When
Friday 17 November & Saturday 18 November
9:00am to 5:00pm

Venue
WA Maritime Museum
Victoria Quay Road, Fremantle WA 6160

Accommodation
Fremantle
Northbridge
Perth City

Abstract - Migration, the Sea and Indian Ocean Africa's Dual Articulation

This keynote addresses the multi-faceted consequences of maritime migration in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Migration transformed Indian Ocean rim societies, yet the full scope of this socio-economic and political transformation is only evident by considering the broad spectrum of free and forced movement by sea. This paper, drawn from a book project on the transformation of space along Africa's Indian Ocean rim, traces the reverberations of multiple forms of maritime migration in and through the Western Indian Ocean: the trafficking of enslaved people, systems of indenture and emigration from Southern Arabia, South Asia and Western Europe. Centering Indian Ocean societies within global entanglements, this stereoscopic reflection on multiple forms of migration reveals a defining multi-directionality of movement in the Indian Ocean world alongside often-circuitous journeys. This multi-directionality of maritime migration in turn offers a critical lens to better apprehend the Indian Ocean's dual articulation, or the simultaneous interface among locales within the Indian Ocean world and linkages with other world regions. Using the lens of migration to view Indian Ocean Africa's dual articulation, I outline how the social life, religious praxis, economies and other dimensions of coastal societies were profoundly affected by emigration and forced migration and, just as importantly, how enslaved Southeast Africans and Malagasy shaped societies from South Asia to South America.

Abstract - The Christian Slaves of Depok: A Colonial Tale Unravels

In this presentation, Dr Peters will recount the little-known history of Cornelius Chastelein, a high-ranking official of the Dutch-East India Company and the 150-200 slaves he purchased from slave markets around South-East Asia to work his landed estates in the Batavian (Jakarta) hinterland. Dr Peters traces the making and unravellings of Chastelein's dream to create a self-sustaining Christian community of freed slaves amid a Muslim stronghold. To this end, on his death on 28 June 1714, he freed most of his slaves and bequeathed to those who had embraced Christianity his 1244-hectare Depok estate in "collective ownership".

Opinions about Chastelein are divided. Slavery expert Mathias van Rossum asks, "Was he good or bad?" The Depokkers see him as a benefactor; they heroise and mythologise him. The missionaries who serviced Depok lauded his evangelising spirit. In contrast, historians are inclined to say he acted out of self-interest to smooth his path to salvation. Some even proclaim Depok a social experiment. Indonesians label him a coloniser who stole their lands.

Dr Peters isolates behaviours and events that influenced Depokker's lives after Chastelein's death: exogamy, religion, war, revolution and diaspora. Its main characters are the missionaries bent on the "Depokkers's Dutchification", the Japanese invaders who demanded obedience, their "Asia for the Asians" philosophy, and the Indonesian Pemuda (freedom fighters), who insisted the Depokkers throw their weight behind the independence movement.

* Please note that this program is subject to change

Registration Fee

Includes conference sessions, lunch and refreshments on both days of the conference.

Conference participants are responsible for their own transportation and accommodation costs, in addition to the registration fee.

Presenters
AUD $200 (payable upon acceptance of abstract)

Early-bird registration fee (payable by Monday, 18 October 2023)
Both days: AUD $300
One day (either Friday 17 November or Saturday 18 November): AUD $150

Standard registration fee
Both days: AUD $350
One day (either Friday 17 November or Saturday 18 November): AUD $175

Student registration fee
Both days: AUD $100
One day (either Friday 17 November or Saturday 18 November): AUD $50

Abstract deadline: 20 August 2023

We would like to invite scholars to consider the interrelation of faith and the movement of people throughout the Indian Ocean Region. We also welcome scholars interested in exploring faith and migration in the region as separate topics. Through individual presentations and panels, we encourage participants to reflect upon the historical and contemporary roles of faith and migration in mutually propelling and influencing each other across the Indian Ocean Region, and/or the ways in which faith and people have spread across the region in general.

Abstracts, biographies and panel proposals can be sent to jesler@sheridan.edu.au. 

Please include your name, title(s), affiliation,  email address, and abstract/panel title, with an abstract of 250 words and your biography of 80 words. Proposals for panels of three or four papers are also welcome, and should include an abstract for each paper as well as a brief description of the panel itself of 100 words.

Conference publication

As with the 2021 conference, we anticipate producing a publication following the 2023 conference. We welcome your expression of interest in contributing to this publication if you are able to participate in the conference.

The book based on the 2021 conference is available here.

The Great Circle

We also invite delegates to submit papers to The Great Circle, a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year by the Australian Association for Maritime History. This journal attracts articles and book reviews from within Australia and overseas. It has a high scholarly reputation and is indexed in JSTOR.

If you are interested in submitting your paper for consideration, please contact Dr Joshua Esler at jesler@sheridan.edu.au and Dr Peter Hobbins at peter.hobbins@sea.museum (Editor of The Great Circle).

Find out more about The Great Circle here.

Indian Ocean Studies Conference a Great Success!

The Indian Ocean Research Centre was delighted to hold the third Indian Ocean Studies Conference at the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Western Australia on 17 & 18 November 2023.

The conference was a great success with 45 delegates/speakers attending in-person and online. The conference was opened by one of our key supporters, Mr Alec Coles, CEO of the WA Museum, who spoke about the Indian Ocean region, its significance for intercultural relationships over the ages and the role the Museum plays in preserving these human connections. The two keynote speakers, Professor Jeremy Prestholdt of the University of California and Dr Nonja Peters, Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University, shared their extraordinary expertise and research on Migration, the Sea and East Africa's Dual Articulation and The Christian Slaves of Depok: A Colonial Tale Unravels, respectively. 

The conference program then included two venues for 27 conference presentations over the two days on the theme of Faith and Migration in the Indian Ocean Region. Delegates enjoyed mixing and networking during the various breaks and no doubt, new professional friendships were forged. A dinner at a local Fremantle cafe concluded the conference on Saturday evening.

We thank the many delegates and presenters who attended the Indian Ocean Studies Conference and look forward to our continued relationship with them at conferences and other events in the future.

Mark Fielding
Joshua Esler
Directors