Muddied Memories as Vernacular Heritage of an Unnatural Disaster

The 2006 birth of a mud volcano in Porong, East Java, became a politically enthralling catastrophe contested by two discourses. Public perception treats the mudflow as human generated, the result of negligent exploratory drilling, whereas the company operating the well (Lapindo Brantas) and the government treat it as a natural disaster by blaming an earthquake. The mud volcano submerged fifteen villages and subdistricts in three districts. We discuss the interrelation of monuments, human actors, and social time in preserving memories of lost space and supporting broader circulation of these memories. Commemorative practices record collective memories of this unnatural event. We focus on collective memory as vernacular heritage—local people’s sole inheritance being memories of homes and houses and associated commemorative practices.