Bali, Papua, Taman Mini lead RI’s petition to Unesco

Indonesia says it will ask Unesco to acknowledge the contributions of Balinese dance, Papua’s noken bags and the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) park to the world.

“We propose official recognition from Unesco for two items from our cultural heritage, Balinese traditional dances and noken from Papua”, Culture and Tourism Ministry resource development director I Gde Pitana said on Monday.

The government also wanted Unesco “to acknowledge the best practices of Indonesia Miniature Park, or TMII, in preserving our cultural heritage,” Pitana told reporters at the Coordinating Public Welfare Minister’s Office.

Pitana said only a few Papuans still made and used noken, which was why the government proposed its listing with Unesco.

Nine different Balinese dances would be submitted to Unesco under the single rubric of “Balinese traditional dance”, he added.

The TMII theme park deserved recognition, according to Pitana, for keeping 33 pavilions representing the nation’s provinces alive with activities.

Citing a Unesco statement, Pitana said many forms of intangible cultural heritage in Indonesia were going extinct, thus, more needed to be done to protect them.

The government’s proposal was aimed at garnering Unesco recognition to protect, promote and conserve Indonesia’s intangible heritage, in the hopes that the agency would provide needed technical assistance.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry recently published a book listing aspects of the nation’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage that needed protection.

According to Unesco, intangible cultural heritage includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.”

Indonesia proposed the inclusion of Balinese traditional dance on Unesco’s Representative List category, the inclusion of noken on its Urgent Safeguarding List and TMII as representative of Unesco’s best practicesy.

At present, Indonesia has obtained Unesco recognition for five items reflecting the nation’s intangible cultural heritage: wayang theater, keris traditional daggers, batik cloth and the best practices of batik making and the Sundanese angklung musical instrument.

Indonesia will host the sixth Unesco Committee Meeting for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage from Nov. 20-28 in Bali.

During the meeting, Unesco will decide whether saman, a traditional dance from Aceh, can be recognized as part of the nation’s intangible cultural heritage.