How Might Poetic Inquiry Reinterpret Ethnoreligious Truths? Reworking Catholic Ethnographic/Missionary Films About Indonesia

• In Event: Exploring (Ethno)Religious Truths in Curriculum Studies: A Dialogue Across Global Perspectives

Abstract

Purpose
In addition to corporate and colonial interests of the Dutch East Indies company, there was a concerted effort to Indigenize Catholicism in areas of Indonesia. By reinterpreting ethnoreligious truths constructed by Catholic missionaries, specifically those directed by Father Buis, this paper interrogates prior knowledge production by problematizing the ethnographic work of Catholic missionaries through poetic inquiry. The inquiry that follows includes the poems: “Film as kindling”, “Ria Rago – Directed by Father Buis”, “Reporting for Bali-Floti” and a description of the research creation process to serve as an entry point for further engagement with the flows of coloniality as an interrogation of ethnographic truths.
Theoretical framework
The poetic inquiry examines Indonesian artifacts through the lensing of coloniality as informed by Benítez-Rojo, 1997; Quijano, 2000; Mignolo, 2011; and the poetic companionship of Anwar—the inquiry engages with Indonesian artifacts through the creation of ekphrastic poetry—poems that describe Indonesian works of art, artifacts, and contemporary objects. More specifically, what I’ll share from this inquiry exposes Dutch coloniality in Indonesia through Sandeep Ray’s (2021) film archival research that examines in his chapter titled, “films with a mission”, to examine the ethnographic films created by Catholic missionaries. Throughout this inquiry, I employ techniques of documentary poetics, which, according to Philip Metres (2018), arises “from the idea that poetry is not a museum-object to be observed from afar but a dynamic medium that informs and is informed by history” (Kenyon Review).
Modes of Inquiry
Within arts-based research, research creation through poetic inquiry has increased in popularity as qualitative research within the social sciences. According to Prendergast (2009), in prior decades, poetic inquiry has been used as research creation in forms such as poetic transcription, field note poems, poetic portraits , research-generated poetry, and poetic representation. Recently, the craft and method of poetic inquiry (Faulkner, 2019), has become a method for engaging with histories in new ways. I believe poetry evokes and creates a contemporary window for engaging with past histories. Apol (2021) asserts that “poetry allows researchers to create data and present findings in a more powerful and emotionally poignant form than they would be able to in prose research reports” p. (19). Furthermore, I believe, like Faulkner (2019), that “Poetry is political” and “can be an active response to social inequities” (p. 30), which is why this inquiry interrogates colonial histories and the construction of ethnoreligious truths.
Substantiated Conclusions and Scholarly Significance
The poetry, resulting from inquiry about ethnoreligious truths, invites readers to draw their own conclusions and significance; however, given this year’s theme of interrogating consequential research, I cannot help but imagine Dutch Priests, such as Father Buis, who traveled and filmed with the latest of technologies, in places that were only as exotic as they are exoticized. And, I also wonder, what powers, what other stories might these accounts of history hold? How might further research interrogate these histories? What bearing do such ethnoreligious truths have on ongoing religious movements in Indonesia, including within education.

Author

• Joel E. Berends, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author