You matter: History as written by the people
You matter: History as written by the people
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
History tends to benefit the reigning power and therefore there
are too many ambiguities surrounding it. It takes years after the
demise of the power to resurrect another version of history.
So, why not start from ourselves. Being honest, objective and
accurate are fundamental to writing history -- our own history.
A group of young people in Yogyakarta have tried out this
campaign with volunteers to start by writing their own histories.
In this movement, everybody matters.
"Nowadays, the main source of history learnt by young people
is from school textbooks, which are made by the government, by
the reigning power," said Nuraini Juliastuti, an executive
director of Yogyakarta-based Kunci Cultural Studies Center.
This has resulted in identity and cultural problems within the
younger generation who experienced ambiguity, she said.
"We barely know about ourselves. Moreover, in this globalized
era, we receive everything from outside. We are really open, too
open in fact," she added.
"The most tangible impact is the blind consumerism of the
generation who cannot identify what is essential to their lives,"
Nuraini added.
It is a known fact that most young Indonesians are an easy
target for any marketing attempts to sell from trendy -- the
taste becomes less important -- beverages to cell phones with
fancy features.
"That's why we see it is important for us, young people, to
know our history and write it from our own perspective. To know
ourselves better," Nuraini said.
Therefore, in August last year Kunci started a small project
called Community History Project.
"We started from the easiest, the family history," she said.
That month Kunci, which was established by a number of young
people concerned about culture in Yogyakarta in 1999, distributed
posters to schools in the city.
The poster invited the students to join a workshop on
community history -- definitely not a hip prospect for teenagers.
Nevertheless, about a dozen curious teenagers came to the
workshop and learned to gather information about history in their
immediate environment, like the family.
At the end of the day, only three of them completed the
project, producing essays and selections of old photographs.
"Others stopped in the middle of the project because they were
busy with final tests," Nuraini said.
The family history and identity workshop is the first part of
the community history project.
"In the future we expect these young people will be able to
question the grand history fed to them by the powers that be,"
she said. "For example, they might start to question textbook
history on events in 1965 and how they affect their life now."
She said that in certain literature she found that in other
countries the documentation of oral history had helped
communities restore a lost past, like the case of the American
Indians.
In other cases, she added, an oral history project gave
Brazilian shanty-town dwellers the confidence to mobilize and
demand recognition of their landholding and basic services.
Kunci's project won a 2,000-euro grant from a Germany-based
artists group, Finger in 2004.
"The grant was given to a number of groups that submitted
proposals on How do you creatively shape the society?," Nuraini
said.
Kunci was the only winner from Asia in 2004. Other winners
were European groups.
Every year, Kunci conducts campaigns supporting critical
movements against capitalist globalization and consumerism such
as Buy Nothing Day and Turn Off TV Week.
On the Net:
http:www.kunci.or.id