Going Beyond Celebratory Multiculturalism
Developing a Self-Reflective Children Story Project
Shuri Mariasih Gietty Tambunan
1
, Dhita Hapsarani
1
and Herdiana Hakim
2
1
English Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia
2
sikancil.org, Jakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Children Literature, Narrative Strategies, Celebratory Multiculturalism.
Abstract: Among the few Indonesian children stories out in the market nowadays that talk about differences and
tolerance, most have not gone beyond the mere perspective of celebratory multiculturalism. In a political
situation where issues of intolerance are used to win political gains, celebrating multiculturalism seems to be
inadequate. As argued by most children literature scholars, children story books are strong tools to (re)build
the younger generation’s understanding of differences and help them to articulate ways to react toward these
differences. It helps them to create new spaces in their everyday lives to be able to have an engaging
conversation with those who come from a different cultural background with them. The main focus of this
article is to explore how children story books in Indonesia, particularly in urban settings like Jakarta, could
accommodate children’s creativity and self-reflectivity in understanding differences while going beyond
celebrating multiculturalism.
1 INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is experiencing multiple intolerant
incidents which make a number of media claiming
Indonesia to be in a “darurat toleransi” (emergency
in terms of tolerance) condition. In March 2016, Desk
KBB Komnas HAM conducted a research in several
municipals in Indonesia and professed that intolerant
behaviours are growing rapidly in urban areas in
comparison to rural areas (Putra, 2017). Some of
these intolerant behaviours involve preventing
minorities to do religious activities and also
intimidating and forcing others to embrace particular
beliefs. Another research done by the Ministry of
Education and Culture from July to September 2016
in several schools in several areas in Indonesia
reveals that even though the number is quite small,
there are potential developments of intolerant
behaviours when a number of students, teachers and
even principals stated that they do not want to choose
a leader from a different religion. The research was
done through interviews, questionnaires, observation
and focus group discussions (Suryowati, 2017).
From these research findings, we argue that the
most problematic issue is how children, as the most
elusive members of the society, are at risk of
embodying intolerant demeanours in their everyday
lives. However, children are also the most potentially
empowered group in the society as they are still in a
very productive developmental stage. Despite all of
these intolerant incidents in Indonesia, several
grassroots movements have been done to reinstate
tolerant behaviours particularly for the younger
generation. For example, Komunitas Bhinneka, based
on their slogan “Beda itu Biasa” (being different is
ordinary), has been conducting study tours for High
School, Junior High School and Elementary School
students to visit a number of house of worships
(Viranda, 2017). In every visit, there are usually
students from several schools and they will visit 5 t0
6 churches, mosques, temples or monasteries in the
Jabodetabek area. Students are given the opportunity
to go to every nook and cranny and ask any questions
they would like to ask to the priest or other religious
leaders. At the end of the study tour, students are
asked to reflect on their experiences orally or by
drawing some pictures.
By exposing children to different cultures, they
are able to reflectively and actively make meaning out
the multicultural environments they have in their day-
to-day activities and one way to do this is through
literature, particularly children storybooks. A number
of scholars, such as Perini (2002), have argued that
children, who are exposed to multicultural
Tambunan, S., Hapsarani, D. and Hakim, H.
Going Beyond Celebratory Multiculturalism - Developing a Self-Reflective Children Story Project.
DOI: 10.5220/0007169804930498
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 493-498
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
493

storybooks, seemed to have the most affirmative
attitudes towards differences. Therefore, the main
focus of this article is to explore how children story
books in Indonesia, particularly in urban settings like
Jakarta, could create new spaces for children to
creatively and reflexively make use of these existing
storybooks in understanding differences while going
beyond celebrating multiculturalism. This article
aims to problematize and examine the reflective
process from our preliminary research and a
community service program we are currently doing in
order to propose the most effective narrative
strategies and story-telling methods, which would be
constructive tools for Indonesian children literature
practitioners and scholars.
2 RESEARCH METHOD
Our preliminary research was done from May to
August 2017 by analysing a wide range of children
storybook in Indonesia in order to see the narrative
formulation or strategies used by authors in
articulating issues of multiculturalism. Afterward,
based on our research findings, we are compiling
materials to make a module to be applied in our
community service program in late 2017. This article
consists of the results of our early research and how
we reflect on the process of compiling the module in
order to capitalize on accessible children story books
in Indonesia.
3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Contextualizing Multiculturalism
in Indonesia
The discussion about multiculturalism in Indonesia is
also very contextual because it has different
ideological implications. Budianta (2014) argues that
multiculturalism as a slogan is insufficient to address
the complexity of cultural diversity in Indonesia. In
her work, she argues that, multiculturalism in
Indonesia has gone through numerous stages and
milestones; however, in most cases, it only focuses on
recognizing differences without any substantial
ground works.
“…Indonesia as a nation needs to go beyond
recognition and celebration of cultural identities, and do
ground work in addressing adverse social inequality,
and in rebuilding the goals and foundation of
nationhood. Only in that way it can survive the trap of
identity politics and emerge as a global player in
today’s growingly inter-dependent world.” (p.188)
The main problem is the unequal distribution of
resources which, according to Budianta, could be the
cracking base of diversity and complications of
intolerance in Indonesia. In order to truly embody
multiculturalism, the goals and foundations of the
nation-building process need to be re-established and
she offers a comprehensive trajectory of Indonesian
history in terms of multiculturalism.
Throughout its history in Indonesia, Budianta
explains that multiculturalism has always been an
organic feature in the society’s development as
migrations; settlements and cultural assimilation of
peoples of diverse backgrounds in the islands are the
roots of Indonesian nation-state. Unfortunately, in its
development, the main issue in managing diversity in
Indonesia is the dichotomy of us (natives of the land
(pribumi)) and them (the newly arrived “others” or
pendatang). The main premise is the ownership of the
country or particular region. This is in contradiction
with the actual history of Indonesia in which the
process of identity formation is multi-dimensional.
For instance, during the pre-colonial times, there had
been various cross-cultural exchanges. Borobudur
temple is an evidence of how religions coexisted
peaceably because it was finished during King Rakai
Pikatan, a Hindu King’s reign, who was married to
Pramodawardhani, a Budhist queen. Furthermore,
when Islam was first introduced in Java, it absorbed
the Hindu-Budhist cultural elements reflecting the
implication of religion as one aspect of cultural
diversity.
During the Dutch colonization, diversity was
utilized as a colonial strategy with their divide et
impera policy, which later on caused a significant
withdraw on how Indonesians perceive diversity. In
order to ensure the monopoly of the market, during
the colonization era, different groups assigned
different roles in which the Chinese was given the
power and serve as economic intermediaries. In the
city, such as Batavia, the society was segregated
according to ethnic/racial lines, for instance by
assigning a Chinese captain to control and making
sure the member of the community obtain permits just
to travel beyond their quarters. After independence in
1945
, the main goal was to unify the country and
Pancasila (five guiding principle of the nation). The
country’s slogan, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, written
under the symbol of Garuda Pancasila, was actually
taken from a Javanese manuscript called Sutasoma
written during Majapahit Empire, which adopted the
philosophy of religious tolerance between Budhism
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
494

and Shivaism. However, as explained earlier, the
balance between unity and diversity has always been
problematic in Indonesia due to the imbalanced
distribution of power, the control of the central
government and dissemination of resources.
Budianta (2014) argues that the absence of State in
weak governance of cultural diversity is the reason
why in Indonesia there will always be a limit of
multicultural tolerance.
We started this article by providing two research
results done by two state institutions, the Ministry of
Education and Culture and Komans HAM
(Indonesian Commission of Human Rights). Both
research findings reveal this bleak situation in the
discussion of multiculturalism in Indonesia urging
scholars, practitioners and most importantly policy
makers to produce radical or at least speedy solutions
in dealing with this problem. As a team of scholars
and practitioners who are most concerned on how this
problem affect the younger generation in Indonesia,
we have conducted a preliminary research on existing
and accessible story books for children in Indonesia.
The aim is to map out existing children story books
and synthesize what strategies they used in
articulating differences and inviting their readers to
be tolerant to others.
3.2 Indonesian Children Storybook:
Articulating Multiculturalism
Indonesian multiculturalism needs to go beyond
recognition and celebration of differences. Based on
this premise, this article explores potential strategies
that could utilize children story books to invite
children in actively understanding how differences
should not be a reason to develop intolerant
behaviour. One of the first steps to be done is to build
awareness of the diversity by providing knowledge
about different cultures not superficially or even in a
stereotypical manner. After the phase of recognizing
differences, the next step is to concede that every
group has its own cultural values that should not be
imposed to other groups in other words differences
should be recognized, respected and embraced with
active agency. In mapping out the story books in
Indonesia, this section will look at the narrative
strategies used in each book and how it invites
children to learn about other cultures in the spirit of
solidarity.
3.2.1 Selecting Multicultural Story Books
Salas, Lucido and Canales (2002) defines
multiculturalism literature as “…literature about
people who are considered outside of the mainstream
of society and have been in some manner
marginalized” (3). Groups of marginalized people
include diverse cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic,
and religious backgrounds. However, even though the
selected books are telling stories about different
cultures, there is always the threat that they narrations
or characters that propagate stereotypes. It is essential
to select quality multicultural children's storybooks
which portray “…accurate and authentic portrayals of
cultural groups.” (4)
Our research findings show that in Indonesia,
there have not been a lot books carrying the same
criteria explained in the earlier paragraph. From what
we have found, there are two categorizations: books
focusing on cultures from fairly unrecognized
backgrounds (mostly are from the Eastern part of
Indonesia) and books which symbolically talk about
differences without any references to a particular
culture. SLJ’s Reviewer Editors (2014) have
categorized the first type of multicultural storybooks
as “culturally specific” books, consisting of books
that “illuminate the experience of growing up a
member of a particular, non-white cultural group” (1).
There are “culturally generic/neutral” books “…in
which the main character(s) “just happen” to be a
member of a non-white, non-mainstream cultural
group. These stories, rather than informing readers
about individual cultures, emphasize cultural
common ground.” (3). In our findings, there are books
that we were not really able to categorize as
“culturally generic/neutral;” therefore, we categorize
them as books with symbolical narrative strategies as
they convey differences in multi-layered meaning
making processes.
Examples of culturally specific Indonesian
children story books are some books published by
Bhuana Ilmu Populer, particularly the two titles:
Kisah dari Alor (Stories from Alor) and Kisah dari
Bangai (Stories from Bangai) which were published
in 2017. These two books are a part of a project,
Lintas Nusantara, which introduces Indonesian
children to local cultures from other parts of
Indonesia, which they have never been exposed to.
Kisah dari Alor is written by Hanny Kusumawati
(illustrator: Thalia Lembong) and tells the story of
Alor, a small island in Nusa Tenggara Timur (Eastern
Indonesia). The first page of the story book has the
map of Alor, which works as an introduction to this
small island. There are five short stories that bring the
readers to get to know children in Alor and their
everyday lives. The stories expose to readers a culture
that they might not have known before reading this
story book. Another story book, Kisah dari Bangai,
Going Beyond Celebratory Multiculturalism - Developing a Self-Reflective Children Story Project
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written by Devi Dwi Kurniawati, et.al. (Illustrator:
Khalida Hanum), shares similar narrative strategies
focusing on exposing underexplored cultures from
Bangai (in Sulawesi, also in the Eastern Part of
Indonesia). The storytellers in these books are
children from Bangai emphasizing authentic cultural
experiences as one of the criteria of multicultural
story books. Besides story books from Bhuana Ilmu
Populer publisher and Lintas Nusantara project, there
are other books that also utilize the culturally specific
narrative strategy. Ataturi, Si Prajurit Tepuk Tangan,
written by Sri Widiyastuti (illustrator: Stella Ernes),
tells the story of Ataturi, a son of the chief of Asmat
tribe in Papua and his adventures in hunting. In our
analysis of this story book, we uncover that through
the character of Ataturi, readers are invited to see how
even though he is different in skin color, the clothes
he wears and his life style, and he is just a child like
the readers with many similar struggles in his
everyday lives.
Yayasan Litara, a non-profit organization
working on education and children literacy, has also
published culturally specific children story books
which embody similar narrative strategies. In an
article written by Jayalaksana (2017), it is explained
that the story books Litara publishes aim to explore
local cultures in which they expect children who read
their published books to be social agents that change
the multicultural landscape in Indonesia. So far, this
foundation has published 16 children books that entail
local culture elements. Some of the titles are Barong
Kecil (about the culture of Reog from Ponorogo), Di
Mana Songket Kakak (local culture from Palembang),
Jangan Sedih, Bujang (local culture from Jambi),
Mandala (local culture from Pulau Sumbawa) and
Cap Gomeh (Chinese Indonesians culture), which has
been selected as the core story book for our Self-
Reflective children Story Book Project (to be
elaborated in the next subsection).
Other books are not as specific in determining the
types of cultures that are being represented, such as
the book Ya Kami Berbeda, which is written by Asa
(illustrator: Evi Shelvia) and published by Aksa
Bersama Pustaka. This story books actually invites
readers to look at differences unlike the previous
story books. The main character is depicted as a child
with different hobbies in comparison with his friends.
Even though the story line is simple, there is an idea
that for children, they do not really care about social
and cultural backgrounds. They only see differences
when their friend has a different hobby from them and
not their skin colour. This is a similar premise with
the story book Tetap Teman meski Beda: Kumpulan
Cerita Indahnya Perbedaan (Still Friends Even
Though We’re Different: A Collection of Stories
about Differences) by Nurul Hidayati which was
published Tiga Serangkai in 2015. In 10 short stories,
a variety of differences are discussed, such as
physical, social class, learning ability, taste in food,
habits or physical ability (disability). However, the
story book does not explicitly pinpoint these
differences. For example, in a short story “Dia Mudah
Membaca, Aku Sulit Membaca” or “She Can Read
Effortlessly, I Cannot Read Effortlessly,” instead of
using medical words such as “autism.” In these
books. Words and illustrations complement each
other and could be powerful tools as children are able
to not only read but also see representations of “other”
children/people.
3.2.2 Emphasis on Similarities, Exposure to
“Other” Cultures and Deconstructing
Stereotypes
Based on previous research, one strategy that is used
to increase awareness of differences in children story
book or literature is by emphasizing on similarities.
Cai (2002) has done a number of research and
conclude that“… if people can appreciate their
common bonds (goals, dreams, desires, needs,
feelings, and challenges), it is believed that they will
come to celebrate their differences” (120). By
emphasizing on “human commonalities,” these books
reflect that in spite of the differences, human beings
have more similarities and by understanding and
respecting these similarities, differences are
celebrated and embraced.
In the selected book for our early stage of
community service project, Cap Go Meh (2014), the
difference between the main characters’ identity, Nisa
and Lili, are signified through their clothes (Nisa is
wearing hijab, Lili is wearing Cheongsam). Their
physical depiction is also emphasized as Nisa is
illustrated as a young girl with round eyes while Lili
has more oval and narrow eyes. However, the whole
basis of the story is about how similar they are even
though they have different cultural backgrounds.
Food, as reflected by the title, is a symbol of similar
cultural element. Lontong Cap Gomeh, which is more
known as food coming from the Chinese Indonesian
traditions, is shown as a typical meal during the Ied
celebration in Nisa’s hometown even though she is
not Chinese Indonesians. The story ends with this
statement: “Imlek atau lebaran, makanan favorit kita
ternyata sama” or “Imlek or Ied, our favourite food is
similar.” The word “similar” is written in large fonts
which reflect how the story book emphasizes on
similarities between the different characters.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
496

Scholars have also thrown words of caution in this
narrative strategy of emphasizing similarities to build
solidarity because it also has several limitations. Cai
(2002) explains that if the story book only focuses on
similarities, the recognition of differences is merely a
superficial one and does not explore the complexity
of the multicultural issue. For instance, it would
deduct the capacity to disassemble the stereotypes,
bias and prejudices that are potentially creating
conflicts. Furthermore, understanding similarities
does not mean that we are able to cross or overcome
cultural barriers. This strategy tends to oversimplify
the struggle of crossing cultural borders or depict the
process of overcoming cultural differences as an easy
thing.
What differentiate Cap Go Meh (2014) with the
other story books is mostly because it is telling the
story of Chinese Indonesians culture, a minority
culture which has gone through a systematic
discrimination during the New Order Era. Cap Go
Meh uses the third person point of view (omniscient)
that benefits the narration. The point of view provides
an equivalent in the exposition of each culture that is
being narrated: Nisa and Lili’s cultural backgrounds
even though the story book clearly tries to emphasize
more on Lili’s stories. Minority cultures, which have
been forced to assimilate into the majority culture or
have been less-represented, in this story book, are
represented in the same intensity or even more in
comparison to the majority culture. The explanation
about Imlek has more proportion in comparison to the
explanation about Ied. For instance, the cultural
symbols of Chinese Indonesian traditions are not only
mentioned in the text but also carefully illustrated. As
argued by Cai (2002), “… the priority is for the
mainstream culture to get connected to the parallel
cultures, because children from parallel cultures have
been, and still are, victims to alienation in an
educational system dominated by the mainstream
culture.” (119) If the exposure to Chinese Indonesians
culture, in their daily lives, is limited or perhaps is not
as visually detailed, this story book helps the readers
to recognize, celebrate and respect these cultural
symbols.
Besides emphasizing on similarities and exposing
to “other” culture, the selected multicultural story
book also has to deconstruct stereotypes and present
cross-group images. In multiple forms of media,
minority (and sometimes majority) characters are still
depicted in negative stereotypes simplifying the
complexity of individuals. A number of researches
have been done in establishing how to do
interventions or what kind of practices we can do to
improve intercultural relations among children. One
important message that children need to get is how
they could identify with different group of people
with different cultures in order to bring about changes
in their attitude. Story books need make positive
connections across ethnic, racial, religious, social
class and also gender differences. If this is absent,
story books are sending the message that children
should only play with other children who come from
similar cultural backgrounds. Aronson and O’Brien
(2014) explain that the inclusion of minority images
does not encourage cross-group play.
In their study, they investigate how children react
to cross-cultural portrayal in picture books. There
were two groups and the first one was read books that
portray stories of children having fun while playing
together and they come from different racial
background. Meanwhile, the other group was read the
same story but the characters are from similar racial
backgrounds. After the study ends in a six week
period, research findings reveal that those in the first
group reflect a more comfortable interest to play
across racial differences in comparison to the second
group. It suggest an effective cross-group story book
must represent children who are identifiably different
from each other engaging in normal, everyday
activities that readers can relate to, such as playing
games and having fun.
The selected book, Cap Go Meh, embodies these
criteria in which the theme is relevant to the readers’
everyday activities, a religious holiday. The story
book contains sufficient cultural elements to enable
readers to unswervingly obtain new cultural
knowledge and increase recognition, understanding
and respect. It also allows reader to learn to appreciate
the minority culture, in this case Chinese Indonesians
and the depiction of Lily is positive and simple yet
not simplified
enough that reduces her individual
characteristics. The illustration also reflects
“authentic” portrayals of physical features of
minority groups and depicts details of their culture
(Wan, 2006). Most importantly, the strong illustration
and story line open possibilities for readers to do
creative and active activities or projects, such as
annotating, naming the characters, drawing or
painting, role-playing or creative writing. These
multiple activities and perhaps other visual tasks
allow children to use their creative and imaginative
tools to represent and make sense of their own
multicultural experiences and they could link them to
their reading of the story book.
Going Beyond Celebratory Multiculturalism - Developing a Self-Reflective Children Story Project
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4 CONCLUSIONS
Research findings reveal that every story book has its
own potential in building recognition of differences
and celebration of tolerant behaviours. Some books
use the strategy to emphasis on similarities while
portraying differences. Other books are highlighting
the exposition of minority cultures to ignite respect
and increase solidarity. From the story books that
have been published in recent times in Indonesia, the
book Cap Go Meh (2014) was chosen to be the
fundamental book in the Self-Reflective Children
Story Book Project because it fits the criteria of a
multicultural story book utilizing both illustration
(visual) and text in conveying its multicultural
themes.
By selecting a text depicting a minority culture
which has been marginalized or being less-
represented, the project aims to help readers to go
beyond the surface and form a relationship with the
depicted culture. First and foremost, the text and the
series of activities in the module are expected to
disassemble negative stereotypes in the mainstream
and dominant representations. Therefore, these
stereotypes are no longer considered as “authentic”
representation of the minority culture opening new
spaces for dialogs to nourish ways of respecting and
understanding one another. For these children, as they
read and interact with Cap Go Meh, they are
exploring the way they could see “others and be seen
by “others” and at the same time using their own
words, through the activities of annotating, naming
and predicting, to reconstruct pre-existing discourses
of minority culture.
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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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