Empowering Local Communities to Preserve their Folklore: A Project in Eastern Sumba

Abstract

This article p resents a project of empowering local co mmunit ies in eastern Sumba to preserve their folklo re. Culture encounters in globalized world encourage local co mmunit ies to reflect on the dynamics and vitality o f their own culture. Given the fact that oral-based communit ies are marginalized in articu lating their cultural identity, this project aimed to involve local co mmunities in eastern Sumba to preserve their folkloric expressions. Activities comprise d focus group discussions, folklore research, and d igital documentation of folk music and dance. Th is project is expected to establish collaboration between scholars and local co mmunit ies to promote the importance of local knowledge preservation and the needs for the digital documentation to support future data preservation.