Cultural Sustainability in the Blue Economy: Ecological Communication Strategies from Indigenous Villages of East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Despite progress made in recent studies on the Blue Economy, the aspects of technology, economic development, and sustainability have dominated, neglecting cultural sustainability in communication.Therefore, in an attempt to bridge the mentioned gap, the present investigation explores the role of indigenous communication ecologies in sustaining cultural sustainability in the Blue Economy in the region of East Kalimantan, Indonesia.Employing the multi-case qualitative research strategy involving four indigenous villages on tourism Pampang, Umaq Lekan, Kedang Ipil, and Merasa with 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews, four focus group discussions, and participant observation for a period of six months (April-September 2025), thematic and network analyses accomplished with NVivo software helped in deeply understanding the interconnected themes on the concept of cooperation in terms of participation, adaptation, and governance dialogology with an objective to show that the concept of storytelling in the present research helped in recreating sacred stories transformed into stories for ecological sustainability, the aspect of young Indonesians communicating digitally helped in expanding cultural boundaries on one hand, while on the other hand helped in understanding authentic cultural practices, hence providing an integrated Maritime Communicative Ecology for incorporating People-Planet-Prosperity approaches in the Blue Economy in synchrony with the sustainability principles aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 16 for ocean sustainability for the next decade under the umbrella initiative activities for the United Nations Ocean Decade for a healthy ocean initiative.