Exploration of Narrative Ethnic/racial Identity among Yogyakarta-Javanese youth

Indonesia consists of more than 700 ethnic groups, making it one of the largest ethnic diversity pools in the world within a nation-state. One of the most multicultural areas in Indonesia is Yogyakarta. The indigenous ethnic group of Yogyakarta is Javanese. This research is aimed to explore the narratives of ethnic/racial identity (ERI) among Yogyakarta-Javanese youth. Qualitative narrative research design was employed. Participants were four undergraduate psychology students, two male and two female. Data were collected using semi-structured interview protocol, with Life Story Interview (LSI; McAdams, 2008) as initial guideline. Data were analyzed using critical narrative analysis procedure. Results showed that narratives of participants’ ERI tend to fuse ethnic identity with religious identity, embrace the supernaturals, and imply transcendence sequences. Future research need to employ quantitative method and explore the narrative identity of hundreds of other ethnic groups in Indonesia.