Revitalizing the Akhoykoy Folklore to Solve Ecological Conflicts of Indigenous Papuans

Akhoykoy is an oral tradition of the Sentani Indigenous community in Yokiwa Village, Papua, that functions as a medium of musical communication, a repository of collective memory, and a local knowledge system representing the community's social, ecological, and spiritual relationships. However, previous studies have primarily examined Akhoykoy as an object of folklore, performativity, or social function, leaving its ecological and communicative dimensions largely underexplored. This study aims to analyze Akhoykoy as a form of musical communication that shapes cultural identity, reproduces ecological memory, strengthens social cohesion, and sustains the customary governance system of the Sentani people amid ongoing social and ecological transformations driven by customary forest degradation, the expansion of extractive industries, and the loss of sacred cultural landscapes. Employing an ethnographic approach, the research adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that integrates anthropology, ethnomusicology, and cultural ecology through participant observation, in-depth interviews, audio documentation, and narrative analysis of Akhoykoy performances and vocal expressions. The study further investigates the revitalization of Akhoykoy through digital archiving based on audio documentation, community-based artist residencies, and art festivals as strategies for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage while reactivating the ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities. The findings are expected to show that Revitalizing Akhoykoy not only strengthens intergenerational knowledge transmission and preserves cultural identity, but also serves as a cultural mechanism for fostering ecological awareness, mediating environmental conflicts, and enhancing the socio-ecological resilience of Indigenous communities in Papua. Consequently, this study offers a conceptual contribution to the fields of folklore, oral anthropology, ethnomusicology, and cultural ecology by positioning Akhoykoy as a dynamic, adaptive, and contextually relevant system of symbolic musical communication that informs the development of community-based cultural preservation models in support of long-term social and ecological sustainability.