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From the Director’s desk

Language and culture of a society are born and develop from a philosophy, world view, way of life, and knowledge as well as human experience which are closely related to the nature and the surrounding world. The core of the interrelationship between human and the nature in terms of language and culture is to form an identity and self-esteem from one human culture society.

Center for Endangered Languages Documentation (CELD) UNIPA Manokwari is born as an institute which believes when a language or culture disappears, the self-esteem and identity of a speech community or a culture society will disappear. We are extremely aware of the fact that the diversity of languages and culture in Papua will decrease and die as it happens in other countries.  Presently, some languages and cultures in Papua are leading to vanishing because the amount of their native speakers and culture supporters undergo a rapid reduction.

We therefore come to the reality that the death of a language and a culture means the lost of a world heritage that we all dearly treasure.

Based on the vision, mission, and aims of CELD, CELD also supports UNIPA’s motto “Science for Humanity” (Pro Humanitate Scientia), which builds an awareness and knowledge of linguistics and culture that are closely related to self-esteem and self-identity of the community, especially in Papua.
To end this foreword, I would like to quote Don Flassy’s statement (2010), a Papuan philosopher:

‘Do not view language and culture as only instruments for tourism, but view language and culture as self-identity and self-esteem of a community’.

Director
Yusuf Sawaki

 

2009