RISE AND FALL OF SUGAR INDUSTRY IN INDONESIA
Sugar Factory Olean, Situbondo, East Java, Indonesia (Source: Het Rozenhuis)
The Sugar Industry in Java as shown during the International World Exhibition in 1910 in Brussels, Belgium (Source: J.W. Ramaer) |
Heritage
hands-on is selected as one of the participants “Sharing and Collaborative: The
Footprints of Asian Sugar Industrial Heritage” is a part of the international
symposium on “Multilateral, Sharing and Collaborative: Developing a Common
Vision of Asian Industrial Heritage.”
This event will take place in the Cultural & Creative Industries
Park, Taiwan, 30th May – 31st August. The organizer is the Bureau of Cultural Heritage Ministry of
Culture, Taiwan and it is implemented by National Yunlin University of Science
& Technology Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation.
Heritage hands-on will present the exhibition about "Rise and Fall of Sugar Industry in Indonesia".
In the
1930’s Indonesia was the world second largest sugar exporter in the world after
Cuba. In 2016
Indonesia was and is the world second largest sugar importer in the world after
the USA. How this
could happens?
Many
analysis tried to provide answers to the above question. This exhibition will
show facts and figures as an objective answer to understand ups and downs of
sugar industry in Indonesia. Those facts and figures help viewers as well to
predict potential former sugar factories as part of industrial heritage in the
country. It is huge and in abundance, tangible and intangible elements of sugar
production world, entangled with economic, social, cultural and politics of
Indonesia.
Currently,
there are about 33 sugar factories older than 100 years and this fact assures
that the industry can play an important role in raising awareness about industrial
heritage in Indonesia. There is no doubt about what the sugar industrial
heritage can contribute to the current education and economic development.
The
exhibition consists of chronology of sugar industry emporium during the era of
the Dutch East Indies and after Independence, supported by milestones in the
sugar history as follow:
1.
Application
of the Cultivation System
2.
Building
of the Headquarter of Sugar State-Owned Enterprise (HvA)
3.
Publication
of a book about anti-forced labor titled Max Havelaar
4.
Profile
of Probolinggo, one of the former Sugar Towns in East Java
5.
The
First Adaptive Reused of Former Sugar Factory Colomadu
6. Sugar Industry in Java (as shown in
the International World Exhibition 1910 in Brussels)
7. Film about the Sugar Factory Olean
(the only factory that still run steam engines)
This is a continuation of awareness efforts that Heritage hands-on has been doing since 2013 about industrial heritage in Indonesia. There are presentations and paperworks have been delivered in Europe and Asia including in Indonesia about assets and potentials industrial heritage that needs attentions before they fall aparts and disappears.
Sumatra Heritage Trust (BWS) from Medan is also selected as participant of the exhibition in Taiwan 2018 showing theme of Sugar Industry Development Project outside Java with a case study of history and details of daily life of Sei Semayang sugar cane plantations and sugar mills in Sumatra.
Sumatra Heritage Trust (BWS) from Medan is also selected as participant of the exhibition in Taiwan 2018 showing theme of Sugar Industry Development Project outside Java with a case study of history and details of daily life of Sei Semayang sugar cane plantations and sugar mills in Sumatra.