Nowadays many cases of violence are committed by adults and children. Of all, violence committed by students needs to be given attention and minimized. These cases showed the loss of national identity.
In order to bring back the good image of the nation, the potential energy owned by social collective knowledge system to live on the basis of civilization values – known as local wisdom – needs to be explored. Children’s literature which has plenty of wisdom is useful for the future generations, both young and old, to build the civilization of the nation.
That was delivered by Dr. Siti Hariti Sastriyani, lecturer of Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM in the training entitled Creation of Local Wisdom-Based Comic Books for Junior High School Students at the hall of Educational Board of Yogyakarta on Saturday (19/6). Siti Hariti, who is Chairman of Implementation of National Strategic Research Grants, cooperates with the Board for this training. She hopes that this training can create comic books based on local wisdom for human civilization that can be commercialized in order to support the creative industry. "This activity is a continuation of the research of children’s literature based on local wisdom," she said.
In the comic books creation, the junior high school students used processing skill technique. The comic media is chosen because it displays the images and language with distinctive features which are humanistic, funny, weird, short, and fun. Besides, comic strips is assessed as a means of communication for the delivery of stories, messages, concept and vision that presuppose the close relationship with the public life. "The message is delivered mildly using meaningful symbols," said Siti Hariti.
As many as 16 participants tried to create a comic book. They were junior high school students who had written local based short stories. They collaborated with 16 other junior high students who have talent and interest in drawing. "With the guidance of a teacher, a comic book in the Indonesian language was created, it was then translated into English and French by students majoring in English and French," she explained.
English was chosen because it is the international language, while French is considered as a second language spoken in the United Nations. French is also spoken widely in Francophone regions. The translation of the Indonesian local wisdom-based comic into those languages is expected to make it readable for foreign readers. It will also create the ‘lo-globalization’ (local-global), meaning that Indonesian local wisdom is brought into the international world in the context of globalization. "We hope that through comics, foreign readers can understand the contents. The development of comic models based on local wisdom delivered in Indonesian, English and French languages is expected to have commercial value that will support the creative industry," she explained.
At the end of the training, Siti Hariti hoped that her research contributed something to the government, society, and the Indonesian people who are facing various national problems. "Therefore, in order to build civil society, this research is expected to provide creative contribution to the creation of literary works to enhance literary industry and to improve the promotion of Indonesian local wisdom to the world, making it appealing for other countries to learn about Indonesia,” she ended.