Tsunami in the Collective Memory: A Reception Study of the Visitors of Tsunami Memorials in Aceh, Indonesia

Asian Journal of Media and Communication E-ISSN: 2579-6119, P-ISSN: 2579-6100 Volume 5, Number 1, April 2021 Tsunami in the Collective Memory: A Reception Study of the Visitors of Tsunami Memorials in Aceh, Indonesia Muzayin Nazaruddina , Lana Senja Indahb, Nadila Aninditac aUniversitas Islam Indonesia Abstract. Disaster tourism could be defined as tourism practices based on certain disasters, both natural and cultural, which happened in the past. It melts the enjoyment and trauma, when people come and enjoy the monument of disaster or damaged place caused by a disaster. Thus, many questions arise: why do people come as tourists to disaster artefacts? How do people make meaning of the disaster artefacts? The paper examines this question, taking the visitors of Tsunami Museum, PLTD Apung Monument, and Kapal Tsunami Lampulo as study cases. The paper aims to describe the meaning of disaster tourism activities constructed by the visitors of these three memorials. The broader purpose of the study is to understand why and how people enjoy the disaster tourism destinations. The paper is based on qualitative research done in these three memorials in Aceh, Indonesia. The fieldwork to collect primary data was conducted in three months in 2015 and another three months in 2017, optimizing in-depth interviews and observations. The study concludes that disaster tourism activities are closely related to individual and collective memory. The Acehnese or the outsider, who is deeply related to the place or has direct experience of the tsunami, construct the meaning of their activities as remembering and recreational activities, which is closely associated with their inner level of memory. While the Indonesian and foreigners who do not have firsthand experience of the disaster construct the meaning of their visits as educational and recreational activities, which is related to the collective memory of the 2004 tsunami. Thus, the study confirms some previous studies that have emphasized that disaster tourism could have different roles and change its function to suit visitors' needs. Article Info Article History Received: 26 May 2021 Revised: 9 July 2021 Accepted: 20 December 2021 Keywords: disaster tourism, collective memory, Tsunami Museum, PLTD Apung Monument, Kapal Tsunami Lampulo. Copyright @2021 Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0/) 61 Volume 5, Number 1, April 2021, 61-69 Introduction Tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004 became history's greatest natural disasters that have occurred in Indonesia. The tsunami waves that reached a height of 30 meters successfully scowled as many casualties as 230,000 people. It also became the third largest ever recorded on a seismograph with a duration reaches 10 minutes. As for the impact of the tsunami is the number of residents who had lost their relatives and the destruction of municipal infrastructure which is almost flush with the ground. A lot of unbelievable things happened, for example the thrown of huge ship from the sea to the earth, known as PLTD Apung. It then turned into PLTD Apung monument as the witness’s enormity of the tsunami. Government to build up the monument is due to the desire of the community to remember the disaster that happened. Besides, the development Aceh Tsunami Museum is also for memorizing the tsunami, completed with a variety of silent witnesses and other artifacts. Both these monuments have the same values, describing and memorizing the disaster through the objects associated with the tsunami. Nowadays people have a unique enjoyment, namely visiting the disaster sites as tourist destination. For example, Monument PLTD Apung and Tsunami Museum located in the city center of Banda Aceh. The number of visitors who came to these two places reached remarkable. At the time of Idul Fitri 2014 vacation, the number of visitors amounted to 10.009 people at Tsunami Museum (http://aceh.tribunnews.com/2015/07/22/museumtsunami-diserbu-warga). Besides, visitors who come to Monument PLTD Apung reached around 25,000 people in a every month. People interest in visiting disaster tourism can also create positive effects, such as raising the awareness the nature of Indonesia as a disaster-prone country. Not only that, it could also teach people how to understand and respond to disaster, as well as to give contribution after the disaster. Thus, disaster tourism could be a tool for educating people on disaster. Disaster tourism, defined as tourism destination and practice based on certain disaster, both natural and cultural, which happened in past, is a very interesting phenomenon, which should be studied in the field of disaster or tourism studies especially. On the one side, disaster is a negative and traumatic event in the human history. On the other side, tourism is a practice of using leisure time which has close connotation with happiness and enjoyment. In this general sense, disaster tourism melts the enjoyment and trauma, when people come and enjoy the monument of disaster or damaged place caused by disaster. Thus, a set of questions rise: why people come as a tourist to the disaster artifacts? How people make meaning of the disaster artifacts? The paper would examine this question, 62 Muzayin Nazaruddin, Lana Senja Indah, & Nadila Anindita, Tsunami in the Collective Memory: A Reception Study of the Visitors of Tsunami Memorials in Aceh, Indonesia taking the visitors of Tsunami Museum and Monument of PLTD Apung as a case of study. The paper aims to describe the meaning of disaster tourism activities and disaster artifacts constructed by the visitors of Tsunami Museum and Monument of PLTD Apung. The broader purpose of the study is to understand why and how people enjoy the disaster tourism destinations, what kind of factors that shape their decision to come to disaster tourism, and what kind of meanings they construct to their activities. This study would give a very important contribution to the disaster as well as tourism studies, in which the study of disaster tourism is still rare. In the practical level, considering Indonesia as a disaster-prone country, this study is very important to build a more comprehensive understanding of disaster, especially from the cultural contexts. Method The paper based on qualitative research done in Tsunami Museum and Monument of PLTD Apung, Nanggroe Atjeh Darussalam, Indonesia. Data are generally obtained through primary ways, from first-hand experience. The field work to collect primary data was conducted in a month in the end of 2015, optimizing in depth interview and observation. The number of informants, who are mainly the visitors, were 25 persons. The informants were chosen on the basis of their origin, namely the local people (Acehnese), the Indonesian, and the foreigner. The author also toke documentation in the form of photographs. Secondary (...truncated)