Digital Discourses 2025
Digital Future of Indigenous Languages

Digital Discourses: Exploring the Current State of Indigenous Languages © Goethe-Institut Indonesia / Each Other Company

With the rapid pace of change in the digital world, Indigenous Languages are at risk of becoming extinct in the near future. How does the current digital landscape shape the future of these languages?

2025 marks the fourth year of the United Nations’ International Decade of Indigenous Languages, a global initiative to raise awareness about the preservation, revitalization, and promotion of Indigenous Languages. As the second most linguistically diverse country in the world—with over 700 spoken Languages—Indonesia holds a critical position in this global movement.

Despite this richness, many Indigenous Languages in Indonesia are underrepresented and lack adequate resources. Limited knowledge production and digital presence often contribute to the social and economic marginalization of these language communities.

In Digital Discourses 2025 we will be discussing and examining the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous Languages in the digital era.

Five Questions about Preserving Regional Languages

Interviews

With Nazarudin
With Afrida Erna Ngato
With Dwi Agus Erinita

© Goethe-Institut Indonesia © Goethe-Institut Indonesia

Series of event

In Digital Discourses 2025 we will be discussing and examining the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous Languages in the digital era.

Speakers: Digital Discourses 2025

is a traditional script activist who specialises in old Nusantara scripts and their contemporary applications. He completed his Archaeology degree at Udayana University in 2004. He now acts as the Community Coordinator at Galeri Aksara Indonesia and Aksara di Taman.
has a professional background in communications and graphic design. Having spent several years working in the conservation of Indigenous languages and scripts on digital platforms, he now works as the Communications Coordinator at Wikimedia Indonesia. In this role, he develops and promotes content created in Indigenous languages and scripts in collaboration with over 18 Wikimedia communities across Indonesia.
is an independent researcher and freelance typographer specialising in traditional Indonesian scripts. He has worked as a font consultant for Google and Monotype. He obtained his first degree from Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, Indonesia in 2019. He is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Architecture Programme at the Universitas Indonesia, Depok, specialising in the history, theory, and critique of architecture.
is an Indigenous language and culture activist from North Maluku. While working as an elementary school teacher, Ida is also involved in devising the local curriculum that formulate the Indigenous language subject in North Halmahera. Ida was also appointed as the Chief of Isam/Pagu Tribe in 2012 for her efforts in preserving the language and culture of the Isam/Pagu tribe that was near extinction.
is an independent researcher specialising in Indonesian modern literature and cultural studies. She focuses on research and artmaking, including visual arts and music. She has published her research in scientific journals and popular media and given talks on resistance against Indonesian political strains in literature, theatre, and film.
is a language activist who is particularly interested in conserving languages from Nusantara. He volunteers for Wikimedia, specialising in the development of Wiktionary, Wikipedia's sister project. Since 2023, he has managed the WikiTutur programme, which focuses on recording the pronunciation of Nusantara indigenous languages in Indonesian Wiktionary (Wikikamus) and Lingua Libre.
is Vice Chair of the Unicode Script Encoding Working Group and a U.S. representative to the ISO Subcommittee on coded character sets. Until 2024, she led the Script Encoding Initiative project at UC Berkeley, a project that works with communities to get characters and scripts into the Unicode Standard. She holds a Ph.D. in Indo-European Studies from UCLA.
better known as Ita, is a staff member at the Center for Language Development and Cultivation, a part of the Agency for Language Development and Cultivation. Currently, she works at the Language and Literature Protection and Modernisation Department. She is experienced in teaching Indonesian for foreign speakers (BIPA) in Japan, Thailand, and the Embassy of Russia. She has also worked as part of the Indonesian Language Proficiency Test (UKBI) team.
is the Managing Director and Rising Voices (RV) Director at Global Voices. RV has worked with more than 240 digital language activists from over 50 countries, representing 127 unique languages. He also led the project Indigenous Language Digital Initiatives in collaboration with UNESCO as part of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
currently works as a Community Coordinator at Wikimedia Indonesia. She is passionate about language, culture, and community management. Her duties include coordinating 18 communities across Indonesia, from Manokwari to Medan. She also conducts research on Indigenous languages, such as Javanese and Madurese.
is one of the founders of the Kaganga Pusaka Kita community, which researches and conserves the history and culture of Bengkulu, and promotes awareness of them. She also teaches at UIN Fatmawati Sukarno in Bengkulu. She is also a member of the Heritage Expert Boards in various regencies across Bengkulu Province. She is an active writer of publications related to archaeology, history and culture.
is a researcher specializing in Old Sundanese language and manuscripts. He received his bachelor’s degree in the Sundanese Language Education Programme at the Indonesia University of Education in 2012 and his master’s degree in the Sundanese Language and Culture Education Programme at the same university in 2015. Nowadays, Ilham is working as a researcher in the Digital Repository of Endangered and Affected Manuscripts in Southeast Asia (DREAMSEA) programme. Ilham has actively contributed to the Sundanese Wikipedia since 2010.
is a lecturer of linguistics at the Indonesian Studies Programme, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia. He is actively involved in research that documents and revitalises endangered languages in East Indonesia, particularly Papuan and Austronesian languages. He also researches the typology of language, corpus linguistics and the use of language in social media.
is the Nusantara language and script activist behind the Writing Tradition Project. He is also a creator of traditional script fonts and an author of books about traditional scripts, including Aksara-Aksara di Nusantara Seri Ensiklopedia. He often runs script-writing workshops alongside the Writing Tradition project and Galaksi. He also participates in the Global Script Keeper Network and an indigenous language conservation project with the Language Office of the Banten Province.
is a Nusantara script enthusiast and a member of the Galaksi community. He is currently studying scripts used in Sumatera, from Pallawa to Lampung and Jawi. He also contributes actively to the Batak Toba Wikipedia and has published a book in multiple scripts titled Dalam Persimpangan Jalan: Pada Mata Gawaiku.
has been an advocate and activist for the Sundanese script since 2016. She has since become head of several Sundanese script communities, including KUAS BOGOR and Komunitas Aksara Sunda Sukabumi. Since 2019, she has given Sundanese script workshops for students and the public. In 2020, she was appointed chief of the Riksa Aksara Sunda Foundation.
is a strategic public relations professional who also works as a freelance journalist. She has been involved with the Wikimedia Bandung Community since 2019, focusing on the conservation of the Sundanese language and the Cacarakan Sundanese script. She also contributes to the development of Betawi culture and language within the Wikimedia Jakarta community, resulting in the creation of Wikipedia Betawi.
is a freelance researcher and historian who works as a registration officer of cultural heritages at Tuban Regency. He is a member of the Indonesian Epigrapher Association (PAEI), a professional organisation focusing on stele studies. He also manages the Instagram account of Tuban Bercerita, which focuses on history and culture education in the Tuban Regency.
is an Associate Project Officer of the Communication and Information Unit at the UNESCO office in Jakarta. She is currently responsible for the Social Media 4 Peace, Media and Information Literacy, Freedom of Expression, and journalist safety programmes. Previously, she worked as a journalist in East Java and Jakarta and was also an active coordinator of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), specialising in gender, children, and journalist safety issues.

Digital Discourses 2025
Digital Future of Indigenous Languages

Five Questions about Preserving Regional Languages

With Nazarudin

With Afrida Erna Ngato

With Dwi Agus Erinita

Series of event

Speakers: Digital Discourses 2025

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Digital Discourses 2025 Digital Future of Indigenous Languages

Five Questions about Preserving Regional Languages

With Nazarudin

With Afrida Erna Ngato

Speakers: Digital Discourses 2025

Adi Sushantiyo Komunitas Galeri Aksara Indonesia and Aksara di Taman

Adien Gunarta Wikimedia Indonesia

Aditya Bayu Perdana Independent Researcher and Freelance Typographer

Afrida Erna Ngato Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN)

Areispine Dymussaga Miraviori Independent researcher

Arjuna Fiqrillah Volunteer at Wiktionary Indonesia Community

Deborah Anderson Unicode Script Encoding Working Group

Dwi Agus Erinita Staff at the Center for Language Development and Cultivation

Eddie Ávila Global Voices

Elis Fajariyati Wikimedia Indonesia

Gaya Mentari UIN Fatmawati Sukarno

Ilham Nurwansah Researcher

Nazarudin Lecturer at Universitas Indonesia

Ridwan Maulana Writing Tradition Project

Salomo Christian Hutajulu Komunitas Galaksi

Siti Aisah Riksa Aksara Sunda Foundation

Sofi Solihah Freelance Journalist and Volunteer for the Wikimedia Community

Teguh Fatchur Rozi Indonesian Epigrapher Association

Yekthi Hesthi Murthi UNESCO

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Digital Future of Indigenous Languages