<![CDATA[This study examines the internal migration of Hulu Sungai people to the Gambut region, Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan, with a focus on Banyu Hirang Village. Unlike state-organized transmigration, this movement occurred spontaneously through family initiatives, kinship networks, and the cultural ethos of madam. Using a historical anthropology approach, this research combines colonial archives, historical maps, ethnographic observations, and in-depth interviews to reconstruct the settlement formation process in a peat swamp environment. Findings show that migration coincided with the production of new living spaces through land clearing, water management, handil construction, and settlement development. This process generated local place-naming practices that recorded the origins of settler groups. Handil Kalua refers to the ancestral region of pioneers from Kelua (Tabalong), Handil Asang commemorates a founding figure from Kandangan, while Handil Satu and Handil Dua (formerly Handil Banyu Hirang) and the name of Banyu Hirang Village reflect the origins of settlers from Amuntai. The persistence of these names amidst infrastructure changes and land use transformations demonstrates that toponymy functions as a medium for preserving collective memory about origins and the history of landscape formation. The Banyu Hirang case reveals that internal ethnic-local migration is not merely a geographical relocation but also a process of producing new social spaces that retain traces of group history and identity. These findings offer a new perspective in migration and toponymy studies by highlighting the role of local place-naming practices in recording internal mobility within the same ethnic territory.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
