Ministry of Culture Revives Folklore Through Nationwide Digital Campaign

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The Indonesian Ministry of Culture has successfully concluded the grand finale of the Gala Cerita Rakyat Indonesia 2026 (Indonesian Folklore Gala), framing the mass mobile-video campaign as a vital structural intervention to preserve ancestral oral traditions through modern digital mediums.

By shifting folklore away from archaic text archives and into mainstream social media feeds, the initiative seeks to counter regional language loss and revive the ancient art of oral storytelling.

Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon, highlighted the strategic importance of the project during a central press conference held on Wednesday evening, June 24, 2026, marking the peak appreciation ceremony of the gala in Jakarta.

"This activity is a momentum to appreciate works, maintain the identity of the Indonesian nation, and preserve oral traditions as objects of cultural advancement," said Minister Fadli Zon, as quoted by Antara.

He emphasized that embedding historical folklore into the early development of children and adolescents serves as a powerful cognitive and emotional anchor, fostering a resilient, well-rounded generation of young citizens.

"Of course, by doing so it also revives cultural awareness, shapes a sense of self, identity, as well as builds character," he added.

The Gala Cerita Rakyat Indonesia effectively modernized cultural preservation by utilizing decentralized, mobile-first technology. Rather than relying on rigid, centralized recordings, the ministry invited the general public to record indigenous myths, regional histories, and ancestral fables directly from their smartphones.

The crowdsourcing phase ran from April 20 to May 20, 2026. Participants filmed their storytelling performances, uploaded the media to various social platforms to maximize public visibility, and formally cataloged their digital entries through the official ministry portal.

The democratic nature of the digital rollout yielded an unprecedented public response. The ministry confirmed that the campaign successfully penetrated 30 provinces across the archipelago, accumulating a total of 1,737 distinct creative works contributed by 2,797 active participants.

To capture the full spectrum of Indonesian society, the ministry divided the submission pool into six distinct operational segments, beginning with specialized categories tailored specifically for children and teenagers. The initiative also actively engaged families and academic networks through dedicated divisions for parents and professional educators.

Finally, the campaign ensured broad, egalitarian access across the archipelago by opening a division for the general public alongside a highly accessible inclusive category designed to accommodate specialized communities.

By segmenting the competition into these targeted demographic blocks, the ministry created a cross-generational network that effectively bridged schoolteachers, rural parents, young cultural activists, and marginalized communities.

The resulting digital repository vastly expands public access to remote regional oral histories that were previously vulnerable to extinction. The ministry noted that this participatory framework reflects a broader, state-backed commitment to adaptive cultural preservation, ensuring that Indonesia’s vast anthropological wealth remains actively integrated into the daily digital lives of its contemporary youth. ***