Meutia et al. Int. J. Dis. Manag. (2021) 4:3, pp 23-38 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/ijdm.v4i1.20139 Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). RESEARCH ARTICLE The Values of Dark Heritage Post-disaster: A Study of Tsunami Cases in Banda Aceh Zya Dyena Meutia 1,2,* , Arief Rosyidie 3 Denny Zulkaidi 3 and Sri Maryati 3 1 Students Doctoral of Urban Planning, Postgraduate Institute Technology of Bandung 2 Department of Architecture Faculty Science and Technology, UIN Ar-Raniry 3 Department of Urban Planning, SAPPK Institute Technology of Bandung *Corresponding author: zya.meutia@ar-raniry.ac.id Received 24 February 2021; Received in revised form 17 April 2021; Accepted 22 April 2021 Introduction The traditional notion of determining heritage always refers to positive ordinary heritage values, while the term dark heritage generally refers to negative values and tends to be ignored. (Smith, 2006; Byrne,2009). Although precedents related to dark heritage have been widely discussed, especially due to dark events and man-made disasters (Biran and Poria, 2011; Thomas et al. 2016), limited evidence discussed specific criteria for designing the values of dark heritage in the community. In line with the increasing number of natural hazard-caused disasters, there have been many dark tragedies of natural disasters in various worlds that have caused the loss of lives, materials, places, sites, and traditions in the form of meaning and values (Unesco, 2003; World Bank, 2018). Natural disasters have caused landscape changes and left many relics that are debatable for preservation (Good, 2016). Experts criticized that the idea of inheritance is only about the originality, monumental and aesthetic form, which was understood only as a real form and has monumental and aesthetic values inherited from European (Western) understanding. This has influenced law and understanding of cultural heritage in the world, including Indonesia (Smith, 2006). At least this has two main consequences for the post-disaster society; firstly, the heritage was considered a luxury since its reconstruction required expensive resources. Secondly, heritages whose physical elements are damaged are deemed to have lost their importance, a place has disappeared; thus, it is no longer important to human life as well as the heritage. According to Smith (2006), the negligence of heritage values from Abstract The 2004 tsunami disaster that hit Banda Aceh in the northern part of Indonesia, had a devastating impact and left various relics which necessary to be preserved. Nevertheless, this is still a matter of debate, since heritage preservation refers to the ordinary heritage with positive values from post disaster. It is important to know the significance of values in preserving post-disaster relics as commemoration and learning experience. In the literature, research on dark heritage values caused by natural disasters is still minimum. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the community's dark heritage values in encouraging post-disaster area conservation planning. The study also revealed and explained post-disaster area planning through the approach of dark heritage values. This research was conducted from December 2019 to April 2020 in the post-tsunami area of Banda Aceh, as the most affected area by utilizing in-depth interviews. There were 36 informants from the local community, survivors, tourists, experts, and government involved in this study shared their values on dark heritage. This study used an interpretative approach since it seeks to construct the existence of dark heritage values in people's perception of observing a post-disaster area as a heritage. The study results provided new insights that understanding a historic area is not always seen from values with a positive side. Still, dark side values also become a reference that needs to be considered to be preserved for the area's sustainability. The results showed that communities have memory, symbolic, narrative, religious, and scientific values in the post-disaster landscape. Keywords: dark heritage; values; community; post-disaster.