The Importance of Revitalizing Sentani Traditional Proverbs

摘要

Sentani is one of hundred tribes in Papua that is rich with folklore. One of them is traditional proverb that used to be passed down from one generation to another generation. Proverb brought invaluable virtues that were used by the old Sentani people to teach about social life, wisdom, norms, ethics, ettiquette, and aesthetics. Unfortunately, traditional proverb is not recognized anymore by most of Sentani people, especially the young generation. They even see it as something "old fashioned". The research aimed at revitalizing those expression by using itin some social practices. The data of proverbs were collected from informants in Eastern, Central, and Western Sentani byclose observation, interviews, recordings, transcription, translation and focus group discussions (FGD) with the tribal chiefs, elderly people, and young generation. The research adopted socio-cultural and ethnolinguistic approaches. From the research, it revealed that Sentani traditional proverb should be preserved to avoid its extinction and revitalized by active uses in daily life practices, i.e. (1) formal/nonformal education and (2) public education.