Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am
Selfitriani Kulla, one of the doctoral students in the Interreligious Studies (IRS) Program at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada, successfully defended her dissertation in a closed defense held on Friday, June 26, 2026. The defense was held before a panel of examiners consisting of Dr. Samsul Maarif, Dr. Suryaningsi Mila, Dr. Agus Wahyudi, and Dr. Jonathan Smith, with Prof. Ir. Siti Malkhamah, M.Sc., Ph.D. as the chair. This research was supervised by two promotors, namely Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir and Prof. Michael Stanford Northcott. In the defense, Selfitriani presented her dissertation entitled “The Water Story of Mori Indigenous Community: A Study of Water and Religion in North Morowali, Central Sulawesi.”
The fundamental argument of this study is that for the Mori Indigenous Community, water is not a commercial commodity or a dead resource (“I-It”), but rather a subject of life (“I-Thou”) that carries profound spiritual, historical, and cosmological values. Through the Indigenous Religion Paradigm, water is seen as having the status of personhood and interconnectedness with humans as well as non-human entities. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative research approach with ethnographic sensitivity, combining in-depth interviews and direct observation in the field. This study focuses on two Mori indigenous communities: the community living in Tiu Village, Petasia District (Mori Petasia), and Korowalelo Village, Lembo District (Mori Bawah), in North Morowali Regency (Wita Mori), Central Sulawesi. Yet today, the Mori Indigenous Community is suffering from a humanitarian crisis and a water crisis due to extractive colonialism, particularly nickel mining and oil palm expansion.
The most prominent element of Tiu Village’s cosmology is the belief in Imbu (or Umbu Koloro), a mythological creature in the form of a dragon or giant snake with large eyes and a body resembling a tree trunk. Imbu is believed to dwell at the bottom of Lake Tiu and serves as the protector of water and ruler of the weather. The narrative about Imbu creates an ethic of caution, forcing the community not to speak arrogantly, throw waste, or exploit the lake. Meanwhile, the most important water narrative in Korowalelo Village is a cosmic myth about the friendship and dispute of two mountains: Mount Tamba Uwai and Mount Ponteo’a. This myth transmits the message that Mount Tamba Uwai is a water protector entity that manages the fair distribution of water for all villages below it, instilling a sense of responsibility among downstream communities to respect and not disrupt this water-sharing order.
These water narratives reveal that for the Mori, water has always carried sacred and relational meaning, a meaning now threatened by extractive industrialization. The dissertation concludes that in order to ensure the safety and sustainability of freshwater resources in Central Sulawesi in the future, the old epistemological order must be dismantled. Water must be immediately restored to its true theological status: not an object of capitalistic exploitation by the extractive industry, but a sacred entity, “Uwoi Tuwua” (the source of living water), a fellow creature, and a medium that binds the reciprocal harmony between God, humanity, ancestors, and the entire universe.
The successful defense marks an important achievement in Selfitriani Kulla’s doctoral journey and constitutes a significant academic contribution to the development of blue ecology studies on freshwater ecosystems, particularly in Central Sulawesi and the Nusantara archipelago at large.