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Local culture should be taught in schools, activist says
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Preserving culture – Dancers at the Kasunanan Palace in Surakarta, Central Java, perform Bedaya Ketawang, a sacred traditional dance usually performed only in front of Surakarta kings. (thejakartapost.com/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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ocal wisdom and culture need to be taught in schools to raise students’ awareness about the cultures around them, an indigenous rights activist has said.
“Introducing local wisdom and culture to students is important in educating our people about what culture they have and who the indigenous people live around them are,” Alliance of Indigenous Peoples (AMAN) deputy secretary general Rukka Sombolinggi said on Thursday.
She said school students would be more aware about the diversity in their society, especially if there were indigenous students at their school, through which they could learn about their customs and traditions.
“We have urged teachers in regions to give introductory local culture lessons to students as a part of their local content subject since four years ago,” the Culture and Education Ministry’s religious beliefs and traditions director Sri Hartini said Thursday.
She further said local content teachers in elementary, junior and senior high schools in several provinces had tried to share information with each other about their local cultures. They included schools in East Java, West Sumatra and five provinces in Kalimantan.
This year, the ministry will provide introductory local culture lessons for teachers in West Java and Central Sulawesi, she went on. AMAN estimates that more than 70 million indigenous people live across Indonesia. (wnd/ebf)
