There are many ways to generate your income as a young person nowadays. The digital era has made it even more possible. The growing citizen journalism has bred more digital media platforms, especially independent journalism. This is why writing and taking photographs are considered more than just hobbies to many these days.
Not only photojournalism, but this phenomenon has also created a new source of income for young people, especially from West Papua. This activity is called entrepreneur photography or photo-preneur. The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kementerian Pariwisata dan Ekonomi Kreatif or Kemenparekraf) has seen this as an opportunity to support the young West Papuans to the best of their abilities.
Through Journalism and Photography, The Young In West Papua Shall Thrive
It is nothing new that many young people love writing and photography. These two hobbies are great sources of support to build a creative economy in Indonesia. Through these two activities, the young people in West Papua may promote the beauty of their homeland to the eyes of national and international audiences.
On April 12 and 13, 2022, Kemenparekraf worked together with the Young and Inspiring Papuans’ Movement (Gerakan Papua Muda Inspiratif) to hold an event. The event was called “Action in Harmony and Synergy” (or Aksi Selaras Sinergi or Aksilirasi) on “Commercial Journalism and Entrepreneur Photography Training as An Initial Mapping of The Program” (or Pelatihan Jurnalistik Komersial and Fotografi Entrepreneur Sebagai Pemetaan Awal Program).
This event was held in Manokwari, West Papua. For a couple of days, 30 participants were receiving training from professional practitioners in their respective fields.
April 12, 2022
On the first day of the training, these were the experts: Muhammad Amin (Kemenparekraf’s Music and Film Director), Martarita Ullo (The Head of The Capacity Development Division of The Culture and Tourism Office of West Papua Province), Sidarman (The Top Production Director), and Muhammad Azmi (The Program Director at The Indonesian Professional Photographer Association and Director of EdTech.).
Accompanying the participants, there were Aksamina Woisiri (The Coordinator of Gerakan Papua Muda Inspiratif for Industry and Creativity Department) and Simon Tabuni (also The Coordinator of Gerakan Papua Muda Inspiratif of West Papua).
According to Martarita Ullo as she began the event with her opening speech, there is a huge potential in the creative economy industry to help to promote Papuan tourism. Therefore, the Tourism Office has begun to open a creative economy sub-sector. This is the pilot project for other sub-sectors.
“The Department of Culture and Tourism is currently developing several sub-sectors of the creative economy, which should be expected to become a pilot project for the development of other sub-sectors in the future. The craft, culinary, and fashion sub-sectors are the three creative economy sub-sectors that are priorities for the development of the culture and tourism department today,” stated Martalita.
In addition to being expected to create creative content to gain the interest of a large number of audience, young people who have participated in Aksilirasi program are also encouraged to be able to start their own business out of journalism and photography. Muhammad Amin had stated that during the event.
“Aksilirasi Program is actually continuous assistance designed as a process of empowering society. The community has to be the leading role(s) in improving their own well-being through creative content-making activities. We do not only wish to have photographers but also entrepreneurs who can do much more. For example: producing wedding videos,” stated Muhammad Amin.
Muhammad Amin also added, “It turns out that the potential for the creative economy in Manokwari has already existed. What we need to consider is how we slowly form a creative economy system. It is true that it is not as easy as a flip of the hand. Through a long process, we need to do activities like this.”
Amin believed that it would take a lot of people to make something like this happen. The government, business people, academic scholars, associations, and media must also take part in supporting activities like this. The government should work as the facilitator by arranging meetups with potential sources, experts, and stakeholders of the tourism and creative economy. The government must also encourage and support the buildup of the entrepreneurs themselves and who do not depend on anything.”
There was a lot of enthusiasm among the participants during the training. Aside from the material provisions, the participants were more than eager to receive other training sessions, like photography techniques. Aksamina Woisiri admitted feeling pleased when participants showed their keen interest and great enthusiasm.
“Aksilirasi Program has been very useful in developing human resources, especially young people in creating businesses in the creative economy sector through journalism and photography. It is hoped that with the new business created, it may improve the surrounding economy,” Aksamina concluded.
With the growing development of the digital era, it is about time that West Papua took part more in journalism and photography to introduce their province to the rest of Indonesia and the world – on behalf of their young people.
