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'In the Name of Belief': Indonesia embraces indigenous religious education
While many studies have highlighted the rise in religious restrictions around the world this year, an UGM-led documentary on indigenous faiths that premiered on Nov. 30 shows that Indonesia is swimming against the tide.
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A follower of the Marapu indigenous faith of Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, appears in 'Atas Nama Percaya' (In the name of faith). The 2019 documentary, which premiered in Jakarta on Nov. 30, traces the history of religious restrictions in Indonesia. (Atas Nama Percaya/Indonesian Pluralities)
"In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."
This was the phrase that Retno Lastani uttered as she made the sign of the cross decades ago, when she had taken Catholicism as a school subject. What she had never uttered, especially in front of her friends, was the fact that she was not Catholic.
Retno is a follower of Kapribaden, an indigenous faith and one of the 188 indigenous registered faiths in Indonesia, although experts say the real figure is larger. It was her biggest secret, and she was afraid it would drive her friends away if they knew this about her.
"I had to choose a religion at school, while at home I followed [my] indigenous faith. I felt alone, as my friends didn't know that I followed an indigenous faith, so I had this unsettling feeling in my heart and I didn't know who I really was," she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Prior to 2016, students who followed indigenous faiths generally had no choice but to choose their religion class from one from the six recognized state religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
This changed in 2016, when the Education and Culture Ministry issued a regulation on indigenous faith education, which required schools to provide registered indigenous faiths as a religion class option. But instead of certified teachers, these classes are provided by "instructors": followers of the indigenous faith who taught the class under a volunteer scheme.
Today, Retno is one of the 254 indigenous faith instructors who have been assessed by the Majelis Luhur Kepercayaan Indonesia (MLKI), an organization that groups the followers of Indonesia's indigenous belief systems.
