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The Construction of an Historical Boat in South Sulawesi (Indonesia): The Padewakang

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Abstract

Padewakang was a type of long-distance sailing vessels that, since at least the early eighteenth century, was mainly built in South Sulawesi and used throughout the Malay Archipelago and beyond for blue-water trading and fishing ventures. In 2019, the Abu Hanifa Institute in Sydney commissioned the construction of such a boat, Nur Al-Marege, for a documentary film at a shipyard in Tana Beru, a village in the district of Bontobahari (South Sulawesi, Indonesia), that in 2017 was inscribed into the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for its historic tradition of an extensive wooden boat industry. This was the occasion for a team of scholars, both independent and from the Universitas Indonesia and Università di Napoli “L’Orientale” to analyze iconographic sources and historical documents relating to the padewakang and to document a contemporary process of wooden boat construction by interviewing people involved in this activity. The article aims to summarize previous and current studies on shipbuilding activities in Tana Beru, to present the iconographic study which led to the reconstruction of the padewakang, and present a description of the conception and actual execution of the Nur Al-Marege construction and its representation.

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Data Availability

All data are stored and available at the Università di Napoli “L’Orientale” and at Universitas Indonesia.

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Notes

  1. Other currently active wooden boatbuilding yards in the Indian Ocean are at Guran, Qeshm Island, Iran (five ships seen on Google Earth, October 2020); at Duyung, Terengganu, Malaysia (ca. two-three seen on Google Earth, October 2020); or at Mandvi, Kutch, Gujerat (ca. ten seen on Google Earth, October 2020). The largest conglomerations of wooden ships under construction, however, are found in Indonesia: e.g., Bagan Siapi-api, Sumatra (around 2° 9′35"N 100°46′40"E, several dozen ships under construction seen on Google Earth, July 2021); Batang, Central Java (around 6°53′22"S 109°44′52"E, at least 100 ships); and, somewhat more scattered, at Balongan, Rembang, Central Java (around 6°43′24.00"S 111°39′14.00"E; several dozen). It, however, is of note that in contrast to Tana Beru, the ships constructed in Java and Sumatra are mainly built frames-first (Wibisono, pers. comm. / observation, Rembang; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fMlJtUjEVU; https://jateng.tribunnews.com/2019/11/23/pemkab-batang-wacanakan-bangun-eduwisata-bahari-kelas-internasional-di-galangan-kapal-kayu; websites last accessed 2021/07/01).

  2. The UNIOR team included Antonia Soriente, Chiara Zazzaro, Maurizio Borriello and Giuseppe Ferraioli.

  3. The UI team included Ahmad Ginanjar Purnawibawa Nazarudin Nazarudin.

  4. Information about the film project can be found at https://www.before1770.com/part2 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdxCSnJvu94 (all last accessed 2020-08-11).

  5. Other publications use /q/ for the Glottal Stop /ʔ.

  6. Other publications use /q/ for the Glottal Stop /ʔ/, a distinct phoneme in Konjo.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the late Haji Jafar, the primary supervisor for the construction of the Nur Al-Marege, Haji Usman boatbuilder and head builder, Darwis, assistant builder, Saibo, Albar, Asan, Harli and Mawar, and all other workers for their collaboration in documenting and recording the process of construction. The authors thank Shaykh Wesam Charkawi of the Abu Hanifa Institute for sponsoring the construction of the Nur Al-Marege and coordinating the team in recording the process of construction. Thank you also to the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, the Ministero Italiano per gli Affari Esteri e la Cooperazione Internazionale and Universitas Indonesia for their financial support for the research.

Funding

The research was supported by the Abu Hanifa Institute in Sydney, by the University of Napoli “L’Orientale” and by the Ministero Italiano per gli Affari Esteri e la Cooperazione Internazionale, and by Universitas Indonesia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean, University of Napoli, ‘L’Orientale’, Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, 12, 80134, Naples, Italy

    Chiara Zazzaro & Antonia Soriente

  2. Gowa, Indonesia

    Horst Liebner

  3. Castel San Giorgio, Italy

    Giuseppe Ferraioli

  4. Historical Education Program, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Ganesha University of Education, Banjar Bali, Indonesia

    Ahmad Ginanjar Purnawibawa

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  1. Chiara Zazzaro
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  2. Horst Liebner
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  3. Antonia Soriente
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  4. Giuseppe Ferraioli
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  5. Ahmad Ginanjar Purnawibawa
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Contributions

HL and CZ contributed to the study concept and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by all authors. The manuscript was mainly written by HL and CZ. AS contributed to the collection of ethnographic and linguistic data and to the compilation of the glossary. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chiara Zazzaro.

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Zazzaro, C., Liebner, H., Soriente, A. et al. The Construction of an Historical Boat in South Sulawesi (Indonesia): The Padewakang. J Mari Arch 17, 507–557 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-022-09332-5

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