Sumba Integrated Development Revitalising traditional Marapu cultural assets in East Sumba Rights-holders Group Data Our rights-holders groups are the Marapu Community of East Sumba, the majority are based in three villages; Kamanggih, Mbatakapidu and Hanggaroru. Direct Beneficiaries of the Voice Empowerment program are Male: 321 Female:192 (we tried to address the gender inequality that exists among traditional music performers by recording harvest songs generally sung by women, but the number of males was significantly increased during the large harvest festivals as the majority of harvest workers were male) Children (under the age of 18): 236 Total Direct Beneficiaries: 749 Indirect Beneficiaries (measurable) : 44,313 (88.8% of these recipients are Indonesians aged 25-30 years, data from Youtube data analytics, 30 Jan 2021) people viewed documentation of traditional Marapu intangible cultural assets (music, ritual, folk tales, mythology). These numbers are expected to continue to increase to over 200,000 indirect recipients who will view the Youtube video archive by the end of 2021, beneficiaries will continue to increase year over year Indirect Beneficiaries (unmeasurable as data is not available) : Estimated <30000 of unmeasurable shares of traditional Marapu intangible cultural assets via flash-disk, ripped video/audio and secondary uploads for additional youtube and public sharing on other platforms, sales/sharing at local markets, use of music in videos distributed by government and so on. Project Narrative The indigenous people of East Sumba, Indonesia, speak the Kamberan language, a lively and diverse oral tradition spoken by an estimated 240,000 people (Ethnologue, 2015). A majority of 72.72% of indigenous East Sumbanese have converted to Christianity, but the Marapu follow the original indigenous religious system of ancestor worship. Their population is in a drastic decline; in 2019, they numbered 6.86% of the population from 12.6% of the population in 2013 (Central Bureau of Statistics East Sumba, 2014, 2020). Funded by Voice Indonesia and implemented by the non-government organisation Sumba Integrated Development (SID), the project Revitalizing traditional Marapu cultural assets (2020) aimed to support the East Sumbanese Marapu communities to document, archive, revitalise, disseminate and celebrate their traditional music, songs and ritual practices. Following an assessment of the vitality of 19 genres of traditional music and ritual practices in these communities, the project team and community facilitators led a series of 27 performance events across East Sumba enabling the project team to document 140 traditional songs performed by 70 Marapu singers. Two hundred copies of the resulting video recordings were then distributed on flash disk and mini SD card to various stakeholders throughout East Sumba including the recorded performers and musicians, traditional Marapu leaders, local schools, local, regional and provincial government, East Sumbanese cultural groups and local civil society organisations. Additional materials, including pre-existing song recordings and other archival materials relevant to Marapu culture, were also compiled by the project team and disseminated in this way. Eight small workshops were held to facilitate transmission and sharing of intergenerational knowledge. Workshop activities included Marapu traditional musicians teaching children’s folk songs to local children, Marapu senior traditional instrument- builders teaching their craft to younger instrument-builders, project team members collaborating with Sumbanese archivists to digitise their cassette archives of Marapu music and ritual, and documenting senior Marapu ritual specialists sharing oral traditions. Drawing on federal government policy, members of the Marapu communities and project team used the data collected on traditional music and ritual vitality, along with the audio-visual documentation generated by the program, to advocate for greater support at the local level of government for traditional culture. This resulted in the local government in three villages allocating funding to continue in 2021 the project objectives of sustaining traditional culture (Umbu Nai Lapu, Head of Traditional Culture for Kamanggih Village, East Sumba, personal communication with J. Lamont, November 2020). Project highlights /Outputs/Progress 1.Advocacy Activities to implement 2019 Policy 11 of Ministry of Development of Villages According to Head of Marapu Culture in Kamanggih village (Umbu Nai Lapu) financial commitments have been attained from at least three villages (Kamanggih, Laimbonga, Maoramba) in East Sumba totalling 30.000.000 (1758 Euro) for the 2021 village budgets (APBDes 2021) to allocate to Marapu Cultural revitalisation and cultural educational activities for primary school children (SD, SMP). Advocacy efforts at Village level, District level (Department of Tourism and Culture, Department of Education) and Province Level (Department of Tourism and Culture) were undertaken, with recommendation letters and permissions from the Provincial and Regional Government to continue cultural revitalisation activities throughout East Sumba and NTT. Advocacy tools utilised included the cultural vitality data gathered using the Music Vitality and Endangerment Framework survey, the “East Sumbanese Intangible Cultural Assets Audio Visual Archive” (produced and published by SID), the “East Sumbanese Marapu Research Literature Archive” (published by SID) and the Ruling of the Federal Ministry of Villages and the Development of Village areas and Transmigration of the Republic of Indonesia Number 11, 2019. (These advocacy targets was not in our original proposal/outputs) 2.Publishing Activities (1.7) Advocacy and discussion among 5 leading Sumbanese researchers and authors resulted in the creation of the “East Sumbanese Marapu Research Literature Archive”. An Indonesian and Kamberan language resource that collects the work of seminal Sumbanese researchers of Marapu culture and distributes copies of books to stimulate and support learning about Marapu culture. Permission was granted by the 5 authors to print this collection of 29 books (13 unpublished works) and distribute for free to village governments, government departments, schools, teachers, Marapu cultural heads and libraries. (2100% over target of publishing one book and 100% of target 200 copies of books). A 20G+ flash disk archive, the “East Sumbanese Intangible Cultural Assets Audio Visual Archive” including of all the videos and audio recordings made during the program, recordings made prior to the program, recordings collected from handphones and cassette during the program, recordings repatriated from foreign archives (Weyslan Archive USA) and a selection of soft copy books articles and films about Marapu culture in Indonesian and English was compiled (100% of 200 copies of digital archive target). In addition a new publication of a book of traditional songs recorded during the program titled “Ludu Humba” (Sumbanese songs) along with documentation was published and printed in three languages (Kamberan, Indonesian and English). A repressing of 30 cassette of Sumbanese music “Ludu Humba” produced in 2019 and released by Yes No Wave music were distributed to the Sumbanese musicians recorded during the program. 3.Performance and Documentation Activities (1.5) 1. 584 people (269 male adults, 152 female adults, 163 youth) attended these activities (194.6% over target) 2. 140 Marapu traditional songs were documented in audio/video with a spoken synopsis performers explaining the meaning, context and function of the song in Marapu culture (466.6% over target) 3. 70 Marapu traditional musicians performed, recorded and transmitted knowledge about Marapu music and culture to 163 youth (233.3% over target) 4. 30 traditional music instruments built and 20 distributed (100% of target) 5. 10,371 (Youtube data as of 28 Jan 2020) indirect recipients received health recommendations from Marapu singers in Kambera, Indonesian and English language to combat Covid-19. Press articles on globalvoices, coconet, and Indonesiainklusi. Songs used by Bupati and Brimob Sumba Timur during Covid-19 socialisation. (this was not in our original target) 4.Production (1.6) 140 Marapu traditional songs were produced during the program as audio/video files (466.6% over our target). From these songs a selection of videos were uploaded to Ata Ratu’s Youtube, a popular channel for distribution and dissemination of Marapu culture (already over 250,000 views as of December 2020). The remainder of the audio recordings and other material were disseminated via flash disk containing the “East Sumbanese Intangible Cultural Assest Audio Visual Archive”. 5.Workshop, Performances, tutorials about revitalising endangered culture Nine workshop activities included Marapu traditional musicians teaching children’s folk songs to local children, Marapu senior traditional instrument-builders teaching their craft to younger instrument-builders, project team members collaborating with Sumbanese archivists to digitise their cassette archives of Marapu music and ritual, and documenting senior Marapu ritual specialists sharing oral traditions. A series of 6 small scale workshop sessions to learn traditional songs for infant and primary school children were implemented by Sumbanese musicians (Ata Ratu in Palanggay and Haling and Ester in Mbatakapidu). 10 traditional music instruments distributed (100% of target) Attendance: 59 Adults (27 female adults, 32