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FRONTEIRA FESTIVAL 2023: AN EVENT OF ARTS AND CULTURE EXCHANGE AND STRENGTHENING RECONCILIATION
Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, State Secretariat for Arts and Culture, and Executive Director of the Centro Nacional Chegal! I. P., Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, held the "2023 Fronteira Seminar or 2023 Boundary Seminar". The event, which was held in Maliana District, Timor Leste, from 15-18 November 2023, aims to strengthen community reconciliation in the border areas of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (RDTL) and Belu Regency as the front porch of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
One of the lecturers in the Indonesian Literature Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Udayana University, namely Dr. Dra. Maria Maltidis Banda, M.S., participated in the 2023 Fronteira Festival. She presented a special topic entitled "Literature and Reconciliation". This topic is presented as a form of service of the Indonesian Literature Study Program, FIB Unud to the people of Timor Leste, especially the participants of the 2023 Fronteira Festival. The subtopic of this article presents a general panorama of what and how literary works can be a means of reconciliation in a post-conflict society.
OPENING: LITERATURE AND RECONCILIATION
The word reconciliation explains the relationship between two parties who are at war for some reason. Reconciliation is related to relations or relationships in small families and large families in a broad sense because they experience serious conflicts regarding life together. There is space that is prepared and well-planned for conflicts to be resolved and family relationships to improve. This happens often, even many times, because an agreement for peace has not been reached and has not been able to restore the relationship to its condition before the conflict occurred.
Literature and reconciliation relate to the role of literary works as a medium for reconciliation. Following the function of literary works: 1) the function of reflection and moral education. Through literary works, readers have the opportunity to reflect and gain knowledge about morals and life values; 2) religious function. Literary works contain religious elements that can be used as guidance or direction in life; 3) entertainment and beauty functions. Literary works provide entertainment and beauty to their readers; 4) documentary function. Literary works document various happy and sad events in life; and 5) historical and cultural functions. Literary works are a medium for recording history and culture. The fifth function relates to reconciliation; where festival participants are invited to discuss, open minds together, about the role of literature for the reading public.
Various historical facts explain the role of literature (the relationship between literary texts) and various problems and conflicts in society especially if the source of conflict is related to family identity, communal identity, and community identity which is faced with differences in choices and differences in interests.
Festival participants are invited to build a mutual understanding that reconciliation will be easy to implement if both parties trust each other so that the readmission process can take place well. Some things need to be considered, namely that both parties must be able to control themselves calmly, be patient, be good listeners to discuss, and forgive each other. Reconciliation also requires determination and courage to face a better tomorrow for all parties.
CORE: LETTERS FROM DILI
Literature and reconciliation presented by Dr. Dra. Maria Maltidis Banda, M.S., in the 2023 Fronteira Festival based on her work. In the form of poetry, the first letter to the twentieth letter is entitled "Letter to Mgr. Carlos Ximenes Belo (1999 - 2000); the short stories "Pulang" (1981), "Rebung Gading" (1997), and "Noelbaki" (1999); as well as the novels Surat-Surat dari Dili (2005) and Doben (2000). Three of them were briefly discussed at the festival: the novels Surat-Surat dari Dili and Doben, and the short story “Noelbaki”.
Letters from Dili (280 pages) are written in time, place, and events starting from the Santa Cruz incident. This novel is a good medium for discussing reconciliation because of the attitude of the characters who are "involved" in the events that serve as the background of the story; and how the characters react to it; to save family relationships that were “destroyed” due to different political choices.
In historical records, it is known that in 1999 there was a massive exodus of people from the youngest province of the Republic of Indonesia to Atambua, TTU, TTS, Kupang, and even other areas. Many residents live in the Noelbaki Kupang terminal, one of the temporary residences for East Timorese residents. This setting gave birth to the short story "Noelbaki". This short story is a medium for reconciliation that loosens the mind and heart to take a stand on the suffering of others who are exodus from their ancestral land for the sake of a political situation that they do not understand. Literary works note that the United Nations (UN) table at Jakarta, Australia, and the countries that took part in the political problems in East Timor at that time was a high table and very far from the bitter reality of the experiences of separated families. each other, exodus without understanding, as well as citizens who leave their homes without really understanding what will happen.
Next is Doben's novel (70 pages). Doben is a novel that describes the relationship between a human and a horse named Doben; the relationship between a child and his mother, and the relationship between siblings and siblings which is destroyed because of different political choices. Several examples of literary works explain how literary works are a mirror of society; a mirror of history and culture. With the universal nature of literary works, Letters from Dili, Doben, and "Noelbaki" not only explain the problem of Timor Leste but the problem of universal humanism; from all over the world who are at war due to different political choices and ideologies. Several other literary works that reveal universal humanism issues (including humanism issues that occurred in East Timor and Timor Leste) include Eye Witness (1994 Seno Gumira Aji Darma), Jazz, Perfume, and Incidents (1996, Seno Gumira Aji Darma), Vitoria Helena's Brown Box (2015, Viera and Soeriapoetra), and The Oetimu People (2019, Felix K. Nesi).
CLOSING: REFLECTING ON YOUR HISTORY
The Fronteira Festival also explains that literature and reconciliation will be much more convincing when the “sufferer” reflects on his history; and also writes himself what he felt in the context of reconciliation. Writers have the opportunity to look at various humanitarian issues that occurred from 1975 to 1999 and beyond. The woman who is packaged as the main character in the story is the figure who suffers the most from various forms of sexual violence as experienced by Lilia and other women in Letters from Dili and other female characters in Doben. They are figures who explain what happens when the disaster of war and the power struggle comes without mercy. There is not enough space for them to ask what happened. There is not even a chance to understand. They only accept the most painful consequences of the war and power struggle that is happening before their eyes. What they saw and felt directly was riots taking place and murder and judgment taking place before their eyes. They shouted but their voices were not heard.
The Fronteira Festival underlines that "writers today need to highlight various historical memories of the past through literary works for the sake of reconciliation which is important for the future of the nation's children in the world". Timor Leste is one of them. Universal characteristics of literary works can be seen, among others, in "Letters from Dili", "Doben", and "Noelbaki". About literature and reconciliation, literary works are concerned with what meaning is to be conveyed and how that meaning arrives and remains in the mind and heart of the reader. There is a common part of all nations (regardless of their background) in this universe: self-respect and dignity that other nations must uphold. There are the same parts of every human being (wherever he comes from): the desire for love and longing, the desire to enjoy silence, solitude, and abandonment, and the desire to embrace and embrace a bright future for a better history and culture for the next generation of children.
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES