By Marlon Tohatta
After several years of working with the village community, slowly but surely, the data we collected continued to grow. We obtained it through a listening survey process, as well as through a series of workshop activities. Our social network led us to collaborate with a team from the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ). With the artistic skills and expertise that the IKJ team has, they helped the Paia Group hold a community theater performance.
This is some of the documentation of the Paia Group’s theater performance on October 30, 2024 in Alatep Village, Okaba District, Merauke. At that time, approximately 200 spectators came from various villages in Okaba District.
The audience listened to the theater performance which lasted about 60 minutes with reverence until it ended. They gave enthusiastic appreciation. Even when a response session was held by several figures and traditional leaders, all the audience continued to stay in their places.
In general, all respondents agreed on the same thing: this theater performance invited all the audience to do self-criticism. This performance made everyone reflect. About the loss of togetherness and the spirit of mutual cooperation; the fading of the identity of the Papuan people exemplified by their elders and ancestors; and in the name of modernity, making the Papuan people’s ties to their own land increasingly distant, including regarding local food traditions and wisdom.
Truly, this reflective experience is like a painful slap. But we admit, the painful truth is much better than the false things that continue to lull us into a stagnant situation or even decline.
Contact us
Yayasan Pengembangan Pelatihan untuk Perubahan Sosial di Tanah Papua
(YP3SP)
Jalan Karya Tanah Hitam Permai
Abepura Jayapura
Papua
Email: info@papuatransformation.org
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