Ester Linda Marleen,

Lead Community Facilitator and Finance Director

“Values ​​embedded in us, Values ​​that teach us how to work

Values ​​that make us proud, Values ​​that guide us through the years”

A piece of poetry by Martha Brown that I received via email from a friend some time ago, which seemed to be a summary and answer to my work with YP3 over the past few years. And what I will write here is what I have witnessed and experienced during approximately three years of working with the Alatep village community in Okaba District, Merauke.

Malind Land and Debt on Wealth

I am not a native Papuan, or now often abbreviated as OAP. Coming from the Ambon tribe, my children and I are the fifth and sixth generations to be born and settled in Papua. My mother’s extended family was born and spent almost their entire lives in Okaba, Merauke. I have heard many stories directly from my grandmother and mother about the happiness of living on Malind land. Stories about sufficiency and even abundance, especially food, give me a perfect picture of the happiness of living on rich land. Land blessed with abundant nature, both land and sea. It fits the expression I often hear, to live in Papua “nature provides”.

Since 2019 I have been working at YP3SP (Papua Transformation) as an accountant and community facilitator. As a community facilitator, most of my work is among grassroots communities in the villages, and that gives me the opportunity to step on my mother’s homeland and the place where my ancestors live, Okaba.

This is my third year working side by side with the Alatep community, one of nine new villages in Okaba, which has now become a district in Merauke Regency.

Like most grassroots communities, the Alatep community relies on nature to meet their needs. Since I first arrived in Alatep village, I could see how loose the soil was, which usually indicates its fertility. I also experienced firsthand how abundant the produce was, both from the sea and the rivers there, ranging from fish, shrimp and crabs. On one occasion, with only a borrowed net, I and several team members were able to get more than enough shrimp and fish for our daily meals.

However, there is something that bothers me, namely, the difficulty of finding sago and tubers. I also did not see vegetable plants in the yard area of ​​residents’ houses. Initially, I thought that they planted these plants in their respective gardens (hamlets) which were indeed located quite far from the settlement. However, when I asked the host where we lived, they said that there was no sago because currently residents rarely carry out the pangkur process. The sago pangkur process will only be busy when approaching traditional ceremonies so it is not available all the time. Meanwhile, tubers are difficult to obtain because no one plants them. Even if there are, this is only done by a few people. Even if there is a traditional procession that requires the availability of local plants, Alatep residents sometimes have to buy them from outside the village. Meanwhile, for daily food, residents prefer to consume rice (nasi). So for most residents who do not carry out the sago pangkur process and do not plant local plants, they will completely depend on rice for food. We in YP3, especially the field facilitators, have been provided with enough ‘messages’ regarding our attitude when we are among the community, one of which is, eat what the community eats. Often when my team and I visited there, the “responsibility” for daily meals (us and them) was handed over to us. At first I thought that this was just their way of trying to respect us by letting us decide for ourselves what we wanted to eat. However, later on after several visits I realized that they often did not have anything to eat because they did not have the money to buy it. For me, providing rice for our food needs while there was not a problem but how did they meet their food needs if they could not afford to buy rice? Why did they prefer to go into debt that was often unpaid to be able to eat rice rather than planting and meeting their own food needs? Moreover, rice is not their staple food.

Value Shift

Early 2023, as one of the requirements to complete my diploma education, I was required to conduct research. The topic I chose was related to household debt. and the location I chose was none other than the Alatep village community.

The results of this research then led me to better understand what the Alatep village community was actually facing. Something that I had not initially thought of. I came to know that the endless debt conditions experienced by the Alatep village community were not just a lack of capital, inability to manage household finances, lifestyle competition between neighbors, or because of laziness as I often heard, but more of a shift and clash of life values.

The life values ​​used by the ancestors and predecessors in Okaba, values ​​that teach how to find food by relying on the surrounding nature to be able to meet their own food needs, values ​​of compassion for the land, respect for nature and traditions and habits of helping each other that used to be their strength, no longer exist in the lives of the Alatep community. Fulfillment of needs by consuming products sourced from nature, replaced by fulfillment of food needs that come from outside and require cash. The Alatep community currently rarely consumes local foods such as sago, bananas and tubers, and prefers to consume rice and other stall foods. Most of them no longer plant not because they are lazy, but they believe that is what it should be. I also realize that this is the impact of development that then brought the Alatep community into modern economic life. The policies of providing assistance and the entry of money into the village which then changed the relationship of closeness and affection between people into a relationship that is only measured by money and creates dependency.

Unconsciously, the more they are involved in the modern economy, the more they lose their strengths. They try to follow ways of life that come from outside and are more modern while their village does not provide what is needed for modern life.

If the goal of development is to make a change for the better, is the food independence that has existed in the community which then turns into dependence on rice and ends in debt as the solution a better thing?

They should not have trouble on this land, should not cry on this land, should not go into debt just to eat when this land is more than enough to provide them with abundant food.

Remembering and reusing ancestral values ​​does not mean that we are asked not to follow the development of the times, time will not go backwards, but when we move forward we should still bring with us all the good values ​​left by our ancestors. Start building towards a better direction with what we have not with what we do not have. That way we can become masters in our own land. Because the expression of the Land of Papua is a rich land.. is YES and AMEN.

Training for Transformation (TFT) Papua

Jalan Karya Tanah Hitam Permai

Abepura Jayapura

Papua

Email: info@papuatransformation.org