Page 359 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

eastern part of Indonesian Islands, but later on, they continued the journey to the islands
of Pacific Ocean, and the continent of Australia. And then, the Melanesians inhabited the
islands of the East Nusa Tenggara, North and South Maluku, Papua and the islands of
the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, the islands in the western part of Indonesia were
inhabited and occupied by the Austronesians, the new settlers from Taiwan. Nevertheless,
at the beginning, the process of assimilation among the new settlers of Austronesians also
involved the Melanesian culture, although they had tried hard to keep their own language
and culture respectively.
The changing system of power and spreading maritime area, and also trading in the
West could even strengthen the relationships among the early settlers of Indonesian
Islands. When the author of “Negarakertagama” declared that the occupied region of
Majapahit went as far as Maluku, it was proven that the good relationships between these
two races had long existed. Although these two races had gone through different historical
experiences and had different languages, they had intense interactions in trading activities
so that they influenced one another culturally.
The arrival of western traders that later became the conqueror and colonist did not stop
the relationships that had been established before. During the battle for independence,
all of the Indonesians who came from different backgrounds and races, had similar faiths
and became united. The development of Bahasa Indonesia from Bahasa Melayu that could
even be used to spread the main religions, Islam and Christianity, was able to strengthen
good relationships among the Indonesian people at that time. In modern times, people
started to live in the cities and had their own lifestyles; many aspects of modern life started
to become part of their reality. Although modern education had not been developed well,
many government employees were still discriminative; the ruling power was still secretive;
and the aspects of colonialism had given their way to understand more about the existence
of imbalanced social condition. When the newspaper came into being, nationalism became
stronger than the regional spirits.
In a journey of history, having similar experiences and historical backgrounds, and also
sharing the same ideal national sentiments could bridge differences in various kinds of ways.
Nevertheless, aside from the dynamics of history which have been experienced by the
nation, knowing the origin of genealogy, language and also the spreading of Melanesia
could make us more knowledgeable and thoughtful about the nation and the country, the
Indonesian islands as a whole.

Epilogue 359

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