The Indifference of Culture and arts

It is common knowledge that Indonesia has thousands of islands and each region has its own culture and art. Therefore, Indonesia has many kinds of culture and arts. Unfortunately, many Indonesian people do not care with their own culture and arts. And the consequence is a lot of art or culture is forgotten by Indonesian.

Many Indonesian people forget about their culture or arts because of modernization or globalization. “Modernization is an unstoppable progress of human civilization. But something which is more modern does not necessarily mean that it is better, especially when it concerns certain traditional cultures, or arts of the people, which bear lots of local wisdom that advocate peace and harmony”. (Goan, 2013).

We can see now, a lot of people who are not interested in art and culture because of the influence of modernization and globalization. Arts and cultural activities look outdated or tacky. For example, right now, a lot of people who memorize the modern songs but, they do not know the region or the national songs. They prefer to sing pop songs to the traditional songs.
“Young people today are very rare and almost no one wants to sing or listen to the folk songs. Perhaps, because of the development of music technology is so fast so that it began to be forgotten”. (Nelius, 2013)

Other examples are traditional handicrafts. One of them is handicrafts woven from east Kalimantan. These handicrafts are almost extinct, because it is rare in production. Though, it is a unique craft and is not available in other countries. “No other country in the world can manufacture these handicrafts. They cannot be made by machine,” said John H. McGlynn, co-founder of cultural preservation group the Lontar Foundation, “The handicrafts used are made from organic materials. Traditional [Dayak] artisans seem to predate surrealism, modernism and other abstract art movements, without putting their name or ego on them,” he explained. “But while the traditional arts continue to thrive and affirm the tribes’ identity, they are still affected by the inroads of modernization”. (Wirajuda, 2013)

Well, we live in the modern era, where the technology is growing very rapidly. But, we must not let our culture will be extinct over the time. Because, there are so many the culture and arts that we should be proud.