My encounter with
Stube-HEMAT continued again in Yogyakarta after a long vacuum from activities
in Stube-HEMAT Sumba. I take part in Stube-HEMAT, not in Sumba anymore but in
Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta. I am Yustiwati Angu Bima, usually called Yusti, from
East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT), a Sabu girl who was born and grew on the
island of Sumba, and studying from elementary school till finishing college on
the same island. Initially I got to know Stube-HEMAT Sumba while studying
theology at Theology College of Sumba Christian Church (STT GKS) in Lewa, East
Sumba. At that time I joined a handicraft training and journalistic training which
I continued to develop the benefits of training during my study and daily life.
Now, I study Postgraduate
Theology at Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) Yogyakarta, majoring in
Biblical study and having minor study in Peace Building, and now I am still
completing my thesis and personal studing at one church in Sumba island related
to theory of generation and its impact on peace-building for young people. My
other activities are full-time mentors for theology student at campus dormitory
and freelance-writers at buset-online.com, one of Indonesia's online magazines
in Australia. In pursuing my master degree, I continue to sharpen my writing
skills, which makes me competitive in academic quality with other friends who
have achieved bachelor's degrees from other famous campuses. Apart from the
scholarship, I got an additional allowance to support my study needs by
working, and being a writer is one of them.
In Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta
training that I participated in from March 6-8, 2020 at Wisma Pojok Indah with
a theme ‘Together, Compiling Indonesia" I classified it as an
inter-religious activity because it involved participants and facilitators who
had different regional and religious backgrounds and this is correlated with
peace building that I learned. In one of the exposure sessions, I chose
Poncowinatan Temple to get to know Confucians there, to respond my curiousity
to visit it. The fact that occurred in the past is known that the
discrimination against Chinese ethnic and Confucian beliefs can not be
separated from the history of Indonesia at the end of the New Order. But since
1999 Confucianism was recognized by the government as a religion no longer a
belief, so since then Confucian believers have been free in worship.
In the context of peace
building, Poncowinatan temple is a good example to follow. Besides Confucius,
Buddhist and Taoist, the temple is also open to all religious communities to
pray to God or the Creator and learn about the history of the temple and
Confucians. I also found new knowledge that Confucianism which is closely
related with Chinese identity also experienced acculturation, as the main altar
is dedicated to Kongco Kwan Tie Koen, usually the main altar gods of each
temple is various according to the geographical location of the temple itself.
Kongco Kwan Tie Koen is a god or guardian of the South Coast, so the naming and
interpretation of the main altar is an effort to contextualize Confucian
theology into Javanese culture. In addition, the ceremonies for Confucian’s
holy days are often carried out in Javanese context and the names of Gods or
Goddesses on each altar are written using Javanese scripts. So as a theologian,
I conclude that not only Hinduism, Christianity and Islam did acculturation of
their theology, Confucianism and even Buddhism do the same thing as efforts to
‘land’ religious teachings into diversity in Indonesia.
At the end of the
training, as a series of internalization and transfer of knowledge,
participants were encouraged to design further activities related to
Multiculture and interfaith dialogue conducted individually or in group. I and
some friends from East Sumba built a commitment to initiate interfaith youth
gatherings in East Sumba, especially in Waingapu, so that young people in
Waingapu from various religious backgrounds have experience to meet together
and to have interfaith dialogue without prejudice.
The experiences that I
have found make me appreciate much the activities held by Stube-HEMAT
Yogyakarta by providing a learning space for students and they are very
fortunate to have inter-religious knowledge and experience early as part of
peace building. I encourage every student who has been involved in Stube-HEMAT
to develop the material obtained into ethical actions of daily life and strengthen
the commitment to continue the Stube-HEMAT activities, as a respond of
curiousity in all fields, not only the wealth of educational material but also
the characteristics of the facilitators and personal performance of the
participants. Hail Stube-HEMAT. (Yustiwati Angu Bima).
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