On 5–6 April 2021, Regional Office for Language in East Kalimantan Province gathered several local language writers in East Kalimantan to participate in the Symposium on Strengthening Literacy of Local Language Reading Materials. This activity synergized writers, publishers, and the Regional Office for Language in East Kalimantan Province in creating local language reading materials for children in East Kalimantan. The Head of Center for Cultivation of Language and Literature explained that Agency for Language Development and Cultivation began to try to gather local language writers throughout Indonesia to create reading materials in local languages. According to him, this is an effort for documenting the local languages and cultures. In addition, he emphasized that this form of documentation can also be a political documentation of a tribe’s existence in Indonesia.
Masitah, S.Sos. from Department of Library and Archives in East Kalimantan Province explained that the library’s collections of reading books in local languages are very little. To overcome this limited collections, Syafruddin Pernyata from the Movement of Interest Read Promotion proposed to translate East Kalimantan folklore in Indonesian, which has been widely circulating in bookstores, into local languages by East Kalimantan writers. Duito Susanto from media representative of Kaltim Post provided a solution in writing local literature works by using local terms. Indah Prihatiningsih and Rauhiyatil Jannah as presenters from the authors gave some tips for publishing works in major publishers in print form, indie publishers, and digital publishers.
Finally, the symposium formulated several recommendations, namely (1) develop equalize perceptions on literacy is not easy. Agreed to provide literacy insights for school principals, (2) need to maintenance local language, especially starting at home, (3) need to intensify the writing of reading materials in local languages both print publishing and digital publishing, (4) very important to write stories for children by reason of literacy is started from children age, and (5) Regional Office for Language in East Kalimantan will publish reading books in local languages.
Translated by Muhammad Erwin Darma