JP/18/HIVAIDS

Traditional art highlights HIV/AIDS campaign

Luh De Suriyani Contributor/Karangsem

It was a full moon on Saturday night in Budakeling village, Karangasem district.

A 10-year-old boy had just performed the baris dance to a gamelan orchestra accompaniment played on a small tape recorder. For a moment, it was silent.

Then, 11 bare-chested men appeared onstage, six of whom were more than 60 years old. Two people brought musical instruments: a bamboo flute and a kind of fiddle known as genggong.

The men were performing cakepung, a popular Karangasem art form.

Cakepung, which is similar to genjek, another traditional musical performance, is usually presented by a group of men who sing not only to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, but also to a vocal rendition of a gamelan. They improvise their own songs according to the occasion, such as a wedding party or a village folk party.

The cakepung that was held on Oct. 2 at the bale banjar, or village hall, however, was the highlight of an HIV/AIDS campaign held by Institut Dian/Interfidei, Gedong Gandhi Asram, Yayasan Citra Usadha Indonesia and Yayasan Uluangkep to improve public awareness about people living with AIDS (PLWA).

It also marked the end of a four-day workshop that took place in Gedung Gandhi Asram, Karangasem.

The performance attracted a huge crowd, and local residents, especially the elderly, immediately recognized some of the musicians.

Among them was Ida Nyoman Mintra, 71, a famous flutist from the village. As everyone else took their positions, he opened the show on his flute, while other performers joined in, vocally reproducing the sound of a gamelan orchestra.

After about 30 minutes, they began a comical musical drama while seated. At first, two men moved to the center of the group and mimed different actions, such as being drunk, injecting their arm or cock-fighting.

In the midst of the performance, one became sad and quiet, desperately isolated because others shunned him.

During the show, the packed audience applauded the performers, becoming more animated when the elderly dramatists demonstrated their skills at comedy.

The show drew people from different ethnicities and religious backgrounds, but the audience did not seem to have any problem in grasping its messages.

Despite their advanced age, the performers were amazing -- energetic and demonstrating great endurance as they continued to sing, play music and deliver an acappella gamelan: "Cak, pung, pung."

Later, they performed soft and slow tunes as five artists representing the five different official religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism -- prayed together. Like the Muslim who kowtowed in prayer, or the Hindu who upraised his arms, the three others also observed ritual movements appropriate to their roles and closed the show, leaving the audience startled.

The performers may have been criticizing us: When a great many people were in trouble, we laughed at them instead of helping and supporting them. Such people, like PLWAs and drug users, need help from religious leaders, public figures and also the rest of us to relieve their suffering.

Dewi (not her real name) could identify with the experience: She was five months pregnant when she tested HIV-positive in 1995. Dewi had contracted the virus from her husband, who had the virus that destroyed his immune system.

For years, Dewi had to struggle not only against the virus, but also against the discrimination she faced from relatives and neighbors.

"I was not even allowed to pray in the temple," she said.

Many still discriminate against Dewi and other people with HIV/AIDS, indicating the great need to improve public awareness on the disease, as Ida Nyoman Mintra and his performance troupe attempted through music and drama.

As the performance ended, the audience who had been held rapt by the three-hour show, gave a long applause, some even cheering.

Mintra smiled and placed his hands together in front of his chest in a farewell before leaving the stage.

"I am happy," he said briefly, in response to the audience.

I Nyoman Sadra, coordinator of Gedong Gandhi Asram, believes that using traditional art as the medium of an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign is effective, as art can reach out and educate the public without being preachy.

"Discrimination against PLWA could be eliminated if people were more knowledgeable about the disease. Traditional societies should know about the disease and how to deal with it," he said.

Dr. Tuty Parwati, who discovered the first AIDS case on the island in 1987, concurred.

"Anyone might be infected by HIV/AIDS. People should know how they can get infected and how to prevent it. What's most important is the behavior of society to prevent the infection," she said.

Tuty said HIV/AIDS campaigns in villages was often hampered by misperceptions and myths about the disease, one of which was that HIV/AIDS was a disease of Western tourists and that the Balinese would not be infected by it.

"Some also believe that the immune system is weakened because it is eaten by amah leak (evil spirits), so they isolate people who carry the virus," added Ida Pandita Acarya Arthadaksa, a Hindu leader from Denpasar.

HIV/AIDS campaigns through traditional art performances like cakepung are indeed effective in improving the awareness of the people, especially if it is held at the bale banjar.

The bale banjar is a public domain that belongs to a village community and thus, in a way, it brings villagers together for special occasions like a performing arts show for entertainment, a wedding reception or a traditional ceremony.