Cultural Communication and Digital Mnemonic Practices: The Case of Orang Sungai in Urban Pontianak, Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18326/inject.v11i2.6919Keywords:
Cultural Communication, Digital Identity, Mnemonic Practices, Urbanization, Riparian HabitusAbstract
This study aims to analyze how the Orang Sungai community in Pontianak, Indonesia, reproduces identity through cultural communication channels and digital platforms. Amid increasingly intensive pressures of urbanization, the local identity of riparian communities is often marginalized by formal development narratives that overlook the cultural dimensions of riverbank life. Using an interpretive qualitative approach to narrative texts and digital representations, this study finds that identity communication is articulated through three main domains, namely the use of river cosmology as a moral anchor of communication, the conversion of water-based work ethics into economic-communicative resilience, and mnemonic practices through digital commemoration. The findings show that adaptive cultural communication enables the community to negotiate its presence in urban public space without losing the ecological roots of its identity. This study recommends the integration of riparian local wisdom into urban development communication policy.
References
Abugbilla, G. A. (2025). Social Media and Ghanaian Youth: A Systematic Review of Impacts and Implications. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 9(10), 1386–1394. https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.910000119
Al Humam, A. (2025). Collective Memory and Cultural Identity Review. Scientific Journal of King Faisal University: Humanities and Management Sciences, 71–77. https://doi.org/10.37575/h/art/240055
Amandaria, R., Darma, R., Tenriawaru, N., Fudjaja, L., Untari, & Akzar, R. (2025). Gender, empowerment, and rural sustainable development: A case study of crab business integration. Open Agriculture, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/opag-2025-0416
Bourdieu, P. (2021). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In Routledge Library Editions: British Sociological Association (Vol. 3, pp. 71–112). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351018142-3
Casola, W. R., Oren, J., Register, M. L., Littlejohn, J., Peterson, M. N., & Langerhans, R. B. (2021). Modernization of artisanal fishing communities on Andros Island, The Bahamas, as a treadmill of production. Ocean & Coastal Management, 201, 105487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105487
Das, M., Das, A., Momin, S., & Pandey, R. (2020). Mapping the effect of climate change on community livelihood vulnerability in the riparian region of Gangatic Plain, India. Ecological Indicators, 119, 106815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106815
Efendi, Z. (2021). Sejarah Dakwah Sultan Syarif Abdurrahman Al-Qadri: Islamisasi di Pontianak. Jurnal Lektur Keagamaan, 19(2), 347–388. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31291/jlka.v19.i2.914
Fernando, H., Galuh Larasati, Y., & Cahyani, N. (2023). Being #wanitasalihah: Representations of salihah women on TikTok. IAS Journal of Localities, 1(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.62033/iasjol.v1i1.8
Giroux, H. A. (2019). Doing Cultural Studies in Colleges of Education. In J. E. Canaan (Ed.), A Question of Discipline (pp. 27–41). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429039935-3
Handayani, D. S., Kirana, W., Muliantika, M., & Karlistiyaningsih, B. (2024). Hubungan Family Attachment : Kepercayaan, Komunikasi, Keterasingan Orang Tua Terhadap Perilaku Bullying Remaja di Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri (SMPN) Kota Pontianak. Transformasi Teknologi Menuju Indonesia Sehat Dan Pencapaian Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), 462–469. https://prosiding.unimus.ac.id/index.php/semnas/article/view/1747
Lestari, A. D. (2026a). Between the River and the City: Ideological Navigation, Mnemonic Practice, and the Reproduction of Orang Sungai Identity in Pontianak. International Journal of Social Science and Human Research, 09(05). https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v9-i5-19
Lestari, A. D. (2026b). Keterikatan orang sungai pada tempat tinggal asal: Kehidupan penduduk Kapuas Hulu di Kota Pontianak. Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Lestari, A. D., Hakim, P. R. N., Suprianto, B., Musa, D., & Jasmine, A. N. (2026). Survival strategies of riverbank communities: A structural and cultural analysis of existence and resistance in West Kalimantan. Community: Pengawas Dinamika Sosial, 12(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.35308/jcpds.v12i1.15040
Maulana, M., & Hendri, M. (2025). Religious Disobedience: Understanding Disobedience to Religious Authority in Indonesia. IAS Journal of Localities, 3(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.62033/iasjol.v3i1.119
Nugraha, M. T. (2018). Transformasi Identitas Etnis Melalui Konversi Keyakinan di Masyarakat Pontianak Kalimantan Barat. Religia, 21(2), 108–122. https://doi.org/10.28918/religia.v21i2.1504
Paul, B. K., Rahman, M. K., Crawford, T., Curtis, S., Miah, M. G., Islam, M. R., & Islam, M. S. (2020). Explaining mobility using the Community Capital Framework and Place Attachment concepts: A case study of riverbank erosion in the Lower Meghna Estuary, Bangladesh. Applied Geography, 125, 102199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102199
Pentzold, C., Lohmeier, C., & Birkner, T. (2023). Communicative remembering: Revisiting a basic mnemonic concept. Memory, Mind & Media, 2, e9. https://doi.org/10.1017/mem.2023.7
Prasojo, Z. H. (2017). Religious and Cultural Existences Within the Communities of Upper Kapuas Riverside of West Kalimantan. Al-Albab, 6(2), 197. https://doi.org/10.24260/alalbab.v6i2.931
Rooksby, E. (2017). Habitus: A Sense of Place (J. Hillier (ed.)). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315253701
Ruslan, I., & Hasriyanti, N. (2018). Kajian sosiologis tentang eksistensi perempuan di tepi Sungai Kapuas, Pontianak-Kalimantan Barat. Raheema: Jurnal Studi Gender Dan Anak, 5(2), 127–138. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24260/raheema.v5i2.1260
Smart, A., & Lin, G. C. S. (2007). Local Capitalisms, Local Citizenship and Translocality: Rescaling from Below in the Pearl River Delta Region, China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(2), 280–302. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00732.x
Stockly, K. J., Arel, S., DeFranza, M. K., Ruck, D., Matthews, L., & Wildman, W. (2020). Women-Centered Rituals and Levels of Domestic Violence. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 14(1), 95–123. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.38921
Sumai, S., Naumi, A. T., & Toni, H. (2017). Dramaturgi umat beragama: Toleransi dan reproduksi identitas beragama di Rejang Lebong. Kontekstualita: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Dan Keagamaan, 32(1), 126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.30631/10.30631/kontekstualita.%25x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 INJECT (Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
