Resilience Learning and Indigenous Knowledge of Earthquake Risk in Indonesia

In the context of earthquake risk, a vulnerability and resilience perspective has changed a purely technological orientation in facing natural hazards. One aspect of this change is the increasing awareness to include indigenous, traditional knowledge, community-based action, and local practices as well as experience from historic events in earthquake hazard management. Various research has shown that indigenous knowledge has an important role in avoiding undesired impacts from hazards. The involvement of indigenous knowledge into hazard management has been accepted as a fruitful approach by many countries. In Indonesia, the indigenous response to natural hazards, especially towards earthquakes, is to adapt the house constructions according to the hazards from their surrounding living environment and these have been tested and proven for many centuries. But while such indigenous knowledge has existed for centuries, learning requires more than just remembering, it needs to be translated into new actions. This paper highlights connections between knowing and acting on disasters, as manifested in house construction, and how this resonates with the concept of resilience.