Depok, October 20th 2023. Universitas Indonesia (UI) together with Komodo residents and the Komodo National Park once again held the Komodo Culture Festival, on 12th-14th of October 2023. This activity is in the second year of implementation after previously being held in November 2022. This year, the festival was officially opened directly by the Head of Komodo Village and the Traditional Leader of the Modo Tribe.
As is known, culture as an identity is an invaluable heritage owned by a community or nation. Each culture has its own uniqueness, such as language, traditions, customs, art, music and architecture. Culture has an important value for the formation of the identity for a community of people, where traditions and culture are reflected in social institutions, and the values, beliefs, and knowledge that are passed down across generations.
Therefore, efforts to preserve culture need to be made to maintain historical roots and pass on knowledge to the younger generation for them to understand their origins, and which is also an effort to transmit culture across generations. Cultural preservation allows future generations to understand and appreciate their origins, thus as a community, they have pride in their culture and community. This is the basis for organizing the Komodo Culture Festival.
In his speech, the Tribe Leader of the Modo Traditional Tribe said that the Komodo Culture Festival activity was an effort by the Modo Tribe traditional community to pass on the knowledge, traditions, and culture that they had and believed in all this time. The Modo tribe believes that they and the Komodo dragon can live in harmony with nature because they are siblings. This belief has unwittingly been internalized in the lives of the residents of Komodo Island, known as Ata Modo or ‘people of Komodo Island’. This belief in a fraternal life is what makes the Sharing Eating Ceremony the highlight of the Komodo Culture Festival which was held on October 14th 2023.
The Komodo Culture Festival was also attended by the Director of the Directorate of Community Service and Empowerment (DPPM) UI Prof. Dr. Agung Waluyo, S.Kp., M.Sc.; Head of the Komodo National Park Office Hendrikus Rani Siga, S.Hut. M.Sc.; and Prof. Dr. Bambang Shergi Laksmono and Idwan Suhardi, Ph.D as representatives of UI lecturers who provide support for the process of preserving community service in Komodo Village. Meanwhile, the Head of Komodo Village thanked UI for accompanying the Komodo residents to organize the Komodo Cultural Festival activities.
The Komodo Village Government also welcomed this activity. Therefore, the Komodo Village Government fully supports the activities of this Festival through financial support from the village government and community self-sufficiency by collecting funding from residents to make the Komodo Culture Festival activities a success.
Apart from the Komodo Village Government, support for the implementation of the festival was also provided by the Head of the Komodo National Park Office, Hendrikus Rani Siga, S.Hut. M.Sc. In his speech, Hendrikus, or familiarly known as Hengki, also expressed his gratitude to Universitas Indonesia for assisting Komodo Village in preserving its culture and being involved in tourism development efforts in Komodo Village. Hengki hopes that this festival can continue to run under community independence even though the assistance from the University of Indonesia has ended.
The 2023 Komodo Culture Festival was carried out by the UI Community Service team with Head Servant Widhyasmaramurti, M.A., along with Novika Stri Wrihatni, M.Hum., and Murni Widyastuti, M.Hum., as members. Widhyasmaramurti said that the challenge of community independence in the future, which is the concern of the Head of the Komodo National Park Office, is also the same challenge that UI is thinking about.
In carrying out assistance, UI is also trying to strengthen the community in Komodo Village. This is important in order to allow the community to prepare and manage the implementation of the cultural festival independently after the assistance is finished. Mara, as she is usually called, expressed the hope that the Komodo people can continue to promote Komodo Village as a priority cultural tourism destination in the Komodo National Park Area.
She also hopes that the Komodo Culture Festival can continue to be held even without UI assistance. If the community is independently able to package activities for each year with existing funding, both community self-help and village partner participation, the Komodo Culture Festival will be able to continue to be held and the process of cultural transmission can continue.
