Many people said it would be boom time for batik after it was short-listed for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) list of intangible cultural heritage.
“But in fact what has really been happening is a boom in textiles with batik patterns,” Larasti Suliantoro, a batik activist, who has a mission to educate society about batik, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
“It’s like real roses and plastic ones: the difference between real batik and batik-printed textiles
is vast.”
Batik, cloth painted or printed manually with rich traditional or modern patterns, has received a warm welcome from the public in the past two years, returning from a long period of market abandonment and years of being regarded as just another traditional costume.
In the last two years, batik has rushed back into the shops: sellers, from the sidewalk clothes vendor in the traditional market to the fancy boutiques, are suddenly welcoming it with open arms.
At the same time, batik was being worn on haute couture designers’ catwalks.
However, real batik was, in fact, hit by the huge flood of printed batik onto the market, Larasati said.
“It is our responsibility to encourage a reawakening to real batik,” the 75-year-old lady said
“Therefore we – I and many friends in the batik communities – wholeheartedly welcome the
efforts to request the UNESCO convention’s ratifying states to include batik in the world’s cultural heritage list.”
Indonesia has diligently made all efforts to request that batik be included on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Gaura Mancacaritadipura, a dalang (a shadow puppeteer) who is a consultant for the nomination process, said, “What we have requested to be listed is the negative-printed batik: batik that is painted or printed manually by hand.”
Members of the committee tasked to collect the documentation needed for the batik listing have been interviewing the grass roots and recording batik-related activities in communities since 2007.
“We invited prominent figures in the batik world from many cities: Malang, Tuban, they all came and welcomed the efforts to put batik on the UNESCO list,” Larasati said
“Batik has been part of Indonesian people’s lives for centuries.
“As an example, for hundreds of years batik has been a part of the labuhan ritual, the tradition of throwing one’s troubles into the sea in materials that sail away.”
Gaura said, “UNESCO requires the documentation to not only come from experts, but also, and more importantly, to come from communities.”
“A subsidiary body made a decision in May which has not yet been disclosed,” Gaura said.
Six countries were in the subsidiary body: Kenya, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Mexico and Estonia.
The Intergovernmental Committee – the UNESCO assembly in October consisting of 24 countries – will make the final decision on the list.
Dindin Wahyudin, the country’s deputy ambassador for UNESCO, said the effort to put batik on the list was not about property or copyright.
“This is about safeguarding culture in certain regions. It is about preservation,” he said.
“This also has nothing to do with Malaysia taking out copyrights on batik,” he said, adding that what Malaysia recently claimed as their copyrights were certain batik patterns, not batik as a cultural heritage.
“Although one of the patterns, rereng, is actually ours.”
Dindin said Malaysia had not ratified the convention and so far no other country had requested a similar item to batik to be put on the list.
Both Dindin and Gaura said Indonesia was justifiably optimistic that batik would be included on the list.
Gaura said batik was found in 19 out of the 33 provinces in the country.
“From Aceh to Papua, batik is everywhere, with patterns unique to the region,” he said.
“And we are talking about the real batik, which involves a different process to the mass industrial
printing process.
“If batik succeeds in making it onto the list, UNESCO’s support will go directly to the people and not through any government agency as we received as a result of the inclusion of wayang and keris on the list.”
Keris, the Javanese traditional dagger, made it onto the list in 2003, while wayang, the Javanese leather puppet, in 2005. (iwp)
