Giat: A community-based periodical for Koto Gadang society

This paper discusses the contents and roles of the bulletin Giat (June 1953 to December 1957), a community-based periodical published in Jakarta by a Koto Gadang foundation to support development in Koto Gadang, West Sumatra. Giat played a role as a communication medium linking people from Koto Gadang who lived outside their home area (rantau) to their original villages. In describing and analysing the bulletin, I explore its content and focus on its collecting of funds for the clean water pipeline project in Koto Gadang and on its distribution of information, especially information about Minangkabau customary law, culture, literature, and the women’s movement. The bulletin also facilitated the sharing of family news among people from Koto Gadang in the village and the rantau. Giat became a medium for maintaining interpersonal connections and accommodated initiatives to develop the village. It is shown that, as a community-based publication, Giat played a role in developing village infrastructure as well as its social and cultural fields.