Indonesian Children Storytelling Tour Goes to New Hampshire
Madbury, 03/31/2019 – ICONE brings Indonesian children stories about Indonesian values of respect and caring to one of the Sunday schools in New Hampshire today. Supported by the Education and Cultural Attaché office at Embassy of Republic Indonesia in Washington D.C., this initiative is part of ICONE's Indonesian Storytelling Tour program that aims at introducing and promoting Indonesian values and culture to children in New England through stories and children books at local schools and libraries.
ICONE's volunteers, Belinda Dinsmore and Juliana Houseman, read aloud the Indonesian folktale "Kancil Steals Cucumber" from the book "Indonesian Children's Favorite Stories" by Joan Suyenaga, in their Sunday school at the Maranatha Indonesia United Church of Christ, Madbury, New Hampshire. The students were amused by Kancil, a mischievous mouse-deer character from the book who steals cucumbers from a farmer regularly. Annoyed when seeing most of his cucumbers gone in the morning, the farmer built himself a scarecrow to scare away the thief. He also applied very sticky jackfruit sap on the scarecrow. Being arrogant, Kancil kicked the scarecrow, got stuck, and was consequently captured. Put in a cage in the farmer's house and was about to get slaughtered, Kancil tricked the farmer's pet, a dog, into taking his place. The folktale ends when the dog was left in the cage thinking of his stupidity. Through this folktale, the students learned about the importance of not being arrogant and not underestimating one's intelligence.
Besides listening to the story, the students also learned about the old way of livings and the different Indonesian traditional clothes from looking at the different illustrations in the book. Our volunteers also shared some general information about Indonesia to the students and their parents, such as how diverse Indonesia is in terms of its people and culture, as well as about its 34 provinces. At the end of the storytelling session, two books were donated by ICONE's representative in New Hampshire Lina Pitono to the Sunday school for further reading and sharing.
While we're working on the next storytelling sessions, please check out the following books from your local library and let your friends and families know about them.
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- "Indonesian Children's Favorite Stories" by Joan Suyenaga.
- "Balinese Children's Favorite Stories" by Victor Mason.
- "Dear Komodo Dragon" by Nancy Kelly Allen.
- "I is for Indonesia" by Elizabeth Rush.
- "Tari: The Little Balinese Dancer" by Pamela Noensie and Garretta Lamore.
- "Go to Sleep, Gecko!" by Margaret Read MacDonald.
If you would like to know more about our storytelling program, would like to have the Indonesian storytelling brought to your children’s school or close-by library(s), or would like to volunteer, please email us at contact@icone-inc.org or dhanni.setyaning@icone-inc.org. Thank you.
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