Southern Linguistics: Posak Jodian‘s In Between KIta and Kami

Nusantara Archive has been working with Posak Jodian since 2019. In the latest Nusantara Archive 13: The Southern Linguistics I, we invite Indonesian artist Angga Cipta to join the process of keyword writing, in order to survey the multiple layers of mutual understanding at work in this practice. In the collaborative work, Posak’s writing first adopts “kita/kami,” which is used by both the Taiwanese indigenous people and in Nusantara, to indicate the invisible boundary between “we-group” and “non we-group.” Such a boundary is adjusted in time based on varied situations of exchanges. At the same time, Acip also points out Jakarta’s unique language milieu informed by post-colonial urbanism, which has rendered the concept of origin more suspicious. Through this transnational collaboration, we have come closer to the different cultural entities within the Nusantara framework. The chosen keywords also enable us to see how different “vernacular situations,” being the interface allowing different groups to engage with one another. (Rikey)

In 2019, Posak Jodian traveled to Kampung Cunex located on the Malay Peninsula and filmed the villagers' process of "re-enacting" their ritual in the dark. This event will mark the premiere screening of this ducmentary. Following the screening, Posak Jodian (a member of P.M.S.) and Rikey Tēnn Bûn-kî will engage in a discussion about the latest Nusantara Archive 13: Southern Linguistics.

Synopsis: Within the Unlit House (directed by Posak Jodian)

While discussing Southern Linguistics project with the artist, Posak Jodian has mentioned that, in the Pangcah language, there are two types of “we”: one is signified by the word kami, which is the “we” that does not include “you” (the listener/reader), and denotes a more limited scope of “we,” as opposed to the listener; the other is indicated by the word kita, which is the “we” that includes “you,” and refers to the “we” that includes the listener or everyone, signaling a larger range, and is vaguer. As to which “we” should be used, it is a judgment call to be made by the speaker. In fact the same question is raised when the Malay / Indonesian speaks Kita / Kami in almost the same way to refer to different levels of distance / closeness and spatial conception conveyed by the language. In the screening, Posak will present the documentary of the Temiar people‘s Sewang ceremony in Kampung Cunex in Perak, Malaysia. However, the ceremony was re-enacted by the Termiar on her need to record the event, after she was accepted as a member the real Sewang the evening before. Hence the experience of watching it separates “us“ (the audience, “non we-group“) from the “we-group“, or the “we“ in the video…

Speakers

Tēnn Bûn-kî is an independent curator and the founder of the Nusantara Archive Project since 2017, which is based on the shared history of Taiwan and Southeast Asia and its decolonization process. In 2020, He presented the Nusantara Archive Project (archive f) in The Secret South (curated by Nobuo Takamori). His most recent projects including “A Sea of Islands” in Taipei Fine Arts Museum (20 April - 19 May, 2024), TFAM Net.Open Project | Commoning 1, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost in the Southern Universe”, a Creation/Research Support Project by C-LAB (2022), co-organized with the artist Wu Chi-yu, and the Southern Linguistics Project collaborated with artists Posak Jodian and Angga Cipta since 2022.

Posak Jodian is an Amis who lives in Taipei. Posak is the given name and Jodian is the father’s name. Posak has a background in Ethnolinguistics and Communication studies. She mainly uses documentary as a method, and observes the traditional field formulation of tribes and the urban life of the indigenous people who left their hometown through long-term field research based on her ethnic identity. Meanwhile, she participates in the scenes of various mass movements, and the various actions of young people in between the gaps of cities. Continue to work on the documentary “Social Practice from Straight to Halfway Cafe”. Trying to use the ethnic and cultural actions as a fulcrum to open the boundaries between identity and recognition. Her work was published at several places, “Self-portrait” (2008) at Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park, “Story of Bai” (2010) at Taiwan Indigenous Television, Flames on the water (2016) at N-Factory AIR. She is also a member of Halfway Cafe and Haibizi Tent 16-18. Her film Lakec and Lakec: A Very Simple River won the Excellence Prize of Pulima Art Award 2020.