Creative Children: Yogyakarta, Central Java

By Barrie | October 17th, 2007 | No Comments

For lots of children in Pandes village in Yogyakarta, Wednesdays have become the most popular day of the week — because that’s the day they are allowed outside their classrooms to play traditional games, learn about art and its history, and to playfully learn more of their own culture.

The village is home to some 300 families and on Wednesdays most village children can be seen taking part in all sorts of fun, like cutting-out colorful papers and following certain patterns, gluing, sticking and testing things out.

Upon asking, I found the kids were making paper puppets and being introduced to renowned puppet characters from the Mahabrata epic.

“This Wednesday is fun,” smiled Rifki, one of the children joining the program

“I get to play, but we’re also learning stuff — like about puppet characters and performances.”

The activity to introduce traditional cultures and new skills to children is one of many programs run by Pojok Budaya community group — an organization spearheaded by young people in the village.

The community movement also wants to help push-along the village’s economic situation, by providing the platform for a local cooperative.

Unusually, the co-op was created without government or NGO assistance, but was born by the villagers themselves.

“These programs are part of our efforts to produce future generations with a good personality,” said Wahyudi Anggoro Hadi, who set up the community group and chairs the cooperative unit.

He said traditional cultures are loved by older people, but the younger generation today was heavily influenced by a global culture, leaving them without domestic cultural ties.

“These programs are part of our effort to fight the deteriorating situation faced by the nation,” Wahyudi said.

“We realize this and we are introducing our traditions, our way.”

The community group said the village children also have to master new skills and emerging technologies.

Through the week, children are also given religious teachings and taught about computers, “both theoretically and creatively”.

“We help the children draw and create designs with a computer,” Wahyudi said.

The children are also taught to make traditional toys.

“These skills will help stimulate the children’s creativity,” said Eko Pambudi, the community group’s treasury.

Pojok Budaya was established following the May 27 earthquake last year and has relied on a bank loan to manage its educational projects.

A Rp 350 million approved bank loan allowed the group to first set up the cooperative unit and a business focused breeding cattle.
They organized a shed to house up to 100 cows and rented 1.1 hectares of land to grass feed their stock.

“We manage this business professionally and we have tens of cows under our care,” Eko said.

He said he was optimistic the business would run well and even be developed further by producing organic fertilizer — and in the future, they might even be able to employ more villagers.

But holistically, the group would remain focused on arts, crafts and culture, he promised.

For many years, Pandes village has been known as the home of children’s toys. The village’s 300-odd families are historically makers of children’s traditional toys.

Toy-maker Rubiyah said in her business’ heyday, trucks from various cities would crowd the village ahead of Idul Fitri celebrations to buy toys produced by residents.

“Now the business is really slow and I have to walk from one village to another to sell my toys,” Rubiyah said.

She said it was also hard to learn what children wanted today —
“modern toys need more skills” and only seven families are still loyal to the traditional toy-making business in the hamlet.
But Wahyudi said, “Through these programs, we hope that together, we can develop creative ideas that will see traditional toys gain market acceptance.”

Slamet Susanto