? How do local communities (re)construct their sense of identity and connectivity? How do community activities fit into national government agendas for "Heritage" promotion and cultural revival?

 

This talk explores such questions in the context of Indonesia's Spice Route and Global Maritime Fulcrum initiatives

Film: Ternate: Point Zero (7.5 min; English)
For centuries, Europeans imagined Ternate as "Point Zero": the island many died to reach, the place at the heart of a global spice trade. How do people at Point Zero think of their past? At a time when China is intensifying a Silk Road geocultural diplomacy, do local communities still see themselves as the center of the Maritime Silk and Spice Routes? Do they take advantage of the resurgent interest in the maritime past? How do they think of and understand their pre- and post-European heritage? 
 
With these questions in mind, and as part of an overarching journey to understand maritime roots and identities, Marina Kaneti and graduate students from the National University of Singapore, made their way to Ternate in December 2019. This documentary is a first instalment of a "Point Zero" series. It takes a look at local community initiatives - beyond the realm of geopolitics and international diplomacy