The Story of Billy Tokoro: Guarding Nature and Lake Sentani through Creativity

The best way to preserve Papua’s wealth is to optimally utilise the region’s potential. Iwan Billy Tokoro (40) believes in this adage to guide him. This is because there are still many limitations and challenges to preserving Papua’s natural wealth. Billy realised the need for a collective movement to answer this problem. That’s why the Sentani native started a social movement to preserve the environment and utilise it for the economy through tourism.

In recent years, Billy Tokoro has been involved in mobilising and providing assistance to human resources in Papua. He collaborates with various parties in mobilising the creative economy in Papua.

“If we never start mobilising these (regional) potentials, how will we grow? What will God do if we never start planting?” Billy said when accompanying the art performance of the Kwadeware Village Studio around Lake Sentani, Waibu District, Jayapura Regency, Papua, Saturday (10/8/2024).

As an indigenous child born and raised in the Sentani Lake area, Billy is well aware of the potential of his region. Billy comes from Yoboi Village, Sentani District, which is located in the centre of Lake Sentani.

Lake Sentani holds a variety of potentials, ranging from natural landscapes, cultural arts, food, to local culinary. Almost every village around the lake has its own potential and wealth. Not only that, but in general, other parts of Papua also have diverse wealth. Starting from coastal areas, islands, to the central mountains.

Currently, with various challenges and limitations, a number of groups continue to maximise the existing potential. However, there are still many people who seem to be indecisive and stagnant in managing their regional potential.

This led Billy and his colleagues to collaborate with other parties to provide assistance in potential areas.

‘When everyone is willing to move together and be consistent, greater results will surely follow,’ said Billy.

Visual art

It could be said that various visual shots of the Papuan landscape made Billy realise the potential of his village. The visuals he produced, both from professional cameras and mobile phone cameras, turned out to be able to stimulate the economy.

“Since graduating from college, I got to know photography and met people with the same hobby,” says the man who completed his undergraduate education at the Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Papua, Manokwari, West Papua.

Billy then began to pursue photography, capturing the beauty of his village to introduce to the outside world. Despite choosing a career as a civil servant within the Papua Provincial Government in 2009, Billy continues to pursue his hobby while promoting his region. Meeting with Papuan youths who shared the same hobby in 2017 made Billy even more passionate about promoting the region through the art of photography.

Billy and his colleagues love to capture the beauty of Papua, from its natural landscape to its culture.

In 2019, they patented this association into the Pace Kreatif community. Through this platform, they are increasingly actively involved in driving the creative economy in Papua.

“There is a visual impact, so I believe we can do more,” he said.

The pandemic anomaly

The Covid-19 pandemic that broke out in early 2020 also created various anomalies, including around Billy’s neighbourhood. When health protocols brought various restrictions, creative movements actually spread.

“In the middle of the year (2020) we saw an opportunity to pioneer the village into a tourist destination. Moreover, many people are bored at home and need entertainment,” said Billy, who has since been appointed as the Chairman of Yoboi Village Tourism Awareness Group.

Together with the local youth and community, Billy then cultivated Yoboi Village. The stilt houses standing on the lake were painted colourfully, and so were the roads and bridges. The various colours combine into an interesting visual when seen directly or captured through a camera.

Local cultural attractions, such as Isosolo dance, also become one of the attractions when tourists visit Yoboi Village.This dance is popular and commonly played by young people in the coastal villages of Lake Sentani.

Another potential that can be witnessed is the dense sago forest vegetation behind Yoboi Village. The sago forest covering an area of approximately 1,600 hectares is believed to have more than 30 types of sago varieties.

‘Since then, Yoboi Village has become more popular and many people come from the photos and tourism promotion that we often share on social media,’ he said.

Thanks to this effort, Yoboi Village became one of the winners of the Indonesia Tourism Village Award 2021 from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

 Yoboi Village is among the top four best tourism villages in Indonesia. Thanks to this success, other villages around Sentani Lake started to do the same. In the following years, Billy and Pace Kreatif assisted other villages, such as Doyo Lama (Waibu District), Hobong (Sentani District), and Yokiwa (East Sentani District), to be among the 300 Tourism Village Awards.

“This year, Rhepang Muaif Village in Nimbokrang District (Jayapura Regency) was included in the top 50 of the Indonesian Tourism Village Award. Hopefully next month it will be announced as a winner too,” he said.

Creating the ecosystem

Together with Pace Kreatif, Billy also provides assistance to several other areas of Papua outside Jayapura. He is currently assisting, among others, Yapen Islands Regency (Papua), Mimika Regency (Central Papua), and Yalimo Regency (Mountainous Papua). He also continues to encourage these areas to consistently hold art performances that are harmonised with other Papuan agendas.

Currently, in Papua there are six festivals included in 110 national calendars, namely Numbay Creative Festival (Papua), Timika Inside Festival of Art (Central Papua), Baliem Valley Cultural Festival (Highland Papua), Asmat Pokman Festival (South Papua), Roon Wondama Festival (West Papua), and Raja Ampat Enchantment Festival (Southwest Papua).

“We continue to encourage villages to make performances consistently by looking at the calendar of other national festivals in Papua. That way, when tourists come to the national festival, they can be drawn to festivals or art performances in these villages,” he said.

However, to create a sustainable ecosystem, Billy said, requires government attention. He feels that the challenge in mobilising human resources in Papua is also related to the government’s unsustainable attention.

Billy saw that many of the tourism activities initiated by the community stopped halfway. In fact, movements like this need collective efforts, including from the government. Government attention, Billy said, is very important, both for maintenance and mentoring innovation, so that it does not only last for a certain time. He cited the example of Yoboi Tourism Village, which was not optimised for two years. Billy worried that the desperate community would do counterproductive things. In terms of sago, for example, Billy saw that many sago plantations in Jayapura have now been converted.

“Luckily, we are slowly reviving Yoboi Tourism Village. However, this effort will be maximised if the government gets involved,” he said.

https://papua.tribunnews.com/2024/09/02/kisah-billy-tokoro-anak-papua-penjaga-alam-dan-danau-sentani-lewat-kreativitas