June 27-July 1 1994
Universitas Pattimura, Ambon

THIRD INTERNATIONAL MALUKU RESEARCH CONFERENCE

The International Maluku Research Conferences are
interdisciplinary meetings of researchers specialized in the
study of the Moluccas. The first and the second of these meetings
were held at the University of Hawaii in 1990 and 1992,
respectively. The third one was held this year on the campus of
the Universitas Pattimura in Poka on the island of Ambon,
Indonesia. The organization was a joint effort by the Universitas
Pattimura and the Northern Territory University in Darwin,
Australia. 

By Gerrit Knaap

The conference was officially opened by the Governor of the
Moluccas, M.A. Latuconsina, and the Rector of Universitas
Pattimura, Professor J. L. Nanere. There were 42 papers presented
by scholars from Indonesia (12), the Netherlands (12), Australia
(9), the United States (6) and Great Britain (3). These papers
were presented during twelve working sessions: three for
anthropology, two for marine sciences, two for linguistics, and
one each for archaeology, history, the social sciences,
infrastructure of research and Irian Jaya studies.
The working sessions proved a tough proposition for the
participants. They started at 8.30 in the morning and it was not
before 17.30, that the heavily perspiring and totally exhausted
academics were set free. It would have been better if the
organizers had spread the working sessions over more days or,
alternatively, planned parallel sessions. Then there would also
have been some room for discussion. A more general point of
concern, which was felt by both Indonesian and foreign scholars,
is the degree of participation of local scholars from the
Moluccas itself. Therefore, in order to stimulate local
participation, it was decided during the final business meeting
that the fourth conference will also be held in Ambon in two
years' time.