Upon being notified of selection as participant in ASEAN-Japan-Timor-Leste residency program and ASEAN Literary Festival 2016, I was so excited but at the same I also questioned myself on how I would participate in this event for the first time. I asked my Timorese poet and writer friends if they had attended such events but none of them had except for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. I soon came to know that I was the first Timorese to attend this program event. Therefore, I was encouraged by my fellow Timorese poet and young aspiring writer friends to do well at this event, in order to return with something valuable to share about creative writing which now was starting to emerge in Dili, Timor-Leste.
ASEAN-Japan-Timor-Leste Residency Program (April 29 – May 4th, 2016)
My trip to Jakarta went well and I was glad to be there again for the second time since my last visit in 2013. Overall, curiosity about how the program would run was filling my mind on the way to Kampung Muara, Tanjung Barat, South Jakarta.
I arrived at around 9.00 pm at the residency house and met Ridhwan Saidi from Malaysia, Quratul ‘Annie’ Bandial from Brunei and Ha Trang ‘Vanh’ from Vietnam and we gladly welcomed each other in a friendly atmosphere despite the exhaustion after the flight. At 4.00 am in the morning, ‘Aki Na’ Shu from Japan arrived then followed by other residents which we met the next day in the morning during breakfast and lunch. This included Pringadi ‘Pring’ Abdi Surya from Palembang, Indonesia, ‘Rio’ Johan from Palembang, Indonesia, ‘Guntur’ Alam from Palembang Indonesia, Sebastian ‘Ogi’ Partogi from North Tapanuli, Indonesia and Christian Dicky ‘Senda’ from Kupang, Indonesia. As I am able to speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently, I communicated easily with Indonesian residents who participated in the program along with other members from our ASEAN region too using English.
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| Residency house of ARP 2016 |
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| At the residency |
With the friendly atmosphere, everyone shared stories of their life and their countries and the residency started to seem like ‘home sweet home’. A unique quote on a mural painting near the house said ‘Pena Setajam Pedang’ (A pen is as sharp as a sword) which sharpened my motivation to improve my writing skills.
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| Photo: Rumah Muara vias Instagram |
The first day of residency started with a warm opening ceremony at Rumah Muara and the Muara Foundation run by pak Abdul Khalik and his spouse mba okky Madasary, the founders and program directors of the festival. Together with the local community of Kampung Muara and with the attendance of the local authority, we watched joyfully the performance of the beautiful local Betawi ethnic ‘Lenong’ theater, ‘Marawis’musical performance and ‘Pencak Silat’ (martial arts) as part of Jakarta’s rich cultural heritage.
Continuing with a visit to ‘Metro TV’ studio, mba Okky was presented there on Mata Najwa's program to speak about Muara Foundation’s literary program for the community titled ‘Sastra Masuk Kampung’ (Literature coming to village) which tries to engage the local community by introducing them to literary works. Other featured stories included literacy activist Ridwan Ali Nurdin with his ‘Perahu Pustaka’ (boat library) initiative which brought books to rural elementary island schools on a sailboat. Ridwan Sururi brought books to rural elementary schools by horse. Aan Mansyur told of his effort to mediate university students to read books at the library despite the students being engaged in fighting in Makassar, Indonesia. These amazing, hardworking stories are inspirational yet mind-opening on how little has been achieved toward access to reading for children and adults so far. In spite of the high intellectual benefits and importance of reading, somehow a bigger effort has to be made even though if it starts on a very small scale.
The residency group continued to expand with more ASEAN fellow writers coming and joining us, such as ‘Stephanie’ Ye from Singapore, Kristian Sendon Cordero from Phillipine and Heng ‘Oudom’ from Cambodia. The visit continued to the Universitas Indonesia and Betawi Cultural Center in Setubabakan, and then tasting Betawi street food ‘Kue rangi’ which introduced us to the Betawi cultural heritage.
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| Visiting Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta |
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| At Setubabakan PPKB, Jakarta |
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| Oudom trying to make Kue Rangi |
In the afternoon, we gathered at Rumah Muara with board member, Mary Farrow, director for international cooperation for the ASEAN literary festival. She hosted the introductory discussion ‘My Works, My Experiences’ on the purpose of the program which helped us to know each other through our personal introductions, related backgrounds, goals and purpose of our writing works. We started to learn about each other’s writing professions which were varied among us such as novel and short-story writing (me, Guntur, Pringadi, Rio, Vanh, Stephanie, Kristian, Ridhwan, Senda, Ogi, Oudom), poetry writing (Pring, Senda, Kristian), journalist and activist (Annie, Ogi, Oudom), text translation editing (Akina) and filmmaker (Kristian) in addition to being a writer and poet. Meeting these twelve amazing people from different country regions of ASEAN and Japan, enabled me to gain lots of new insights and perspectives from their stories and opinions which they shared about their writing as well as each country's issues towards writing works.
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Discussion on 'My Works, My Experiences' at Rumah Muara |
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| Pair work discussion with Stephanie Ye |
The residency program continued to be very engaging, requiring us to share our skills with the local community. A visit paid to the local Betawi Martial Arts Center introduced us to the community’s effort on preserving values of ‘Pencak Silat,’ the traditional martial arts of the young generation.
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| Local kids teach 'silat' to residents fellow |
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| Resident fellows play 'Bambu Gila' (Crazy bamboo) game |
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| With fellows of local martial art center of Kampung Muara |
Entertaining sessions were held with local children with singing, poetry reading and storytelling, making ‘origami,’ and Manga drawing and drawing with numbers. The children participated with excitement and it reminded me of how meaningful it was to learn to do something new. The sessions certainly helped the children of Kampung Muara to feel closer to us, regardless of our language differences.
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| Akina teaches Origami class |
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| Finishing the Origami |
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| Manga class with Akina Shu |
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| Children drawing their own manga |
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| A smiling kid with his finished manga and origami |
On the third day, we visited the local university Muhammadiyah UHAMKA and the students of literature, visiting their study facilities. It left a deep meaningful impression on me when seeing the theme of our meeting, entitled Sinar Sastra Membangun Peradaban (Light of Literature Develops the Civilisation).
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| Theme of the visit prepared by UHAMKA university |
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| Photo session with UHAMKA lecturers |
A discussion held with Saras Dewi, a human rights activist and lecturer from Universitas Indonesia, helped us to understand the sensitive social issues about gender based violence, human rights in our society and how they become victims of stigmatization or ignorance. Hence, raising awareness on these social issues through literary works could be a very challenging task for writers.
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| After discussion with Saras Dewi |
On the fourth day, visiting the local primary school of Tanjung Barat again enabled me and other residency fellows to share writing and entertaining activities with the students through drawing, story writing in groups, singing and dancing together which raised their excitement. Our farewell marked with our autographs in their books left a deep sense of friendliness between us.
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| Vanh teaching student drawing from numbers |
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| Discussing stories which the children wrote in the class |
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Singing and dancing to the 'Happy song' with the class |
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| Singing and dancing together at the school yard |
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| With children of SDN No. 04 Tanjung Barat |
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| Leaving autograph on student's book |
The residency program concluded with the visit to a local radio station, Ben's Radio. That evening at our gathering at Rumah Muara we used a cooking-together-activity to help us learn more about each other’s culture through the delicacy of food we prepared. The last night of the residency was spent with a warm supper gathering and remains unforgettable for me. The next day, we had to move to Cikini (central Jakarta) to prepare for the opening of the ASEAN literary festival.
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| At Ben's radio studio |
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| cooking time |
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| Dinner together for ARP last night |
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| Poetical performance from local literature community |
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| Children listening to poetry reading |
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| Vanh from Vietnam displaying traditional custom |
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| Traditional Japanese dance by residents fellow |
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| Promise of frienship |
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| Before heading to Cikini for ALF 2016 |
ASEAN Literary Festival 2016 May 5-8, 2016
While it was unexpectedly sad to hear the unwelcome protests against some of the discussions at the festival from a few intolerant groups, later the situation was solved through firm efforts by the festival executive board, and the festival ran unchanged through to the last day. This experience made me realize that one of the constraints that writers have to face is society’s collective consciences towards social issues via literary works. The struggle to maintain the integrity of the festival by the executive board and their team showed me that perseverance is an essential element that a writer and activist should possess.
During the opening, I was proud to see our Timorese prominent diplomat and Nobel Peace Laureate Mr. Ramos-Horta as keynote speaker delivering the opening lecture on peace and freedom, telling the story about Timor-Leste's struggle to maintain peace along with the other global issues. Hopefully, Mr. Ramos-Horta’s presence at this event has opened a possibility for a similar event to be held in Timor-Leste in coming years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZIKB3CRiTI
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| Okky Madasari, Abdul Khalik Mary Farrow |
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| On the opening of ALF 2016 |
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| 'Gatot Kaca Finding Love' Theatrical show on ALF opening night |
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| Korean fan dancing performance |
During the festival, I managed to attend as many sessions as possible in order to note and record important messages and materials about creative writing which I planned to share upon my return to Dili with my Timorese young fellow writers and aspiring writers. Unfortunately, due to some events being held at the same time, I could not attend every discussion and had to split my time between sessions. However, I am grateful that I did obtain many lessons from the sessions I attended such as a poetry and prose session with Indonesian senior poet and writers such as pak Budi Darma, pak Sapardi and pak Joko Pinurbo. Other panelists included pak Triyanto Triwikromo, Syarifuddin Yunus, Julian McMahon and other international panelists presenting in the festival. A message from Kristian Cordero in the 'ASEAN literature' discussion emphasized to me how writers throughout the ASEAN region could get to know each other and strengthen our social relationships through literary works being translated and read by other countries.
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| Discussion on 'The New Storytellers' |
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| Creative writing workshop with Syarifuddin Yunus |
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| Discussion 'A Nation that Doesn't Read' |
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| Discussion on 'ASEAN literature' |
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| Discussion of 'Budi Darma vs Triyanto' hosted by Pringabdi and Guntur |
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| Discussion on 'Mother Nature Stories' |
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| Discussion on 'Women and Political violence' |
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| Discussion on 'Overcoming the trauma' |
Participation by my fellow ASEAN residents on a variety of panels provided very useful knowledge for my own writing inputs such as ‘The New Storytellers’, ‘ A Nation Which Doesn’t Read’, ‘Writing in other languages’, ‘ASEAN Literature’, ‘Mother Nature Stories’, ‘Ibadah Puisi ‘Sihir Prosa’etc. I was a panelist presenting Timor-Leste through literary works on a session of ‘Papua & Timor-Leste stories’. It became a very encouraging session for me to share stories about Timor-Leste along with listening to the stories of Papua from Indonesian panelist, Ibu Rosa Herliany and pak John Waromi. This provided me with more inspirations on the importance of writing about the life of indigenous people, people in rural areas and those who are otherwise neglected.
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| Workshop 'Ibadah puisi' |
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| Discussion 'Papua & Timor-Leste stories' |
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| With pak John Waromy, Indonesian writer from Papua |
Nearing exhaustion, a significant moment during the festival was our solidarity support to our colleagues Annie, Ogi and Vanh during the session on Human rights and LGBT topics. These were unwelcome topics to discuss due the controversy sparked by a small protest group. Nevertheless, despite the attempted intimidation, the discussion ran well, was received positively and was one of the biggest in attendance. It was such a distinct triumph to see my colleagues finalize their session with new insights and with positive feedback from the audiences despite the protest. This experience fostered a stronger friendship and solidarity of spirit amongst us. Such solidarity and respect for humanity through literature is a valuable aspect which needs to be emphasized among ASEAN, Japan and Timor-Leste communities.
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| Discussion on 'Human rights & LGBT issues' |
Overall, I am grateful that ALF 2016 provided me with a valuable opportunity to met many resourceful, motivating, inspiring and encouraging people during the festival and I can’t express how excited I was to be part of the festival. However, I realized that I should not only enjoy this opportunity for myself but I must share questions asked by my Timorese friends to the residency friends and provide feedback to be shared to Timorese young writer fellows. I was also provided with lots of encouraging messages from fellow writers both to me and to my Timorese writer friends and I look forward to maintaining this friendship and communication amongst us as writers and as ASEAN and global communities.
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| Message from Rio Johan to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Message from Ha Trang Vanh to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Message from Kristian Cordero to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Message from Sebastian Partogi to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Message from Guntur Alam to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Stephanie Ye and her message to Timor-Leste fellow writers |
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| Annie Bandial and her message to Timorese fellow writers |
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| With Aan Mansyur |
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| With Dee Lestari, indonesian novelist and poet |
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| With Mary Farrow, Writer, Activist & ALF Director for International Cooperation |
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| With pak Sapardi Djoko Damono, Indonesian senior poet |
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| With pak Budi Darma, Indonesian senior novelist |
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| With pak Triyanto, Indonesian novelist |
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| With Joko Pinurbo, Indonesain senior poet |
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| With Okky Madasari, Novelist, ALF Program Director and founder of Muara Foundation |
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| Last night of ASEAN Literary Festival |
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| Farewell of the residents fellow |
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| Last night gathering after closing of ALF 2016 |
I look forward to the continuation of the ALF event and that someday I might participate again. If more Timorese people attended this event in the future, it could contribute to establishment of literary development in Timor-Leste and build a strong friendship and solidarity amongst countries in ASEAN region, Japan and Timor-Leste.
Links:
Best regards
VZ, Timor-Leste Fellow Writer of ASEAN-Japan-Timor-Leste Program and ASEAN Literary Festival 2016
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