Expressing Culture

Acknowledging cultures doesn’t merely come from  a formal education. There are a lot of possible fun ways that people can do to make their surroundigs aware of Indonesian cultures and customs. Teenagers, especially college students nowadays have proven that acknowledging cultures can be done in a more fun and unique way. As what happened in Universtitas Trunojoyo Madura. On August 2, 2017, Nanggala Arts Organization, one of students organizations in Universitas Trunojoyo Madura held Temu Teater Mahasiswa Nusantara for ten days  straight. Temu Teater Mahasiswa Nusantara is an annual event supported by The Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education involving representatives of college students from all over Indonesia to conduct arts performance in theatrical way. Universitas Trunoyo Madura couldn’t be more lucky to have gotten a chance to be the host for this year’s Temu Teater Nasional.

There were approximately 1.000 college students from different universities in Indonesia participating in this year’s Temu Teater Nasional. Most of them arrived in Madura three to four days before the event started. As soon as they arrived in the campus, they had to re-register themselves and pay the fee for Rp. 300.000,00,- that included sertificates, t-shirts, and three meals a day during the ten days. They were arranged in Auditorium and Students Hall that the committee has prepared for them.

The first day when the opening time came was specially opened by the Director of university student of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Mr. Didin Wahidin. For the upcoming 9 days, 3^rd until 12^th of August 2017 all participants of this event held 15 theatre performances in Universitas Trunojoyo Madura  and also in Kamal Harbour. The story that they brought in their theatre performances were the issue of culture and society that happen in Madura lately. With the theme “Madura, Jembatan, dan Laut kenangan”, the art worker who joined this event try to increase people’s interesting around Madura, Exactly Kamal, Bangkalan to preserve their culture which has been forgotten slowly by them since Suramadu Bridge was operated and many people from Kamal lose their job in Kamal Harbour because many people prefer to cross the sea from Surabaya to Madura from Suramadu Bridge than by ship, so they  chose to go to abroad or other big city in Indonesia to work and get more money. The theatre clubs had performed were from Padang, Aceh, Riau, Watampone, Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Bekasi, Bandung, Semarang, Solo, Makassar, Purwokerto, Bone, Malang and Surabaya.

Besides theatre performances, there are also some agendas that was done around the society in Kamal harbour and the sea near the harbour. The activities done here were like the ceremony of  “Petik Laut”, a ceremonial which done in order to express the gratitude of people to God for all fortune that they have got. There are also Culture and Ethnic Music Carnivals which have been held in the same place. The society were seen so happy during this event, moreover the food, Ice, Snack, and Souvenir seller here because they could get more income from many people who came to see this event and buy their merchandise. “Today is like a miracle for me because all my ices has sold out, thanks a lot for the committee who make this event be here” said Mrs. Rukmah as one of the Ice and coffee seller in Kamal.