Preserving the Collective Memories of the Traditional Riverside Fisherfolk through Community-Based Tourism: Fishers without Boats Village Museum

Community-based tourism is viewed as a tool for poverty alleviation, offering educational opportunities and preserving locals’ cultural heritage. The culture itself becomes the main attraction for people who enjoy engaging with the area's cultural uniqueness outside their residence. A village museum, such as the Fishers without Boats Museum, showcases the distinctive boatless fishing tradition of the riverside fishers in Sambeng Village. It plays a role in safeguarding the shared narrative of the community’s past, which is expressed through both tangible and intangible heritage. This study highlights the potency of the village museum as a heritage preservation agent for the overlooked shore-based fisherfolk. It examines the way traditional riverbank fishers in Sambeng utilise their relationship with the river to shape their identity, and thereby making heritage a process. Furthermore, the article aims to provide a nuanced understanding of how a small community-based museum, which is often missed from notice, and the tourism associated with it can have a role beyond heritage preservation. They may play a part in voicing the forgotten traditional riverine fisherfolk, thus serving as an alternative to the equality model of social justice.