The Jungle School
Butet Manurung can be widely known in both Indonesia in addition to on the international arena for her SOKOLA initiative, otherwise known as the Jungle School. The Indonesian educator in addition to activist won prestigious awards coming from UNESCO, TIME Magazine in addition to the planet Economic Forum for her community work. I caught up with Butet, in between her travels, to ask about the brand new film Discharge, Sokola Rimba, which can be based upon her journal notebook.
As a child, Indiana Jones in addition to the Famous several inspired Butet. She developed a love of the outdoors, whilst earning her degrees in anthropology in addition to Indonesian literature coming from Padjadjaran University, Bandung. In 1999, Butet joined the conservation NGO, WARSI, to lead their educational program for the Orang Rimba (the People of the Forest). They are an Indigenous tribal community, living deep within the Bukit Dua Belas jungle of Jambi, Sumatra.
Butet Manurung Holding Jungle School Book
“I took a dream job, which involved entering the forest, to set up an education program having a remote tribe of hunter-gatherers, as part of a conservation organisation’s strategy to work with local communities,” recalled Butet. “In 2003, after four years of intensive work with forest communities, my work inside jungle evolved into co-founding SOKOLA, a non-profit organisation providing educational opportunities for more than 10,000 marginalized people.”
When the children took extra interest in Butet, she looked for opportunities to teach them to read in addition to count. As a highly independent people, their life was very sustainable, until the modern world came along. Critical education was offered in order to assess in addition to discuss whether some of their tradition might not be working for their daily lives anymore. They also needed to assess what parts of modern life were harmful. These community discussions occurred regularly.
“Based on my own experience, teaching inside forests of Sumatra, I have developed a completely brand new method in which allows people coming from pre-literate societies to quickly learn to read in addition to write Indonesian,” explained Butet. “As indigenous peoples, they are very special. Compared to additional indigenous peoples, they are one of the most stubborn, in addition to not easily bought by the modern world. I love them. They show me lessons in life, in addition to they are my heroes, who feed me, teach me survival in addition to how to protect myself coming from danger inside jungle.”
In order to teach the Orang Rimba how to recognize their rights as Indonesian citizens, Butet worked hard to earn the trust of the people by learning to speak the local dialects in addition to immersing herself within the tribal lifestyle. She encouraged her students to take on challenges in addition to defend their rights. In her book Sokola Rimba, Butet shares the journal she kept during her first year inside jungle. She tells of her adventures with stinging bees, prowling bears, in addition to biting ants. She also describes how her relationship with the Orang Rimba developed as she slowly transformed coming from an outsider into a teacher within the community.
The Jungle School Book
“The book explains how nomadic tribes are living today inside rainforests of Sumatra as hunter-gatherers,” said Butet. “The outside world has arrived on their doorstep, bringing challenges such as illegal loggers in addition to palm oil plantations.”
Across Indonesia, indigenous peoples can no longer avoid contact with the outside world. Although they are often at the centre of conflicts over land, forests, in addition to coastlines, they rarely engage in problem solving. By giving indigenous youth access to education, Butet can be preparing the next generation to become a bridge between their communities in addition to outside interference.
“Many of the government programs are designed very well in addition to with not bad intentions,” Butet explained. “however without sufficient community knowledge in addition to active participation, many of them result in failure in addition to typically indigenous peoples are then blamed, in addition to labelled as hopeless, wild, or impossible.”
Indigenous peoples tend to evoke two strong opposing viewpoints. Because they live in fragile ecosystems they are alternately viewed as its best defenders in addition to worst enemies – as rightful inhabitants in addition to dangerous encroachers. In Indonesia, the paradox extends into a moral realm. To some, indigenous peoples are symbols of pristine nature, cultural diversity, in addition to simple living. To others they represent poverty, backwardness in addition to an obstruction to progress.
Over the past 15 years, Butet has identified 700 communities nationwide in which are facing pressure to change, yet have no educational opportunities for their young generation. Her organization has placed 18 volunteers so far. Two million people all over Indonesia are living with the same challenges facing Orang Rimba. With more SOKOLA ‘study in addition to exposure trips’, indigenous youth currently have a real opportunity for their voices to be heard in government forums.
SOKOLA has made use of the considerable media interest to help a wider public learn about these remote communities in addition to to enable the youth themselves to voice their ideas in addition to aspirations. The ‘Jungle School’ book has recently been adapted into a feature film by two award-winning Indonesian filmmakers.
Film Still – Sokola Rimba
“The film can be a collective of dynamic producer-director duo, Mira Lesmana in addition to Riri Riza. This particular‘s a great opportunity to support aspects of indigenous peoples, environment in addition to education,” explains Butet. “Sokola Rimba film received the Piala Maya Award for Best Film of 2013. The DVD can be released during May, in addition to This particular year This particular will be shown in Australia as part of an Indonesian Film Festival, in addition to This particular will be shown at an Environmental Film festival in Washington DC.”
Readers can volunteer at SOKOLA programmes inside four provinces of Jambi, Flores, South Sulawesi, in addition to Papua. In each region, at least one coordinator coming from the SOKOLA team lives together with volunteers who are ‘recruited in addition to trained locally’ as well as those coming from a national network. The schools are run using local dialects.
inside coming months, Butet will expand her work to indigenous communities in Kalimantan, in collaboration having a locally based company. Volunteers should have some field skills, a love for humanity (especially children), educator characteristics, tenacity inside field, in addition to they must accept risks, such as malaria.
For more information contact Butet Manurung: rumasokola@yahoo.com
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The Jungle School
The Jungle School