download - OATG. Oxford Asian Textile Group

7 NEWSBatik Day 2 October 2009, School children in Pekalongan City – Known as ‘Batik City’the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in September last year.A brief textual description of the nominated element was: ―Traditional handcrafted textile rich inintangible cultural values, passed down for generations in Java and elsewhere since early 19thCentury (Ref. Siksakanda, 1517AD) more widely since mid-1980s made by applying dots andlines of hot wax to cloth using a copper pen-like instrument (canting tulis), or copper stamps(canting cap), as a resist to hand-dyeing, later removed by boiling and/or scraping, repeating theprocess for each colour‖.Batik patterns and motifs possess deep symbolism related to social status, local community,nature, history and cultural heritage. Expectant mothers wear batik; babies are carried in batikslings and touch batik with their feet when they first touch the ground; brides, marriage couplesand family members wear batik ; even corpses are covered with batik: all with appropriate patternsand motifs. Traditional dress includes batik. Batiks are collected and passed down as family heirlooms,each being a work of art with its own story. Batik makers would fast and pray before makingbatik while meditating accompanied by traditional songs. It takes several days to make a handstampedbatik, and at between one month and a year to complete a hand-drawn batik.The committee selected three programmers, projects and activities that it considered reflectedthe principles and objectives of the Convention particularly well: ―an education and trainingproject in Indonesian Batik cultural heritage, developed in co-operation with the PekalonganBatik Museum‖.Pak Zahir Widadi is the Director of the Batik Museum in Pekalongan, (known as ‗BatikCity‘ since the 1950s.)The museum was the centre of celebrations on 2 October 2009 when Indonesiacelebrated this historic event. Pak Widadi, whom I visited in August last year, told me that‗the effort to put batik on the ICH list was not about property or copyright, but about safeguardingculture in certain regions – it is about preservation.‖ He noted that the citation is for IndonesianBatik not just Batik – Malaysia can make their own batik – they recently claimed copyrights ofcertain batik patterns, not batik as a cultural heritage‘.Pak Widadi also talked about the Museum‘s role in the ICH, ―Education and training in IndonesianBatik for all levels of students from elementary to polytechnic in collaboration with theBatik Museum in Pekalongan is vital‖, he said. From January 2007 the batik workshop in the museumwas able to support the schools batik practice and to offer an experience to visitors.Lesley Pullen