The Lake Sentani Festival 2022 Is Held Again After The Vacuum Due To The COVID-19 Pandemic, This Is The Mission Behind Its Implementation

Lake Sentani Festival 2022. (Photo: Special)

JAYAPURA - The 2022 Lake Sentani Festival will be held again after a three-year vacuum due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this time the event was not carried out as usual.

If previously the Lake Sentani Festival was held in mid-June, this time the event will be held on October 24-30, 2022.

Interestingly, this event was held in conjunction with the 6th Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago Congress organized by the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN). In addition, this event also coincides with the 9th Anniversary of the Awakening of the Indigenous Peoples of Jayapura Regency which is celebrated every October 24.

More than 2400 communities from all over the archipelago will enliven the congress event which is held every five years. It was recorded that there were 10 thousand people who took part who would later live in the homes of indigenous Papuans and mingle with the people there.

Secretary General of AMAN, Rukka Sombolinggi, revealed that the preparations for the 2022 Danau Sentani Festival are almost complete. Later, in addition to seeing the appearance of cultures in Papua, all congress participants will also enjoy the sensation of the Papuan specialties provided.

"We are trying to make the voice global, it can be national, but the action includes the food being local, namely Papuan food. We will eat tubers, we will try not to use plastic, we will use plates and cups from nature," said Rukka.

"Then what is interesting, maybe later there will be lots of collaborations in performing arts between indigenous children from Papua and from other places in the archipelago," he continued.

In order to welcome the 2022 Lake Sentani Festival, the Jayapura Regency Government held a pre-event entitled Papua Intimate Dinner. On that occasion, the Regent of Jayapura, Matius Awoitauw, said that this moment would be used to voice diversity.

"We will speak about how diversity is owned for unity, the unity of Indonesia. This is extraordinary, there will be a unified diversity in Jayapura in October. We will hold the Lake Sentani Festival in that atmosphere," said Matthew Awoitauw.

"At the same time, we are voicing the preservation of culture, but also nature, the environment owned by indigenous peoples throughout the archipelago. For what? To maintain its sustainability, for security, food, energy security. We will voice it all in the atmosphere of the congress," he continued.

Matthew revealed that the people in Jayapura want to remove the stigma if Papua is scary. He said the residents would actually maintain the security while showing local wisdom in the area.

"We who are outside think, 'Wow, this Papua is worrying, Papua is scary', but it's not there. They want to welcome their brothers and sisters well as long as they are there. And this is what the congress wants to show, local wisdom. They just want to live in the villages and they will maintain the security," continued Matius Awoitauw.