Folklore is a culture that usually consists of folk tales or regional stories that have a moral message to be used as a life lesson for the community. The role of folklore is also quite important to remind the community not to violate applicable customs. Folklore is listed in Government Regulation No. 57 of 2014 Chapter VI as stated in the second part concerning the Protection of Regional Literature, Article 30 points one and two about Protection of regional literature by the government in order to maintain its function as stated in point one, namely as (1) introduction, development, appreciation, and introduction of regional values, (2) awareness and development of attitudes and refinement of feelings and morals, (3) expression of local culture and local wisdom, (4) strengthening regional identity and developing human solidarity, and (5) expression of regional insight. The second point, that the form of protection of regional literature can be done through education, research, data collection, registration, transcription, transliteration, translation, adaptation, dissemination, actualization, and publication. Papua has several famous folklores that are passed down from one generation to another so that they do not become extinct. The existing folklore also aims to remind the community, especially the Papuan Indigenous People with their various tribes and customs, not to do deviant actions because it will actually harm themselves. One of the folklores in Papua comes from the Biak Tribe, namely a folktale entitled Insos.
It is said that the tradition in the Biak Tribe is that when the engagement ceremony between the prospective couple who are going to get married is finished, the bride will be locked in a room. Insos is one of the women from the Biak Tribe who is going to marry her lover named Kabor. After they got engaged, Insos was locked up by her parents and was not allowed to meet anyone until the wedding day arrived. However, being locked up in this story is not in a bad context because even though Insos was locked up, all her needs were met, especially regarding food and drink which were always sufficient.
After some time, Insos felt like meeting Kabor. Finally, Insos left a message to his brother to tell Kabor to come secretly when Insos’s parents were not at home. Kabor came and entered Insos’s room through the roof of the house carrying a dagger to tear the roof. Then, Insos and Kabor met and released their longing. Not long after, Insos’s parents returned home and Kabor panicked and immediately tried to escape. However, it turned out that when Kabor was climbing the roof of the house, the dagger he was carrying fell and stabbed Insos’s chest, causing her to die. The moral message in this folktale entitled Insos is for children to obey their parents words and obey customary law to avoid danger.
Folklore or folktales as reading material have various functions, namely the first is an educational function, namely folklore generally contains values that can be applied in everyday life. Second, an informative function, namely folklore provides information and knowledge that can be needed by readers, especially related to history, moral messages, and so on. Third, the cultural function is related to the function of folklore as a repository of various collections of human cultural works in the past that are of high value. Fourth, the recreational function, related to the entertainment function.