Heritage Corner

Shared heritage, common heritage or cross border heritage? Those are terms that mentioned a lot in a symposium on Sunday, 27 January 2019 organized by Kanazawa University, Japan. The symposium topic was " Cross-border Cultural Heritage:  Transcending Differences in Interpretation and Building a Common Future." I was one of the four speakers and my paper titled "Heritage Conservation in Indonesia: Shared Heritage from the Colonial Past?" Basically I talked about paradigm shifts of heritage development of Indonesia from colonial period until now by providing facts and figures. The audience could draw their own conslusion whether or not the colonial past influence it.  I think bilateral cooperation of Indonesia and the Netherlands in cultural heritage is relatively  constructive compared to other case studies in the symposium: Israel-Palestine, Turkey-Anatolians (Greece, Armenia) and Japan-Korea. First of all because there is no political conflict anymore. Se...

Spedagi Movement in Temanggung, Central Java, stole my heart. They organized a three days conference on Village Revitalization without a single plastic waste and all were based on local resources. What an amazing approach in the middle of news streams that Indonesia as the second largest waste producers in the world after China. A religious society as Indonesia? Aren't hygiëne and being clean  encouraged by all religions? Why? How? These are what Spedagi has done to avoid waste, especially plastics: Encouraged all participants to bring their own bidons; Provided drinking water in clay jars; Use various leaves and natural materials like bamboo as packaging, plates, cups and utensils.  Extra touches were quality of food and drinks that all produced by the locals with local ingredients. It comprised all elements that hips in the Western world: organic, healthy, sustainable and affordable.   Plus designs of all packaging and utensils, so unique! ...

I visited the social housing in Ipoh called Waller Court. This is a huge complex consists of 17 block apartements including a 15 storey tower consisting of 288 units. This complex was built in 1962 by the  Ipoh Municipal Council to house low income families. Until 2017 it is occupied by about 350 families.  The condition of Waller Court is quite deplorable. The local newspaper (Star, 9 October 2017) even called it as a haunt for drug addicts and thieves. There was a plan from the local government to demolish this huge complex and use the ground for new development of other purposes such as new flats and commercial blocks. Nevertheless, the plan is not implemented yet until end of 2018.   Waller Court is in a very strategic location and green parts of Ipoh. Despite the horror looks of the buildings, the surrounding area is very pleasant and inviting. Huge and tall trees are elegant and comforting in tropical humid climate. 

It might be good to look back what I, on behalf of Heritage Hands On, have done in 2018. MUSEUM DEVELOPMENT IN INDONESIA https://dutchculture.nl/nl/news/indonesia-museum-management-training In January went to Indonesia for an interception mission to prepare training programs in the period 2018-2020 in cooperation of Indonesia and the Netherlands. The first training was held 16-20 July in Yogyakarta and the second training 4-7 December in Jakarta. I am happy to get involved in this initiative. I always think that museum's collections in Indonesia are amazing with high values in many ways. Nevertheless, in many cities museums still need a make over to be attractive places to learn and to enjoy. Six trainings in three years period can not guarantee successful make overs but at least we start somewhere to begin.  Private museums in Indonesia are generally okay of presenting themselves to public. Some of them are even managed to be international class museums.  Pu...

I visited Banjarmasin, South of Kalimantan, 10-12 November 2018 to meet the Head of Tourism Development Unit of the Municipality, Mokhamad Khuzaimi or called Pak Jimmy. He is am enthusiast government officer who has a vision to develop Banjarmasin as a popular destination by developing its cultural and natural resources. I was be able to do this thank to invitation from my dear friend, Vera, a PhD candidate with research about landscape history of Banjarmasin.  Rivers are obvious natural resources of Banjarmasin with ladies on boats selling local fruits and traditional delicacies. At the city center, tourists can enjoy meals and snacks all day long at weekends. Pak Jimmy has only one headache, how to raise awareness of the locals to throw waste into bins. What a pity. The beautiful and wide river with pedestrian area were polluted by rubbish everywhere. Sometimes I don't understand why the locals (and in many other cities, too) think so difficult to throw their rubbish into a...

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 m...

I revisited Penang 16-20 October 2018. The last time I was there about 18 years ago. Meanwhile Penang (and Melacca) have gained a status as World Heritage City. I had a privilege to stay in Sun Yat Sen Museum, 120 Lebuh Armenian, belong to Khoo Salma Nasution. She and her husband, Abdurrazaq Lubis, are old good friends of mine. The building used to be the Penang Branch of political party of Sun Yat Sen, the Father of Chinese Revolution in 1911 and later became the President of the country. It is a beautiful Chinese mansion with openings in the middle of the house, elaborated carvings and original indigo blue painting. I slept in one of the bedrooms at the second floor. In about four days I explored mostly the core zone of George Town. It looks almost completely new to me, more small private museums, more cute cafes and bistros and surely more tourist attractions like souvenir shops and boutiques. On the other hand, it has also plenty of local small businesses. They are...

Taiping is one of the greenest city I saw in Southeast Asia. Large parts of the city are gardens with old trees. It was so comforting to walk along these gardens. I was here on Sunday, 20 October 2018, with Taufik, a local guide, and Law Siak Hong, former President of Perak Heritage Society. I wanted to observe Taiping as one of the former tin mining capitals in Malaysia. I was organizing workshop and training in Muntok, West Bangka, Indonesia, about how to develop Muntok as the former tin mining town. Observation of Taiping (and other former tin mining towns) will be useful and informative, not to compare each other but to get insights and various angles. In Taiping area, we visited the Perak Muzeum that showed nothing at all about tin mining history of the region, Kerian and Larut Dan Matang, a cute small town, and Kamunting areas.  Layers of history are relatively obvious in these places although new development such as houses and shopping malls press history deepe...