Lake Sentani Festival to be Held to Preserve Papua's Culture

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua will this year again organize a Lake Sentani Festival (FDS) in a bid to preserve its unique and traditional arts.

The land of "Cendrawasih" (Bird of Paradise) is really blessed with an abundance of natural resources and unparalleled culture and traditional arts that have to be maintained.

In this light the preservation and promotion of Papua’s culture and traditional arts are made through the Lake Sentani Festival that has been organized three times in three consecutive years from 2008-2010, and the fourth will be staged from June 19-23, 2011. Themed "Love, Peace, and Harmony," the festival will feature various art and cultural activities and attractions.

FDS 2011 organizing committee chairperson Anna Sawai said in Jayapura over the weekend that the annual event held for the first time in 2008 would be enlivened by a variety of both local and national cultural activities.

"The Lake Sentani Festival this year will be the fourth and certainly we have to make better preparations to make the event a great success and to give the best possible service to the visitors," Anna said.

According to her, the Lake Sentani Festival would be highlighted by various activities such as cultural performances, a cultural exhibition, economic products exhibition, local typical culinary exhibition, tours, water sports competitions, and cultural seminars. Anna said that traditional dances, colossal attraction of flute and drum, and folk songs would be introduced for five consecutive days during the festival.

While in the cultural exhibition, the cultural items from Papua ethnic community in Tabi, sculptures, paintings, literature, and history with their documentary films would be displayed.

"Besides, there will be typical culinary exhibition and various water sports competition for the visitors because in principle we want to give them our best possible services during the festival this time," Anna said, adding that the festival would be centered at Kalkhote tourist resort near Lake Sentani in Jayapura district.

It is a real fact that Papua is blessed with abundant natural resources but economically people’s standards of living lag far behind those of their brothers and sisters in other parts of the country.

Therefore the central and regional governments have already made various effort to improve the local people’s standard of living and preserve the province’s resources and cultural heritage but so far without optimal results