Written by: Neni Rochaeni | 

The Language Development and Fostering Agency, commonly called the Language Agency, under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of Indonesia, recorded 428 languages in Papua. That is more than a half, or around 60% of the total languages in Indonesia which is 718. Mother tongue is a core to the identity of Indigenous Peoples, and a cultural heritage. 

However, the past years have seen the decline of local languages ​​in Papua. Some are categorized as endangered, and some have even become extinct. There are fewer and fewer speakers or users of the language. Children and the younger generation no longer use their mother tongue, as  they prefer to speak Bahasa Indonesia for daily communication, work needs and access to information.

This situation motivated Origenes Monim to establish a Customary School in 2016, in Hobong Village, Sentani District, Jayapura Regency. The goal is to preserve the culture of the Sentani Tribe, and to foster a sense of love among the young generation to maintain the local wisdom and the Sentani Tribe language of the Jayapura Regency community. In the beginning, he faced a big challenge because the parents did not support their children learning customs. They considered customs to be a thing of the past. "I could only wait for the students' attendance and when we went around by boat, there were no children who wanted to join in learning," said Mr. Monim.

"We continue to think about how to keep this traditional school in existence, so we collaborated with the Jayapura Regency Government through an MoU and then the Jayapura Regent Regulation number 21 of 2021 was issued, mandating the implementation of local content curriculum learning through traditional education," he said. Regulation no. 21 supports the implementation of the curriculum in the mother tongue through customary education. Through this regulation, the Customary School status was converted to the Papua State Customary School and authorized the use of the independent curriculum. Thus, the Papua State Customary School has been integrated into the formal education system. Mr. Monim invited the Public Elementary School (SDN) of Abeale 1 Sentani to pilot the development of the mother tongue curriculum. Seventy-four sixth grade students of SDN Inpres Abeale 1 completed the local content curriculum and received a diploma from the Papua State Customary School. Notably, they also became the first batch of students to graduate with two diplomas: from the formal school system of SDN, and from the Customary School.

At present, there are 54 elementary schools, 30 junior high schools and 15 senior high schools or vocational schools in Jayapura Regency that have local content in the Sentani language, all managed and driven by the Papuan State Customary School. 

A number of teachers were also given technical guidance on the use of the Sentani Language teaching module. They are required to prepare a Learning Implementation Plan (RPP) for their respective schools. 

Sentani Language education starts with the introduction of basic words such as: rene foi = good morning, rai foi = good day, huwe rai foi = good afternoon, huwe foi = good night, oni fokha = best wished, helem foi = thank you.

There is a similar initiative in Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, carried out by the youth members of the Papua Paradise Center (PPC). They started with the establishment of the Paradise Nature School or Sekolah Alam Papua (SAP) in 2020. This non-formal school was established to occupy the children who could not go to school during the Covid 19 pandemic.

At Sekolah Alam Paradise, students are taught the Malind Language of the Kanum indigenous tribe. They learn everyday vocabulary such as: ohgr = you, namahgra = now, grhapap = tomorrow, grhap = night; tapeb = fly, uhyub = bird, aiwgr = sick. The teachers are two native Malind speakers, Mama Mujina Kaize and Kristina Balagaize. "I was invited to teach Malind, so that it can be transferred to the younger generation," said Mujina.

SAP students have participated in several competitions at the Mother Language Festival and have often won various categories. Thanks to this achievement, as well as their posts on social media, SAP was invited by the Papua Language Center to be involved in the Mother Language revitalization program.

PPC took the initiative to create a pocket book of Malind Language with Wanggali Milah Dialect, accompanied by Indonesian and English translations. This pocket book has been distributed to three elementary schools, namely SD Inpres Polder Merauke, SMP YPK Merauke, and SD YPPK Santo Johanes Don Bosco located in Onggari Village, Malind District.

"Hopefully, with this Malind language pocket book, children can learn and practice it every day, both at home and in the school environment. Gradually, the children will be fluent in Malind or their mother tongue," said Tri Sulandari, Vice Principal for Student Affairs of SMP YPK Merauke when receiving the Malind language pocket book. SMP YPK Merauke student, John RD Dinaulik said that he and his friends were happy to receive the Malind Language Pocket Book. "We want to learn Malind through this pocket book," he said.

Menoken Movement

The above initiatives are intertwined with the Menoken activities carried out in Tanah Papua since 2021. The Menoken Movement, initiated in 2020 by Ambrosius 'Ruwi' Ruwindrijarto, Samdhana Fellow and leading one of Samdhana’s projects, is a platform for connecting communities, products, knowledge, and solidarity. This movement uses the philosophy of noken[1] namely: flexibility, openness, transparency, togetherness, interconnectedness, usefulness, and life-giving.

In Menoken activities, there is an exchange of knowledge, experience, and also exchange of products between communities, carried out in the spirit of togetherness. The form of activities can be in the form of discussions while sitting in a circle, visits to various community groups, camping, exhibitions, outdoor or indoor activities. The Menoken invitation is open to anyone from the community or any group. It is mostly informal, situational, and voluntary. 

To date, almost 600 people have joined various Menoken spread across Papua, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Java Island, and even North Sumatra.

The Menoken group in Merauke has carried out various activities since May 2021, around topics such as promoting local food, supporting mothers who make craft products to participate in various exhibitions, tree planting movements, other environmental activities, as well as Art activities, and learning about and promoting one’s culture and Mother Tongue.

Yune and Ayub, who are two of the leads in Sekolah Alam Paradise are active Nokeners, and so is Mr. Origenes Monim. 

For the Mother Tongue to stay in use until the future, it must be integrated into the formal education system so that this effort becomes more organized, well-disseminated and applied in everyday life. Community initiatives, such as those of the young people in Sekolah Alam Paradise enriches the formal efforts to keep the Mother Tongue. Through movements like Menoken, these efforts are strengthened by opening doors to connectivity between civil society, government, networks and various other groups. ###

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[1] a traditional Papuan bag for carrying or storing various valuables, as well as agricultural products, even for carrying and protecting babies