Wearing Koteka in Public Spaces: A Symbol of the Hardened Cultural Identity in Papua

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Koteka; cultural identity; Papua; customary attributes

Abstract

Koteka is not merely a traditional article of clothing worn by the indigenous people in the highlands of Papua. Aside from setting the Papuan identity apart from other ethnicities, koteka has political and social dimensions. This research uses secondary data from news articles, examined using critical discourse analysis. The findings show that koteka worn in public spaces can be seen as a symbol of cultural resistance to fight against the imposition of the dominant culture in Indonesia. This paper also emphasizes that koteka is a resurfaced indigenous identity that becomes a form of protest against the marginalization of the native Papuans. Wearing koteka in public spaces has reinforced the community’s cultural identity, putting into the spotlight the past oppression, injustice, and dark history with the state. Used as a tool of protest, koteka, and other customary attributes is a subtle alternative strategy of social movements.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Akhmad Kadir
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/01/08
TI  - Wearing Koteka in Public Spaces: A Symbol of the Hardened Cultural Identity in Papua
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Democracy and Social Transformation (ICON-DEMOST 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 37
EP  - 40
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-174-6_7
ID  - Kadir2024
ER  -