Toponimi Lanskap Linguistik dan Memori Kolektif: Menelusuri Sejarah Kolonial dan Perang di Ruang Publik Kota Tarakan

Abstract

Abstract

Tarakan carries two histories in one small island city: Dutch colonial oil extraction under the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM), which began in 1896, and a bloody theater of the Second World War. This article examines how that layered past survives, or fails to survive, in the city's present-day toponymic landscape. Drawing on the 2025 PPKD document, which catalogs 31 designated heritage sites, including bunkers, oil derricks, Australian and Japanese war monuments, and colonial cemeteries, the study looks at how street names, monument plaques, and museum labels choose to remember. What emerges is a pattern of erasure: official place names tend to favor national heroes and neutral technical labels, such as "Tangki Penyaringan Minyak" (oil refining tank), over the region's own history of resistance. Local figures like Datu Adil, who led opposition to Dutch rule between 1896 and 1916, are almost entirely absent from public signage. The article argues for a decolonial approach to linguistic landscape research in this context, one that pushes for Tidung-language toponyms and local narratives to reclaim space in the city's streets and museums.