EMPOWERMENT OF HERITAGE MOVEMENT IN SUMATRA & INDONESIA

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Pan-Sumatra Network for Heritage Conservation (Pansumnet) is an informal network that existed since 1998. The members are more or less 14 heritage societies from all over Sumatra. There is no legal and formal  commitment, it is based on trust, friendship, volunterism and spirit of cooperation.  We had gatherings and trainings once a while, sometimes each year and there was a long gap, and we met again quite regularly. Nevertheless, many members play important role in their own areas to keep heritage movement alive and develop.

The Pansumnet spirit that encouraged me to keep the network alive this year by organizing a workshop for students and a training for professionals themed Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), in Muntok, West Bangka, South of Sumatra. HUL is an approach that has been introduced by UNESCO since 2011 to shift paradgm from a single building conservation into a conservation of buildings with its surroundings. Take a look at landscape, nature, people and many more than merely only a single building. Other  element why it is in Muntok is because Muntok used to be the largest tin producer in the world together with other tin mining towns in Perak State, Malaysia. I think this is an important industrial heritage of Sumatra, of Indonesia, of the world. 

We were lucky that PT. Timah Persero as the state owned company of tin production supported the programs which was coincidence with the 5th Anniversary of Indonesian Tin Mining Museum in Muntok. There were many more important stakeholders that supported the programs both from Indonesia and abroad including WHITRAP (the World Heritage Institute for Training and Research for the Asia Pacific Region) based in Shanghai under the auspices of UNESCO. 

It was so joyful to meet Hongky Listiadi in Pangkal Pinang again after a gap of almost 20 years. Hongky is one of the motors of heritage movement in Bangka Belitung Island. Now he has renovated his family's Chinese Mansion in Pangkal Pinang, brought it back to its grandeur as a clan pride and opened it up for public as a cafe with its famous Bangka coffee and the Peranakan toasts. Hongky was one of the speakers during the HUL Training sharing his stories as an investor. 

We met Fofo as well in Pangkal Pinang who turned a former office of PT Timah Persero to become a supermarkt and a cafe with original and traditional culinaire richness of Bangka Belitung. We promised to assist Fofo for developing a heritage trail for Pangkal Pinang and its rich history. 

In Muntok, we were charmed by footprints of tin industrial heritage and its potentials. So many things can be developed in this town for economic, social and cultural development. Most participants, who were not only from Sumatra but also from other parts of Indonesia,  had fun to explore Muntok and brainstormed about many aspects in the frame of HUL Approach. At the end of the training, we produced suggestions based on various angles for Muntok such as its water potentials (river, port), green lung (parks, natural resources), economic potentials (tourism),  infrastructure and governance. 

What we have done was a tiny dot but hopefully it will be followed by more tiny dots in Muntok and elsewhere in Indonesia. At the end, all tiny dots will be significant mass that will color heritage movement in the island, in the country. This tiny dot we needed to keep the pulse of heritage movement in Sumatra and in Indonesia alive. 


Workshop HUL for students, 4-6 November 2018


Hongki Listiady in front of his Chinese Mansion

Fofo was explaning about the food and his vision 

HUL Training 7-9 November 2018



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