Osing Kids and the banners of Blambangan Ethnolinguistic identity and the regional past as ambient themes in an East Javanese town

Abstract

On the basis of the theoretical notions of discursive ambience and ambient discourse, this article examines the recent history of language and ethnicity in Banyuwangi in the far east of Java. Over the last three decades (with roots going back to the 1920s and earlier) a redefinition of the language and culture of the "autochthonous" inhabitants of Banyuwangi has been occurring. Their status and constitution have been changing from a variety of Javanese into an autonomous language and ethnicity, called, after the name given to the language or dialect, Osing. At the same time, an idyllic and heroic picture of the regional past is being constructed and maintained. Prominent among the factors and agencies involved in these two ongoing processes is popular media culture. The regency of Banyuwangi and especially its capital (also named Banyuwangi) are being cast -albeit sporadically and incidentally and sometimes controversially -as an Osing region. At the centre of this historical process, people publicly render themselves -also sporadically and temporarily -Banyuwanginese by listening to and especially by singing, in karaoke-style, a genre of pop music with Osing lyrics and musical characteristics perceived as local. Keywords Language, space, and place; discursive ambience, ambient discourse, linguistic landscape, audioscape; popular music; thematics, mediation; regionalism, ethnolinguistic identity, local history, patriotism; Banyuwangi.The ways in which language and place are mutually related features prominently in a number of recent linguistic-anthropological studies.

Social Capital of Women Leaders in the Indigenous Community of Osing, East Java, Indonesia: A Feminist Ethnography Research

“…Although in 2014 there was the Governor of East Java Regulation No. 19 of 2014 concerning Regional Language Subjects as Mulok (Muatan Lokal or local load) did not include the Osing language, practically, the teachers of elementary schools in Kemiren village still taught the Osing language (Arps, 2009;Duryat, 2019).…”

Wacana Nasionalisme Kritis Dalam Musik Banyuwangian Pada Masa Orde Baru

“…Dalam konteks itu, musik banyuwangian-mengikuti pemikiran Bennet dan Jansen (2016)-menjadi alat untuk terus menjaga memori kultural kolektif masyarakat, bahwa mereka memiliki akar budaya yang pantas dibanggakan. Lebih jauh lagi, memopulerkan lagu berlirik bahasa Using dengan mengusung tema kecintaan pada daerah dan negara merupakan usaha untuk mengonstruksi identitas Using yang memang diberikan peluang untuk tumbuh pada masa Orde Baru (Arps 2009).…”

Local language programs in cultural radios to maintain Indonesian national identity

“…These radios include Radio Nada FM with the slogan "Madura Station" (Ardiansyah, 2017;Achmad., 2019), Radio Sritanjung FM with the slogan "Radioe Lare Using" (Arps, 2009), which changed to "Pride of Banyuwangi" (Achmad, 2020a), Radio Cakrawala FM with the slogan "Campursari Thok Wes," Radio Media FM with the slogan "Campursari Media." Meanwhile, one other radio is not a member of the East Java PRSSNI but famous as a Javanese cultural radio, namely Jodhipati FM Nganjuk Radio (Achmad and Ida, 2019).…”

“…Also, it happened when the title Radioe Lare Using was given to Radio Sritanjung FM. Because of its commitment to use Using language in its broadcast, this radio becomes a pride icon of Banyuwangi people (Arps, 2009). Four private radio stations that become the subjects of this research deserve to be called as cultural radio, because they have commitments to broadcast local contents with local language as a broadcast introduction (Achmad and Ida, 2019;Achmad., 2019).…”