The Merauke Menoken Community focuses on indigenous people

The Samdhana Institute's Capacity Development Coordinator, Nurul Hidayah, explained that the focus carried out by the Merauke Menoken Community was more on indigenous peoples because so far people's tendency to leave.

"I'll just give an example, talking about customs and culture, it has begun to erode, because we are dealing with the currents of globalization that are so fast today. Previously, Papuans were used to the staple food of sago, now shifting to other foods," said Nurul to Jubi, Sunday (11/21/2021) night.

With the Menoken Community, he explained, it is nothing but restoring the spirit or tradition that young people have started to leave behind lately. Now they must be appointed again by involving them themselves as agents of change.

The concept of menoken, according to him, was taken from the philosophy of the noken bag. Where how can you see from the bag, the ties or knots are very strong, flexible, and can store heavy items inside.

"Yes, with the Menoken Community, various fun activities are also packaged through camping, singing, cooking, and others," he said.

Regarding the zoom meeting which was held with representatives of three countries, Nurul admitted that each of them, including community friends in Merauke, made presentations accompanied by video support.

Especially in the Menoken Community of Merauke, he explained, he presented about Sakil's music which tells about the bird of paradise. In addition, it raised the theme of food security through yam kumbili which is a commodity for the Kanum community in Yanggandur Village, Sota District.

Asked about the Menoken Community in Papua, Nurul admitted that apart from Merauke, there are also several other areas, such as the Tabi Community in Jayapura as well as in Sorong, West Papua and the plan in Raja Ampat, West Papua.
 
Spokesperson for the Merauke Menoken Community, Adriana Papo, admitted that in Yanggandur Village, there are a number of local community's mainstay commodities that need to be developed as well as marketed.

“For example, sweet potato, red lemongrass, eucalyptus oil, and several other mainstay commodities. Of course, this is a priority for the Merauke Menoken Community to continue with the local community to find the best solution so that it will be useful in the future,” he said.

SOURCE: https://jubi.co.id/papua-komunitas-menoken-merauke-fokus-masyarakat-adat/