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PLACE, PEOPLE AND POLLUTION: AN URBAN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE KLANG RIVER IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, AND THE TORRENS RIVER IN ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA NOR AZLIN TAJUDDIN M.Sc. Social Research Methods, University of Surrey, England B.HSc. (Hons.) Sociology and Anthropology, International Islamic University Malaysia This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Social Sciences Discipline of Anthropology and Sociology 2013 i ii ABSTRACT This thesis explores comparative river/human interactions in two contrasting urban locations: Malaysia's Klang River in Kuala Lumpur, and South Australia's Torrens River in Adelaide. Using ethnographic data, especially a series of river pollution stories, I show how and why people‘s attachment to each river can be understood within a place-based framework. Drawing on an interrelated mix of literature focused on concepts and connections to place by scholars such as Yi-Fu Tuan and Keith Basso, Mary Douglas‘s understanding of dirt and pollution, and research embedded in anthropological studies about people‘s relationship to water, I develop two overarching and interconnected arguments. The first is that people‘s views and practices in relation to pollution are profoundly affected by their sense of the river as a cherished but also often ambiguous place. Building on this emphasis, I suggest, secondly, that despite the seeming disparity between an Australian and Malaysian setting, people have similar views about the concept and actuality of pollution. Several common themes have emerged from my research. Threading a series of what I describe as river stories or narratives, I show how respondents placed a strong emphasis on visual perceptions of place with regard to a river‘s purity or cleanliness. Both the Klang and Torrens residents minimally experience other sensations, such as a river‘s sound and smell, and tactile experiences. The visual qualities of water, notably, colour and clarity, were usually relied on as indicators of river quality. The abundance and decline of aquatic species were also integral to people‘s conceptualisation of river health. People with whom I worked in both locations held definite ideas about visible human-made floating rubbish, such as water bottles and plastic bags. These were described as ‗matter‘ that disrupted the order of a clean river. Local understandings of a healthy river included its physicality, such as matter that was strewn along riverbanks, apart from obvious water quality. Specifically, the presence of trees and birdlife enhanced people‘s connections to river places and aesthetic experiences, as well as contributing to their conceptualisation of a clean or polluted river. At another level, environmental degradation provided ways for people to reconnect emotionally, intellectually and physically to river places, and to invoke their sense of place. They re-established their connections with rivers and the surrounding environs through i various attempts to improve river quality, including community participation programs, establishment of river-based organisations and engagement in on-ground rehabilitation work that transformed the degraded rivers into what I describe as ‗fields of care‘. Notwithstanding several overlaps between Australian and Malaysian informants, I also show that specific local conditions play out in people-place-pollution intersections. On the one hand, the sighting of algal bloom and the lack of water flow serve as the main indicators of pollution in the Torrens, whereas, on the other hand, stories of the anthropogenic nature of the river are more prominent and intense with regard to the Klang. The final and most revealing contrast refers to river stewardship. Individuals in the upriver section of the Klang River largely undertook conservation and rehabilitation work, whereas the emphasis along the Torrens was upon participation in the community catchments groups efforts to save the water places. By examining physically and emotionally loaded experiences, I highlight the river as a stimulating place within which to explore the meaning and significance of many human-environment relations. This thesis makes a contribution to comparative theoretical and methodological issues in the anthropology of water, whilst also adding to scholarship about people‘s complex connections to urban rivers as meaningful cultural places. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................. i Table of contents .............................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... vii Statement of contributions ............................................................................................... ix Translation Note ................................................................................................................ x List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................ xiii List of Plates ................................................................................................................... xiv List of Tables.................................................................................................................. xix List of Appendices .......................................................................................................... xx Glossary of Malay terms ................................................................................................ xxi Preface .......................................................................................................................... xxiii Chapter One .................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction: Researching polluted urban rivers ........................................................ 1 Background ................................................................................................................... 1 Placing the researcher: Interest in river water and the choice of methods .................... 3 Introducing the Torrens and Klang Rivers .................................................................... 6 Research questions and aims ......................................................................................... 7 Methodology and research approach ........................................................................... 10 An overview of theoretical orientations ...................................................................... 11 Organisation of the thesis ............................................................................................ 14 Chapter Two .................................................................................................................. 17 The confluence of people-place-pollution ................................................................... 17 The experience of place ............................................................................................... 17 Understanding sense of place ...................................................................................... 20 Experiencing and knowing places through senses ................................................... 21 Place as emotional experiences................................................................................ 23 Anthropology of river and water ................................................................................. 26 Pollution and polluted rivers ....................................................................................... 30 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 32 Chapter Three ............................................................................................................... 34 Navigating the field: The who, when and how ........................................................... 34 Fieldwork in two settings ............................................................................................ 34 Gaining access and initiating contacts ..................................................................... 35 Locating and interviewing ‗river groups‘ ................................................................ 36 Observing people and rivers .................................................................................... 40 The fluidity of being an insider and outsider .............................................................. 46 Making sense of place and ethnographic fieldwork through walking ......................... 52 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................ 56 Chapter Four ................................................................................................................. 58 A tale of two rivers: Past and present ......................................................................... 58 iii The Torrens River: Karrawirra parri (the river of red gum forest) ............................ 59 The Kaurna people and the Torrens River environment.........................................

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