Soft Launching of the Virtual Museum of Austronesian Culture, Nusa Tenggara, Seri Sumba

• By Admin
• Selasa, 25 Juni 2024

Denpasar, 24 June 2024 – Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University held a soft launching of the Virtual Museum of Austronesian Culture of Nusa Tenggara, Seri Sumba on Monday at the Widya Sabha Mandala Auditorium, Denpasar campus. This activity is part of a grant project organized with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (KEMENDIKBUDRISTEK) and funded by Indonesiana.

 In this event, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, I Nyoman Aryawibawa, S.S., M.A., Ph.D., accompanied by the Head of the Archeology Study Program, Zuraidah, S.S., M.Sc., along with staff and students were also present to provide support for this launch. The event began with a mortar beating ceremony by the dean, followed by an exhibition of a number of cultural treasures planned to be displayed in this virtual museum.

 The event also featured video documentation about the rich cultural and archaeological heritage of Sumba. According to the dean, the aim of the Virtual Museum of Nusa Tenggara Austronesian Culture is to depict the natural beauty and cultural richness of Nusa Tenggara.

 This project is the result of collaboration between Sanggar OSA (Indigenous Sumbanese) and the Archeology Study Program, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, and is supported by IAAI Komda Bali-NTT-NTB. Kristiawan, the project coordinator, explained that although the initial target included 42 traditional villages to be digitized and archived, only 40 villages had been successfully digitized in the first 45 days.

 "The choice of Sumba as a digital museum object is in response to concerns about the large number of Sumbanese traditional houses that were burned without a trace. Sumbanese culture, which is rich in oral traditions and without recordings such as inscriptions, makes us worried about the loss of the purity of Sumbanese customs," explained Kristiawan.

 After the opening, Kristiawan also involved the people of Sumba through the Zoom Meeting channel. This participation allows participants to not only get to know Sumba culture, but also feel close to the people, even if only through a projection screen.

"The Nusa Tenggara Virtual Museum of Austronesian Culture is expected to become a forum for preserving and promoting Indonesia's cultural riches more widely, as well as responding to challenges from technological developments that can threaten the continuity of traditional culture," added Kristiawan.