“This event will be held across 10 elementary schools in Sambas and Bengkayang Districts from September to October 2025,” said Ega Tyas Kusuma, a representative of Kampung Dongeng Singkawang, here on Thursday.
She noted that many children in border regions are no longer familiar with local folklores due to the disappearance of local content in school curricula and the decline of storytelling spaces in both schools and communities.
“Folktales in border areas are gradually fading, and in some cases, at risk of being claimed by neighboring countries. That is why we are taking steps to revive the storytelling culture from early childhood to adulthood,” she said.
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The festival aims to reestablish storytelling as a means of conveying moral values, reintroduce local folktales to children, and preserve oral traditions as part of the nation’s cultural richness.
It also seeks to spark interest among children, educators, and communities, while encouraging teachers to adopt storytelling as a teaching method.
The festival will feature storytellers presenting tales unique to West Kalimantan. The event is conducted in the form of roadshow across the two districts, visiting five schools in each, over two-day sessions, with three schools visited on the first day and two on the second.
The festival is expected to inspire a new generation of storytellers in West Kalimantan and help establish a cultural preservation ecosystem that involves the wider community.
“We want to ensure that storytelling does not disappear, but instead becomes a strong cultural identity for our border regions,” Kusuma said.
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Translator: Rendra, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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