PROFILE: Ininnawa, The Power of Vision

The wind of change also embraced the minds of a group of students in English Department, Hasanuddin University. It is one of the biggest universities in estern part of Indonesia. They believed that the real change could only be carried out through a transformative way, not just by bursting anger to the oppressive system. To do that, people should have a more critical understanding about what’s going on in the society. And reading, according to their personal experiences, is one of the most effective ways to open people’s mind. Unfortunately, the reading habit of the people in their surroundings is amazingly poor. Not very many people read – although they technically can – including university students.

In early 1999, this study group, with their 12 members, organized an action research about the reading habit of the students in their department. They found that not more than 3% of the students read regularly, even for their academic demand. The reasons were either they did not have books to read or they just perceived reading as not ‘fashionable’ thing to do. Not to mention the poor condition of their library that looked more like abandoned room.

The striking finding has encouraged the group to work on this issue. They collected their own books and started to launch a campaign called ‘backpack library’. The idea was everyday each member of the group has to bring books to be promoted among his/her fellow students in campus. Of course they should read and discuss the books before they decided that the books could be appealed even to unmotivated reader.

The Birth of Ininnawa

As most of the senior members of the group were about to finish their study, they decided to establish a formal organization. In June 2000, an organization called Ininnawa Center for Cultural Studies finally legalized. Ininnawa come from Bugis language, the most spoken languages in South Sulawesi, which means good deed/good intention/vision. The mission statement of Ininnawa is “to create individuals within the society which are taking responsibility to comprehend and empower the values of the local culture”.

The founders decided to launch the center by organizing the biggest book festival ever in town. Again, fund was an issue. Fortunately, they were requested to work as enumerators for a project called Decentralization of Livestock Services in Eastern part of Indonesia, a DFID (UK) funded project. Some parts of the salaries were donated to run the book festival.

The big success gained through this premiere public event gave them more confidence to pursue their activities. They focused their activities on reading awareness campaign and translation of books on South Sulawesi. The library collections were also growing after receiving book donation from Japan Foundation, and many other individual donators.

As an organization, which started with specific mission, it’s not easy for Ininnawa to keep on the initial track. Also, they have to deal with the various and growing interests of their members that come from various backgrounds, in order to make this organization a learning source for all members.

They are struggling to survive and take actions. As a young group, access –especially to information and fund- is undoubtedly the main issues. This problem is the root of many other problems that they face. Therefore, some of the programs implemented by collaborating with other organizations, with or without attaching Ininnawa’s name. This is the only affordable choice. Besides expanding the network, it’s also very useful learning process for the members. Indeed, they also run their self-funded programs that are certainly to create spirit of independence since the very beginning of the group.

One very good example was their involvement in La Galigo (Bugis myth which is one of the longest literary works in the world) International Festival and Seminar. It was held by Center for Social Sciences and Humanities of Hasanuddin University in March 2002. The seminar was attended by scholars from many parts of the world. While the festival programs were traditional art show from all main ethnics in South Sulawesi and other parts of Indonesia related to this myth.

Another example was FASID (stand for Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development) Fieldwork Program. It is fieldwork training for graduate students and young professional from Japan and ASEAN countries which funded by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Through these two events they met many people who put sympathy on their works. Many of them gave a concrete support by giving donation to the organization, or helping the organization to expand their network.

Rumah KaMu

Rumah KAMU (Kaum Muda/Home for the Youth) is a non-government organization working on the empowerment of young people. It was established in 2003 by the Indonesian alumni of the fieldwork program, where two core members of Ininnawa also served as the founders. The vision of this organization is to become a reliable NGO in facilitating youth to enable them to grow up with critical minds, appreciate plurality, and willing to take real actions for the betterment of their immediate community, and the world.

One of the main activities of Rumah KAMU is organizing Youth Camp, an annual fieldwork training for high school students.

Media Kajian Sulawesi (Forum for Sulawesi Studies)

The forum has been established since April 2002 by two Indonesian facilitators of FASID Fieldwork Program. The forum is aimed to be involved in helping the local community find their identity in development process to aim higher autonomous in prestige global community. Beside the organization is also intended to be reliable information media that collect and distribute all information about realization of local community identity on development process.

Biblioholic

Biblioholic is a book café owned by Ininnawa. The idea is to provide a cozy space for people who love books and need a place to hang out with friends. The book café also run a creative writing course and live book discussion in cooperation with local radio stations. It was actually started by started by two persons, Alifiah and Aan, in November 2004. In the mid of 2006, they agreed to sell their shares in the book café to ininnawa.

Ininnawa Publisher

This is another progress of Ininnawa. So far the publishing company has published 10 tittles since their first product launched in April 2004.