This chairmanship of Indonesia has been
decided in The Symposium on Cultural Identity in the ASEAN Handicraft
Products and Workshop on Arts and Crafts: The Heritage of ASEAN, in
SACICT - The Support Arts and Crafts International Centre of Thailand,
Bang Sai Ayutthaya, on 23-28 June 2015. Indonesia took the chairmanship
during the years 2015-2017, replacing Thailand who previously had led
for five years.
The event was officially opened by Mrs.
Apiradee Tantraporn, Deputy Commerce Minister and is followed by a
keynote speech by Dr. Savitri Suwansathit, the expert staff of the
Ministry of Culture of Thailand. The purpose of this cultural event is
to preserve the existence of traditional textiles from all ASEAN
countries, providing a forum to strengthen networks among ASEAN
countries, increase capacity and as a venue for exchanging information
about their own countries. To make use of this opportunity, Indonesia
sent representatives consisting of experts and development actors of
batik, songket and other traditional crafts.
Two experts from Indonesia honored to be
given the opportunity to convey two scientific presentations, they are
Dr. Ahadiat Joedawinata from Bandung Institute of Technology who
presented a paper titled-Plenary Lecture: Evolution of Basketries in
Rice Culture and Dr. Mariah Waworuntu who presented a paper titled
Indonesian Batik Textiles: Identitty, Symbolism and Textile
Communication (Batik). Indonesia is the only country who got two
presentation opportunities, while the other ASEAN countries only get one
time.
At the workshop session on Arts and
Crafts, Indonesia had the honor to introduce the techniques of
Indonesian’s woven (Indonesian basketries) by artist Juliana Yunita
Kancak, and a workshop about Identity and Development of Indonesian
Textiles: Batik and Songket by Zahir Widadi (batik) and Zainal Arifin
Husin (songket). This symposium and workshop event primarily embraced
the academic activities, discussions, workshops, exhibitions and
bazaars. The overall number of visitors was estimated 1,000 people, who
came from all ASEAN countries and ASEAN countries-partners.