Communities can conserve and promote their local cultures by making it popular using various mediums, said Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim.
According to the Antara news agency, Nadiem said this at the Lake Toba Indonesian Traditional Music Festival (FMTI), held in Samosir, North Sumatra on Tuesday.
"Advancing a culture also means mainstreaming it as an important element in the development of the country," he said.
Nadiem said traditional music has accompanied the development of Indonesia as a nation with its culture passed down from generation to generation.
"Continuing to sing traditional music means keeping our solemn and sacred local wisdom alive," he said.
Nadiem was confident through the implementation of the festival, traditional music from the Lake Toba region can become known nationally as well as internationally.
"In 2018, at the Indonesian Cultural Congress, we had established a strategy for the Advancement of Culture as a new directive for maintaining our traditional heritage," he added.
For this, the ministry is striving to provide various initiatives of cultural promotion, comprising the Indonesian Traditional Music Congress, which has led to the establishment of the Music of Archipelago Collective Management Agency (LMK MN).
"The agency plays a very important role in advancing culture, especially in helping musicians to get their rights as artists."
In addition, the ministry is trying to provide and include lessons on traditional music in formal and informal education so that students can be culture conservation agents, he said.