Many times Sri Bungo blew on the pile of twigs he had been burning since morning, keeping the fire burning in the fireplace he had made under his hood. The black tarpaulin covers that he and his colleagues made provided sufficient shade for everyone sitting inside. That morning, Sri Bungo and the women from the Anak Dalam Tribe Community (SAD) of Dwi Karya Bakti Village were busy with preparations for the Food Creation Event. This activity involved the PKK (Family Welfare Empowerment) Women's group in Pelepat District, Bungo Regency, and they chose an oil palm plantation area near a residential area as the location for the activity.
"Let it be felt, Sis, cooking in nature, like our parents used to," said Sri Bungo. This twenty-one year old woman is one of the female cadres from the indigenous community assisted by Pundi Sumatra. Since morning, Sri Bungo has been ready with the gadung which will be processed into jungle rice. Even though it is known to be poisonous, the gadung processed by Sri Bungo is a local food that has long been consumed by the Anak Dalam tribe.
"Now if you look for gadung, go a little further inside," said Sri Bungo while grating the gadung. This woman with one child has loved cooking since childhood. From his grandmother, Sri Bungo learned that gadung contains poison so it must be processed properly. “It takes a long time to make, Sis, maybe a week. "Three days soaked on land and one day in the river," he said. Sri Bungo explained that the poison in gadung will disappear by washing it clean many times. After that, the gadung is dried in the sun until dry, then ground into flour. The flour is soaked again to remove any remaining toxins, then dried once more before finally being cooked into jungle rice.
The smoke from Sri Bungo's hood was getting higher, a sign that the jungle rice he made would soon be cooked and ready to eat. Apart from Sri Bungo, there is Diding who processes sago into porridge. On average, the tubers they get from the forest are processed by boiling them or mixing them with water to make porridge. Even though they look simple, both of them are local food sources that they still consume from the past until now.
Diding said that this local food was starting to be abandoned because of the long processing process. Since settling down in 2014, he and his family have begun to get to know instant food and are slowly abandoning boiled food. "Processing this takes a long time, so we rarely want to make it, at least once a week if we go to the forest and find gadung or other ingredients, then we process it," he said. He also said that while consuming jungle rice, no family member experienced illness, unlike now when their children often suffer from digestive problems due to instant food.
Knowledge of local food makes the Anak Dalam Tribe community able to survive without consuming rice. However, they are starting to face a local food crisis due to the conversion of forests into plantation land. Food sources from the forest are starting to become difficult to find, so they are starting to learn about instant food.
Sri Bungo and the women from her community agree that the local food they have is healthier than the food of the community in general. Even though they are aware of this, they cannot do much about the food transition. Pundi Sumatra has tried to overcome this problem through the ESTUNGKARA program since 2022. Women from the Anak Dalam Tribe community have become a change group to maintain their local food traditions. The activities packaged in this local food campaign aim to preserve and introduce food sources from the forest which are commonly consumed by the Anak Dalam Tribe community.
"This jungle rice makes you full, but it takes a long time to process it," said Sri Bungo. In the midst of the onslaught of instant and modern food, several women from the Anak Dalam Tribe community are custodians of priceless culinary heritage. Through these inclusion efforts, the hope of preserving and reviving local wisdom continues to burn, like the fire in Sri Bungo's hearth which continues to burn, warm and revive the spirit of its community. Let's together support and appreciate the diversity of local food which is rich in stories and cultural values.
