Murti Bunanta promotes storytelling
T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta
Children are strong. That is the view of children's literature specialist Murti Bunanta after a visit to tsunami-hit Aceh to tell stories to the children there.
They laughed a lot as she told her stories to cheer them up, after which she would ask the children to sing cheerful songs together.
"They are very strong as they are able to keep from showing their feelings even though they are suffering," she said.
But when she invited the children to sing individually, a girl said: "Bu Murti, I want to sing, but it is a sad song." She then sang her song in Acehnese. Even though she was in grief, she did not cry. It was Murti who could not help crying, as she was really touched.
Murti's visit to Aceh was part of her work as the president of the Indonesian Society for the Advancement of Children's Literature, and was made based on her belief that storytelling could help alleviate the trauma of the children.
She is the first doctoral candidate from the University of Indonesia to conduct a study on children's literature for her dissertation. She has also written more than 30 books and 70 essays on children's literature.
Born in Semarang, Central Java, on Aug. 5, 1946, Murti studied Dutch literature at the University of Indonesia and graduated in 1982 with her final paper titled Household Conflicts in Dutch Children's Literature. She wrote a thesis on Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Consideration of Racism and Audience before obtaining her master's degree from the American Studies Program at same university in 1986. She was awarded a doctorate in children's literature in 1997 with her dissertation: The Problems of the Writing of Folktales for Children in Indonesia.
In 1987 she established the Murti Bunanta Foundation and Kelompok Pecinta Bacaan Anak (KPBA/the Society for the Advancement of Children's Literature), as she was concerned with the fate of Indonesian children's books.
Late in the 1980s, foreign comics, especially those from Japan, started to swamp bookstores not only in Jakarta but also in other parts of the country. The comics sold like hot cakes and children preferred them to local books.
Murti has since then made efforts to popularize Indonesian children's literature and to increase children's interest in local books. She organizes various activities ranging from workshops to story telling for both adults and children.
She writes in Indonesian and English. Her award-winning first book Si Bungsu Katak (The Youngest Frog), published in 1997, is bilingual. Her book in English, Indonesian Folktales, was published in Connecticut, the U.S., in 2003.
She was the first Indonesian children's book writer to receive international awards and to have her books published in America and translated into Japanese.
Murti, who also teaches in the Department of Library Science at the University of Indonesia's School of Letters, regularly organizes story-telling festivals for the children of both well- off and poor families, and she herself is also active in telling stories to children. Since 1996, she and other members of the KPBA (the group has 40 active members), have been visiting children in the Cipto Mangunkusumo Public Hospital, Central Jakarta, once every two weeks to entertain them with stories.
She has been to Aceh and also Ambon, which had been rocked by a sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians, to conduct workshops on story telling and to cheer up the children with her stories. In Ambon, she encouraged children from both sides to use stories to increase religious tolerance among children.
A few days after her second visit to Aceh last month, she spoke to The Jakarta Post.
Question: Before visiting Aceh, you were in Europe. What did you do there?
Answer: I was invited to serve on the international jury for the Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava, a contest for children's book illustrations that involved 480 illustrators from 46 countries with 2,966 illustrations. Iran came first.
How did you become a juror?
Because I have been involved in this kind of activity for 18 years, so I am known internationally. This was my fourth or fifth time to serve as an international juror in the contest. I was once a juror for an illustration competition in Iran. I also served twice as a juror for the Asahi Shimbun Reading Award.
Maybe you are better known abroad than here.
I don't know. But I have received international awards four times. The first was the Janusz Korzcak International Literary Prize from Poland for my first book Si Bungsu Katak (The Youngest Frog). The second was from France for another book, Legenda Pohon Beringin (The Legend of the Banyan Tree). In 2002, I received the Honorary Award from Biennale Illustrations Bratislava, while the (Slovakia-based) BIB 2005 International Jury has just granted an Honorable Mention to the Publisher to the Murti Bunanta Foundation for our various activities, including our efforts to improve the quality of illustration in children's books in Indonesia
The foundation has published a number of children's books. Each title had print runs of 3,000 copies. Half of them are sold for Rp 5,000 (about 50 U.S. cents) each, the others are given free to the needy. Even though they might still be expensive to the poor, such books would cost between Rp 7,500 and Rp 10,000 at market prices.
How's the reading habit among children? Some say that Indonesians have a poor reading habit.
Who says that? A publisher might say that if people do not buy its books, while the books might be of poor quality. You can't generalize about the reading habit among the people. Some have a good reading habit, some don't. Some people can afford books but are not interested in reading them. On the other hand, there are others who want to read books but cannot afford them. In this case, the people, the government and the schools should be responsible for opening more libraries. Basically, we should continue reminding the people about the importance of reading, promoting its benefits and motivating children to read. That is more important than making statements about the poor reading habit of the people. Well, maybe it is true, but it is because of the system of schooling, education, the lack of money, the lack of attention from society, from the central government, from the local government, and the lack of facilities and infrastructure.
Is that why you established the KPBA?
I established this group 18 years ago. At that time I saw that we had well-established authors like the late Kurnaen Suhardiman, Pak Raden, Jokolelono and Dwiyanto Setiawan who produced good books, but they could not compete with translated books. I don't say that translated books are bad, but children need to know Indonesian books as well. Our goal is to allow children to become familiar with good Indonesian authors so that their work will not die.
You must face difficulties many difficulties. What are the obstacles in your experience?
There were so many obstacles. At the beginning it was really difficult, people did not know the benefits of reading books. After 18 years, at least people are now aware of the need for an interest in reading, the importance of quality books.
What are the criteria of a quality book?
It should not be preaching, and must have good packaging and esthetic illustrations that are in accordance with the context, it should be touching, well written and the story should be capable of being converted into various media, like film or drama.
Is it easy to find quality local children's books?
It is not easy to find these books, but they are available. The KBPA's books are internationally recognized as good books, but it is not easy to find them because we don't sell them in bookstores as the price in the bookstores will be higher.
Do you have any plans to open a charity bookstore?
It would not be feasible, unless we had many sponsors.
Is it possible that there are not many good books because of small fees paid to writers?
It is true that writers only receive a little money, but the quality of our writers also needs to be improved. There should be training courses for writers, the government should invite good writers from abroad to provide the training and to share their experiences with Indonesian writers. As for the local writers, they should broaden their horizons. Therefore, if we have money, we spend it on conducting workshops on story telling for teachers, and workshops for writers and for illustrators.
In the past we established 80 libraries in remote areas. Now our focus is to develop the human resources side. It would be useless if we donate books but their quality is not good.
When did you start writing?
In 1997. My first book was Si Bungsu Katak (The Youngest Frog). As a children's literature specialist, I encouraged people to write, but because not many people would do that, I myself tried to write and it turned out that my first book received an award. It turned out that I could write.
Good books are important for education but even today, there are not many good children's books. Therefore, I write books for children.
Children's literature is a science and I wonder why people who learn about literature do not see this. It is just like adult literature because there are so many things we can see and learn from children's books. You can see it from the political point of view, the business aspects, the social aspects, and the themes are so rich. They can give adults an insight. In America, this was 100 or 200 years ago, while here in Indonesia, we still have to struggle.
Did your parents like to tell stories to you?
My mother did while my father liked to read books to me.
What benefits did you get from this?
Closeness with my parents. That's what I felt.
Who is your favorite writer?
I don't have any favorite writer because each writer is unique. When I was a kid, I liked reading the fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, Tintin, Flash Gordon, and local stories like Si Surti, Darna, and wayang comics by RA Kosasih,
How did you become a children's literature specialist?
When I was young, I didn't have any ambition to become a children's literature specialist or a storyteller. I just lived my life. Thank God I had a good life and I wanted to share it, to share my knowledge with other people. If you have something, do not keep it to yourself. I also believe that God wants me to do something for society.
You have been to conflict areas like Aceh and Ambon and met the children there. Did you notice any differences between these children and those living in Jakarta or other parts of the country?
You can tell the difference. They are generally happy. If we tell them stories, they are happy. If we sing a happy song, everybody is happy. But when I invited the children to sing individually, a girl said: `Bu Murti, I want to sing, but it is a sad song.' And she did sing a sad song. She was still traumatized. That was really touching.
Children are human beings. They are God's creations. They are very strong because they are able to keep from showing their feelings even though they are suffering. The girl did not cry. (At this point, Murti fell silent for some seconds, tears in her eyes). She was only five years old and she sang a sad song in Acehnese.
They always asked when I would come back and they all wanted to be hugged, they wanted so much to be hugged.
They need love and affection?
Yes, they need it. And if we want to do something, we have to be serious. It's not just for media publication. We should come for them, to explore their potential. When I was in Aceh in May, I found a child who could tell stories very well. The stories had been told to him by his grandmother who had died. He lived with his brother. On my second visit to Aceh, I found a teenager who learned about storytelling very quickly and could tell his stories with very attractive gestures.
The children have various potentials and they deserve more attention.
They are victims of conflict and are traumatized, but they do not show their feelings. If we are traumatized, we complain and we cry, but they don't.
Can stories help them cope with their trauma?
Yes they can. It makes them cheerful, also singing and drawing. But I think it's not enough. People should help them explore their potentials and help them get back to school. Of course, I should point out here that other children also need attention, like those in the cities and their surrounding areas whose schools are close to collapse.