Heritage-Led City Branding: Indigenous Knowledge and Community Governance in Positioning Langgur as Southeast Maluku's Capital

Abstract

This study examines how heritage and indigenous knowledge function as communicative resources in constructing the city brand identity of Langgur as the capital of Southeast Maluku. Moving beyond instrumental place marketing, the research conceptualizes city branding as a discursive and symbolic process shaped by community governance and cultural legitimacy. Grounded in cultural communication theory, destination branding communication models, and participatory governance discourse, this study adopts a qualitative interpretive approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with indigenous leaders, local government officials, tourism actors, and youth community representatives, complemented by document analysis and semiotic examination of rituals, spatial symbols, and promotional narratives. The findings reveal that branding in Langgur is not merely a promotional strategy but a negotiated communicative arena in which indigenous customary law, maritime heritage, and civic administration intersect. Three key communicative mechanisms emerge: (1) the translation of indigenous values into public narratives of capital legitimacy, (2) symbolic institutionalization through ritual performances and spatial representation, and (3) discursive alignment— and at times tension—between state-led modernization narratives and community-based cultural authority. The study proposes a model of Heritage-Led Participatory Branding, in which city identity is co-constructed through dialogic governance rather than imposed marketing frameworks. By situating city branding within indigenous communication systems and peripheral island governance contexts, this research contributes to communication scholarship on place identity, postcolonial branding, and participatory city-making. It expands existing destination branding theory by demonstrating how cultural legitimacy and community discourse function as foundational elements in capital city positioning within decentralized regions of Eastern Indonesia.