POSTCOLONIAL ECOLOGIES: REPRESENTING SLOW VIOLENCE IN DARI RAHIM OMBAK AND THE HOUSE OF MANY GODS
POSTCOLONIAL ECOLOGIES: REPRESENTING SLOW VIOLENCE IN DARI RAHIM OMBAK AND THE HOUSE OF MANY GODS

Summary/Abstract: This article examines how The House of Many Gods (2007) by Kiana Davenport and Dari Rahim Ombak (2015) by Tison Sahabuddin Bungin expose slow violence by connecting environmental destruction to colonial legacies, military occupation, and state neglect. Both novels document long-term ecological damage—nuclear contamination in Hawai'i and coral reef destruction in Indonesia—that persists through institutional indifference and normalized exploitation. Drawing on Rob Nixon's concept of slow violence, this study analyzes how these texts challenge mainstream environmental narratives that marginalize Indigenous knowledge and obscure the political dimensions of ecological harm. Davenport demonstrates how U.S. military infrastructure displaces Native Hawaiian communities and violates sacred landscapes. Bungin traces how economic pressure and corruption perpetuate destructive fishing practices that devastate marine ecosystems. Both authors present resistance through local practices that preserve cultural identity while protecting natural resources. This comparative analysis reveals how postcolonial fiction reframes environmental crisis as fundamentally linked to questions of political sovereignty, economic justice, and cultural survival.

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