Albert Rahman Putra, 25, felt disturbed when, one by one, young men left his village in Solok, West Sumatra, to make a living. Young men, however, were needed to continue preserving local traditions. Albert and his five friends who chose to stay thus initiated the GubuakKopi Community to preserve and renew their local traditions.
In 2009, Albert and his five friends were still studying at university, but were on different campuses from one another. Every week, they met to share their experience on campus and discuss social issues in Solok. Usually, they met at a local coffee shop.
Two years later, they decided to form the GubuakKopi community. Now, the community is headquartered at a house belonging to Albert’s brother in law.
Through the community, they hope to preserve local traditions. “There was an idea. We were not allowed to just come to the coffee shop and drink coffee. We should instead plan writing projects, create videos and collect photographs. We still use simple techniques to produce the videos and photographs,” Albert said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
They chose to record the activities, traditions, images, sounds, thoughts and hopes of Solok people. In 2015, they organized a photo exhibition, documenting the activities and traditions of Solok. The simple exhibition was called Jemuran Foto. Just like the title, all photos were arranged next to each other like jemuran (laundry) at GubuakKopi, which usually functioned as a kindergarten.
The five co-founders, however, eventually quit GubuakKopi. They chose to leave the village to become civil servants. Albert was the only one left.
Albert’s strong passion to promote Solok traditional art compelled him to stay. He continued to produce content that is posted on the GubuakKopi blog. The alumnus of Padang Panjang Art Institute vowed to educate the Solok people on media literacy, not only through writing but also through photography and video.
In easy-to-read writing, he discusses many aspects of Solok, such as the changing colors of LakeSingkarak, mining in Paninggahan that concerns residents and the Minangkabau people’s trend of leaving their hometown to make a living. In some blog posts, he openly criticizes the local administration.
Loyal to choice
Albert can write stories because he knows the exact progress of local developments. He is loyal to the path he chose even though his parents did not always support his choice. They wanted him to live a normal life and become a civil servant. But Albert has stuck to his choice.
“In 2015, I was recruited to join Gubuak Kopi. But that was nature’s selection. Many people have left. At one time we had 20 members. Now, we are just seven people engaged in various activities,” said the youngest of three siblings.
Last September, Gubuak Kopi held the Lapuak Dikajangi workshop to display the traditional art of Solok and West Sumatra. The workshop invited artists, the media and the local community.
“We drew our inspiration from the proverb using-usang dipaharui, lapuak lapuak dikajangi, meaning what is outdated is to be renewed, what is moldy is to be supported’,” Albert said.
They made a visual record by filming activities during the 13-day workshop. “For two weeks, we filmed people’s activities and children playing, as one of the cultural products developed by the workshop,” Albert said.
All of the workshop’s cultural products were displayed at Gubuak Kopi on Oct. 8. At the exhibition hall, there was a computer people could use to listen to recordings of the voices of Solok people. Meanwhile, outside the exhibition hall there were ordinary items that could produce sound, such as glass bottles and cans.
Embracing mothers
Aside from organizing the exhibition, Albert and his team to screened classical movies in the village. They also embraced mothers to preserve older traditions. Gubuak Coffee invited mothers to showcase malamang, or cooking lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo). The culinary tradition of grilling glutinous rice and coconut milk in bamboo is rarely performed.
All the activities, including conversation between the mothers, were filmed. Albert discussed with the mothers on how to preserve the malamang tradition. “There was a lot of gossip between the mothers. But the gossip ended when the food were served,” he said.
Social media is also used to promote Solok. Videos on the daily life of people in the village are sometimes posted on YouTube.
At the beginning of this year, Gubuak Coffee initiated the #SolokMilikWarga campaign by posting photos of residents on Instagram. “Initially, it was difficult to collect the photos because people questioned the idea of posting other people’s photos on social media. Slowly, they understood. There have been around 600 photos posted online,” he said.
Albert and Gubuak Coffee hope to continue documenting life in Solok and record the hopes and dreams of the people.
