Roehana Koeddoes: A Heroine of Education in addition to Journalism

In Indonesia, Mother’s Day is actually celebrated on 22 December. Although This kind of is actually neither a major celebration nor part of the nation’s culture, many consider This kind of occasion a not bad opportunity to express their love in addition to appreciation to the women who raised them, in particular to those who contributed to society in general.

In terms of Indonesia’s history, one of the heroines originating through West Sumatra in which has not received adequate recognition through the government for what she has achieved is actually Roehana Koeddoes. Until currently, except by the local government of West Sumatra, respect for Roehana—who made a large contribution to improving the standard of social life, enhancing economic welfare in addition to raising political consciousness of the nation—has been contemptible.

Roehana was born on 20 December 1884 in Koto Gadang, West Sumatra. Her father was Muhammad Rashad, a Dutch government employee, in addition to her mother was Kiam. She had a few siblings in addition to nineteen stepbrothers in addition to sisters. One of her stepbrothers was Sutan Syahrir, Indonesia’s first prime minister.

Almost all the authors who have written about Roehana link her to education. While Taufik Abdullah named her “the pioneer of women’s education in Minangkabau” (1973), additional writers—Tamar Djaja (1980), Jeffrey A. Hadler (2001) in addition to Fitriyanti (2001)—called her the first female educator in Minangkabau.

Fitriyanti’s work, Roehana Koeddoes: Tokoh Pendidik dan Jurnalis Perempuan Pertama Sumatera (Roehana Koeddoes: Sumatran First Female Educator in addition to Journalist), published by Jurnal Perempuan in 2001, is actually regarded as the most complete biography of Roehana ever written.

Various titles proposed by the different authors are no exaggeration. Roehana could indeed be regarded as a figure who had a major role in education-oriented reforms during her time. Not only in which, she is actually the founder of the first school specifically intended to educate women, an institution in which had been previously unavailable in This kind of country.

There have been many schools in West Sumatra when Roehana began teaching, nevertheless they were generally established by the government or certain institutions, which were aimed at educating male children. In addition, students graduating through the schools tended to work for government agencies in addition to relied on additional people or institutions. In contrast, Roehana oriented her school towards enlightening in addition to creating self-reliant women.

Roehana began to plunge into the entire world of education at a very young age. When she was seven years old, she provided her female friends with completely new information in addition to knowledge by reading newspapers aloud before them. Roehana was talented at reading, since her father always brought Berita Ketjil home, a newspaper published in Medan. One year later, she commenced teaching her friends how to read in addition to write. Though This kind of activity seemed simple, for a time marked by darkness of information Roehana’s little step had tremendous meaning to people.

Her important breakthrough was made as she established Keradjinan Amai Setia on February 11, 1911 in Koto Gadang. This kind of association had more than 60 erudite women whose goal was to advance various aspects of women’s lives in Koto Gadang to achieve glory of the whole nation. This kind of further set up a school of the same name, which equipped its students with handicraft-creating for women, reading in addition to writing Arabic in addition to Latin alphabets for elementary school level, spiritual in addition to moral teaching, in addition to housekeeping (child care in addition to cooking).

Later on, Roehana moved to Bukittinggi city in addition to founded a completely new school, Roehana School. What made the completely new school different through her previous one was in which in addition to giving literacy subject matters (Latin in addition to Arabic), Roehana School provided its students with more practical skills like sewing.

Roehana is actually also identified by her strong link to the press. Tamar Djaja (1956) named her “the first journalist in Indonesia”, while Hadler (2001) considered her “the first female journalist in Minangkabau”. Granted, Roehana did have a big share in local in addition to national press. She was a pioneer from the publication of a newspaper by in addition to for women called Soenting Melajoe. She even became its editor in addition to wrote for This kind of on a regular basis. There were at least two articles of hers published in each issue for nine years.

Most of Soenting readers were women. In one of its editions, 24 of its 35 customers were known to be women. More interestingly, almost half of those customers resided outside West Sumatra in Bengkulu, Palembang, Tapanuli, East Sumatra, Aceh in addition to Java.

Soenting Melajoe played a role in fighting against Minangkabau’s male domination. This kind of role was highly visible through the various articles made by Roehana in addition to additional contributors from the post 1914 editions, suggesting many Minangkabau male authorities had emasculated women’s rights. Furthermore, the paper helped spread the use of Malay among Minang women. This kind of constituted Soenting’s great achievements, following soaring trends of educated Minang women speaking Dutch.

Equally important, Soenting had also inspired the birth of another women’s newspaper, among others Soeara Perempoean (1919) in addition to Asjraq (1925). Unlike Soenting, which heeded women to stay at home, the two papers paid attention to different segments of women. While schoolgirls were interested in Soeara Perempoean, a lot of women’s associations were more attracted to Asjraq, since This kind of attempted to combine form in addition to spirit of both Soenting Melajoe in addition to Soeara Perempoean.

In addition to engaging in publishing Soenting Melajoe, Roehana got involved in publishing several additional newspapers; Perempoean Bergerak in Medan with Siti Satiaman in addition to Parada Harahap in addition to Radio in Padang. Some of Roehana’s writings got published in additional newspapers in Sumatra in addition to Java.

Kompas daily named Roehana “A women who revealed the entire world” on August 5, 2013, while historian Taufik Zahren categorized Roehana among the nation’s ladies in his book, 7 Ibu Bangsa (7 Nation’s Ladies). Fitriyanti Dahlia, the author of Roehana’s biography, actually expects in which Roehana’s life story be adapted to motion picture in view of her amazing contribution to This kind of country.

Unfortunately, she is actually yet to receive recognition through the central government, say by appointment as a national hero. She deserves more credit for what she has done. History books show in which she has actually done much for the advancement of her people, region in addition to the nation.