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I went to Jakarta last month primarily to attend the Adi Wastra
Nusantara, (Masterpieces of the Archipelago), a stunning Indonesian
textile exhibit at the Jakarta Convention Center.
Indonesia is celebrating National Re-Awakening
Year and Visit Indonesia Year. The exhibit was one of the events
that these milestones brought about. The Jakarta Convention Center
is a huge covered area befitting the 225 million population that
Indonesia has.
With the theme, “Tracing Traditions, Knitting
Ties and Building Creative Economic Power through Cultural-Based
Production,” a mouthful indeed, but duly translated into a special
exhibit of heritage fabrics that were traditional batik pieces, or
woven and embroidered textiles of outstanding artistic merit
followed by designer pieces by well-known batik artists and couture
houses for contemporary fashion, and complimented with a 200-stall
bazaar that had everything in quality and quantity regarding
traditional Indonesian and Asian textiles, it was literally that.
The opening ceremonies saw the humongous
convention hall packed to the rafters with every seat taken and
everyone dressed in traditional fabrics. The invitation specified
“Batik Long Sleeves” which is the equivalent of our Barong
Tagalog. For Indonesian women it meant all styles of elegant batik.
The Indonesian Textile Society that organized
the show, Himpunan Wastreprema, is an association of collectors,
researchers and aficionados of batik, woven and other traditional
Indonesian textiles, of which there are many. It dates from 1976 and
has 300 members in various parts of the Indonesian archipelago as
well as foreign countries. Its mission is to work towards
appreciation and knowledge regarding cultural heritage and to gain a
greater sense of nationhood. So, they initiate and promote research,
studies, exhibitions, any way to convey knowledge of traditional
Indonesian textiles so as to ensure that they survive and sustain
future generations aside from today’s.
From cursory street observation in Jakarta, I
saw that batik is both everyday and gala event wear. It is a daily
piece of clothing, very much a livelihood in villages scattered in
the large archipelago, and a tradition renewed everyday that it is
part and parcel of the landscape. What this means is that it offers
a way of living in the social and economic sense, which is very much
a part of national identity.
Taxi drivers, government officials, market
vendors as well as anyone who wants to comply with the dress code of
an event, wears batik. Himpunan (association) Wastreprema (derived
from the Sanskrit words wastra, meaning cloth; and prema, love)
promotes the understanding and appreciation of keeping batik and the
other Indonesian textiles for today and tomorrow’s generations,
just as in the past.
Indonesia also promotes batik in a big way
internationally. In 2005 there was a Batik Exhibit in Spain with an
accompanying publication, El Alma de Indonesia (The Soul of
Indonesia). Batik is well known and regarded internationally thanks
to efforts like these as well as numerous publications on the
subject. It may be pertinent to mention here that at the Adi Wastra
Nusantara Show there was a Philippine booth (put up by Silahis Art
and Artifacts of Intramuros) which sold every Barong Tagalog it had
for sale, piña pieces as well as yakan, tinalak cloth. We should
note that with promotions of our own we can preserve our traditional
textiles and give economic wellbeing to those who produce them.
In 2005, Himpunan Wastreprema hosted the First
Asean Textile Symposium which as the name implies included textiles
from Asean nations, i.e., Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Singapore, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia. Textile scholars
read papers, delegates exchanged notes, there was a fashion show of
indigenous textiles from the region, field trips to various weaving
and manufacturing textile centers, and in general the beginning of
an organized impetus in the Asean region for everyone to value,
preserve, conserve and promote their indigenous textile industries.
Next year the Asean Textile Symposium will be
held in Manila at the National Museum.
miongpin@yahoo.com
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