This paper is dedicated to explore the potential of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in improving the
socio-economic prospects of cultural practitioners and addressing SDGs if ICH - based practices are
transformed from ‘fringe’ to ‘core’ economic activities. Intangible Cultural Heritage refers to ‘the practices,
representations, expressions, knowledge, skills, as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural
spaces associated therewith, that communities, groups and in some cases, individuals recognize as
part of their Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, 2003). Examples of intangible heritage are oral traditions,
performing arts, local knowledge and traditional skills. The paper highlights three case studies from
rural West Bengal, India; Pingla village of West Medinipur district, Charida village of Purulia district and
Gorbhanga village of Nadia district. Patachitra or scroll painting using natural colours accounts to be the
ICH of Pingla, the Chau mask making, depicting mythological and other animal characters comprise the
living heritage of Charida and Gorbhanga soulful seat of Baul music of West Bengal. The case studies
highlight how the objectives of rural development and prosper of cultural tourism has been achieved
premised on the ICH - based offerings of the identified villages.
Rural India still faces poverty in many places, especially skills agriculture or industry didn’t flourish. To
find a sustainable solution to rural poverty alleviation, we started exploring ‘skills’ which can generate
resources and contribute to village and neighborhood development. We discovered that traditional art
and culture is an untapped but powerful community skills. Thus, our intervention focused on nurturing
conventional cultural practices and accrediting identity, pride, recognition and economic benefits to
communities of cultural practitioners premised on their cultural pursuits. In the Indian state of West
Bengal, we identified villagers with low socio-economic parameters but engaged with traditional art and
culture, which in our thoughts, is an untapped goldmine of skilling and grass root entrepreneurship
building. As part of our endeavor, we firstly mapped artists, villages, and the traditional masters (guru)
and then created a framework of contextual intervention. In this regard, we have built capacity, linked
artists directly to the market, facilitated exchange and collaboration with National and International artists,
and created village festivals to accredit local, national, and global visibility to the identified ICH villages
and the cultural practitioners. Impact analysis highlights the efficacy of our intervention in enhancing
women’s participation, transmission, and safeguarding of traditional art, culture and knowledge to
the next generation, bringing pride to the villages and developing prospects of cultural tourism in the
identified rural locales. The paper is dedicated to discussing our intervention framework’s effectiveness
in achieving holistic rural development and addressing SDGs by making ICH practices the vehicle to
bring effective transformation.
B. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Bourgeoisie notion of aesthetics has successfully identified the idea of culture as a ‘superior reality’
(Prakash, 2019). The accreditation of superiority has inherently separated culture from the acts of labour.
As a result, popular perceptions mainly interpret art, culture, and activities related to leisurely pursuits.
Although incorporating art and culture-related activities within the paradigm and acts of labour is a heavily
unfulfilled mission, the concept of creative labour traces its origin to much earlier times in the writings of
Karl Marx. Marx has identified the centrality of human creativity in labour. He insightfully writes, “In the
labour process, man’s activity with the help of the instruments of labour, effects an alteration, designed
from the commencement, in the material worked upon. Labour has incorporated itself with its subject:
the former is materialized, the latter transformed” (Sayers, 2007). Marx’s conceptualization interprets
the relationship between labour and human subject in cyclical terms. While human subject materializes
labour through new production, labour transforms the human subject into a productive entity, having
relevance in the socio-economic backdrop. According to Marx, the centrality of human creativity accredits
transformatory potential to labour.
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The importance of human creativity is not just implicit in Marx’s conceptualization of labour but becomes
explicit in his ideations on creative labour. Marx’s creative labour includes the amalgamation of aesthetic
pursuits, creativity and labour within its corpus. For Marx, in non-alienated conditions, aesthetic pursuits
and labour will not remain as two separate entities but rather function as co-producers (Prakash, 2019).
Marx’s ideation highlights that since long, cultural and aesthetic acts are in tandem with acts of labour.
However, there has been little presence of this fusion in academic and developmental literature. Because
of the divergence between cultural practices and spaces of labour in conventional bodies of thought, ICH
practitioners have often been regarded as unskilled labour. Thus, their pursuits have been relegated to
the periphery. The lens of cultural labour has made its reinvigorating presence with the simultaneous
boom of concepts like creative industries, where both owe its nascent origin in the past decade. The lens
of cultural labour has been borrowed and further modified by us in our research endeavor dedicated to
exploring the potential of ICH-based offerings in achieving holistic rural development and addressing
SDGs.
Brahma Prakash’s conceptualization of ‘cultural labour’ as “ the sense and enactment of intense,
passionate, ritualized and aestheticized forms of production of values in specific cultural contexts”
(Prakash, 2019) provides an apt theoretical framework to explore the cultural constructions of ICH
practitioners. Brahma Prakash’s cultural labour postulates that aesthetics is fundamentally the question
of labour and production of values. According to Prakash, cultural labour produces aesthetic and cultural
values through modes of cultural expressions. It must be remembered here that the folk-art form (cultural
labour) and its practitioners (cultural labourers) give a cultural identity/value to the practiced locale and
not the other way around, or in other words, strengthening ICH practices and practitioners are vehicles
to attain holistic rural development. In this regard, while we borrow Prakash’s lens of cultural labour to
demystify how the labour of cultural practitioners gives shape to ICH based elements, which in turn accredit
pride, recognition and visibility to both the producers and the inhabiting rural locale, we in our research
go a step beyond to modify the lens of cultural labour into cultural enterprise. It needs to be iterated here
that while analyzing the work of cultural practitioners as cultural labour contributes to categorizing these
tradition bearers as productive entities, their labour is much different and seldom follows standardized
prescriptions and proscriptions prevalent in the case of formalized industrial labour. Thus, the lens of
cultural enterprise provides a better framework, where the development of entrepreneurial abilities of
cultural practitioners premised on their cultural pursuits has the potential to address serious welfare
concerns like rural development and fulfillment of SDGs.
C. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHOD
This research is premised on exploring the potential of ICH in improving the life and livelihood chances
of rural community members of 3 selected villages in West Bengal, namely, Pingla of West Midnapore
(visual art), Charida of Purulia (mask makers’ village) and Gorbhanga of Nadia (Baul Fakir village),
where our social experiment to achieve holistic rural development based on the ICH offerings started in
2005 and got momentum in 2009-2011, due to the support of the European Union. 2013 onwards, our
work has been actively supported by the Department of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises & Textiles
(MSME&T), the Government of West Bengal, and UNESCO as part of the Rural Craft Hubs (RCH)
project, which later got renamed as the Rural Craft and Cultural Hubs (RCCH) project from 2016-2019
and again re-initiated in 2021-2022. Pingla, Charida, and Gorbhanga are three locales out of the total
40+ rural locales incorporated in the project intervention, and it is the case studies of these three locales
which we will further in this paper to prove our advocacy in favour of strengthening ICH-based practices
for rural development and addressing SDGs.
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The objectives of this research can be enlisted as follows: firstly, to explore the potential of culture as
a developmental tool and its impact in achieving the SDGs. Secondly, to investigate ways of building a
conducive ecosystem where cultural pursuits can act as potential vehicles in improving life and livelihood
chances and choices of cultural practitioners.
Our organization, contact base, is an UN-accredited social enterprise, working for the past 22 years to
improve the socio-economic prospects of marginalized cultural practitioners of India using culture as a
tool. Our flagship initiative, Art For Life (AFL) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJfFGZpiEg), is a
culture-based development model focusing on holistic development of marginalized cultural practitioners
by doing their traditional cultural practices the premise for inclusion and poverty alleviation, as well as
strengthening art form and the process of heritage transmission to next generation. AFL promotes village,
artist, and art together, individually and collectively, so that each can work towards accrediting pride,
recognition and visibility to the others when strengthened. Thus, adhering to AFL methodology not only
improves the prospects of cultural practitioners and their aesthetic pursuits by enabling the safeguarding
and transmission of otherwise dying heritage components but also develops village or in situ space as
cultural destinations so that local community members can flourish by attaining the trickle-down benefits
of local tourism development. This tripartite focus makes AFL a catalytic methodology in paving the
path for inclusive tourism, making local communities active stakeholders in tourism development. Our
intervention in the identified ICH villages of West Bengal has adhered to the AFL methodology.
Figure 1. AFL Model: Strengthening Art, Artists and Village
While AFL provides a broad methodological framework, the method adhered to in our research endeavor
is anthropological at heart (mainly qualitative), participative and inclusive, ensuring that most of the key
stakeholder groups and communities are involved and can provide inputs to the researched attributes,
through semi-structured interviews and group discussions. Adhering to anthropological methods
are particularly important for analysis of outcomes, contributions to overall objectives, impact of the
intervention on the ICH and their communities, accountability of intervention activities and actors and
contextually understanding the potential of ICH for improving access to social and economic sustainability.
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D. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Case Studies of Three ICH Villages in West Bengal
Pingla in West Medinipur
Pingla, a village in the district of West Medinipur, is the hub of Patachitra artists. Patachitra refers to scroll
paintings done on cloth, where the artists or patuas unfurl the scrolls by musically narrating the stories
drawn through songs or ‘poter gaan’. The theme of the patachitra can encompass stories of Ramayana,
Mahabharata and several goddess and gods like Manasha, Chandi, Behula and lakhinder, Krishna,
Chaitanya and others. At present, the subject matter of the scroll paintings also reflects significant focus
on more contemporary themes of social concern like climate change, plantation drive etc.
In the contemporary socio-economic setup, the art form of Patachitra, the practicing artists or patuas
and the village of Pingla as the inhabited locale has gained significant local, national and global visibility.
The geographical Indication (GI) tag was accredited to Pingla’s Patachitra in the year 2018. However,
we cannot interpret the socio-economic positioning of the art form, artists and the village based on its
current visibility. The stature of Pingla’s Patachitra and the patuas has not been uniform throughout and
it becomes crucial to trace their evolution into current positioning. The tradition of Patachitra dates back
to the 13’th century. Traditionally, the patuas made their living from alms in return for their door-to-door
performances. However, the traditional practice had declined over the years due to lack of patrons.
Absence of patronage while economically relegated the artists to the periphery, socially they were
inherently identified as ‘beggars or unproductive entities. The resultant disrespect and stigmatization
even compelled Patachitra artists to leave painting and look for other menial jobs. The artists had been
surviving abject poverty through menial labour jobs and only around 10 remained associated with the
tradition in 2004.
When contact base started its safeguarding initiative in 2005 at Pingla, we explored how this oral tradition
can evolve as a sustainable livelihood to the patuas. While skill development and promotional activities
led to creation of market for the paintings and diversified products like painted apparel and home decor,
there were challenges in sustainability of the oral tradition of songs. To create awareness on the unique
habitat of families of storytellers and create opportunities for the community to perform and showcase
their tradition, a three-day Patachitra festival called POT Maya (meaning the charm of the scrolls), was
initiated in 2010 (National Media Times Now did a story on the journey of these Patachitra artists in
2012. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1DUcy4nxJM). This festival created awareness about the
art form in the neighbouring communities and led to regular visit by students at schools and colleges.
Local people also started visiting the village to buy paintings and painted products. The festival emerged
as an annual calenderized weekend festival and was held regularly till 2019. Though the festival was not
held during the pandemic, due to COVID protocols, India Tourism (Govt. of India) promoted the village as
an Incredible India Weekend Getaway and the prosper of cultural tourism in Pingla even got mentioned
and received a token of appreciation in the Mann ki Baat programme, hosted by the Honourable Prime
Minister of India (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAJpjKVUbHA). The village is indeed a case study
on how cultural tourism can be developed based on ICH and how it contributes to safeguarding. It is
documented by UNWTO and showcased at ITB Berlin UNWTO in 2015 and 2017, while ICH-based
Tourism and Community-led Responsible Tourism in 2017 respectively.
To establish the need for a collective ICH space, a folk-art centre was initially developed as part of
the EU supported project in 2010. Then a much bigger centre including a community museum and
space for visitors’ stay, got established in the village, replacing the earlier one in 2014 by the state
government of West Bengal. The folk centre facilitates practice, learning, training, exchange, exhibitions
and demonstration of the ICH freely and has also evolved as a seat of virtual heritage education. The
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patuas of Pingla have immensely used the installed digital infrastructure within the folk art centre to
conduct online heritage education classes and disseminate their cultural practice knowledge to learners
from all across the globe. This virtual heritage education served as a major source of livelihood for the
patuas during the pandemic as physical face-to-face exchange was restricted due to COVID protocols.
The community folk art centre at Pingla has been conceptualized, designed and set up in collaboration
with the actual bearers of that tradition and have turned into shared living heritage spaces. The folk art
centre, freely accessible to all, managed by the Patachitra community cluster ‘Chitrataru’, uphold the
collective identity of the ICH form of Patachitra and the tradition bearers. As the folk art centre displays
textual and visual narratives of community’s own knowledge, interpretations, life stories and collective
understanding of their own ICH, it has helped set a local context to the history, social significance and
cultural evolution of these cultural traditions.
The village of Pingla enjoys different profiles of tourists throughout the year, such as, craft enthusiasts,
painters, photographers and bloggers, writers, art galleries, fair organizers, interior decorators and craft
sellers and general audiences. Through active cultural tourism, this village has been reborn into a vibrant
and resilient hub of Bengal scroll painters. The tag of GI and registration of patuas as authentic GI users
are also now being used to attract socio-economic and ancillary benefits. The market for Patachitra
and the subsequent market performance of the patuas have significantly enhanced over the past
decade. The patuas of Pingla have seasons of sale, which can be divided into three broad categories
Winter which consists of the festival between September/October to February/March. Majority of the
urban festivals/ exhibitions across country happen during this period. This is also the time when Durga
Puja is celebrated, the largest festival of West Bengal and in many parts of India and got inscribed in
UNESCO list of representative list of ICH in Dec 2021. This season is also a major tourist season and
witnesses highest sale by the artists. Monsoon season (June to August - September) is the time to be
at home and increase stock. Summer season (March/April-June) is the local level ritual-based festival
period. Depending upon these seasons and the kind of sales each patuas have, patuas falling under the
category of highest skill base have an average sale of Rs 5-15 lakhs per year. However, other patuas
of medium and lower-level skill set earn maximum during the winter season and 20% during monsoon.
On an average, the patuas of Pingla as a whole at present records an average monthly income of Rs
15,000-20,000, which was Rs 500 in 2005, when our intervention started our entire intervention has
been carried out following AFL methodology and has attempted in creating a conducive ecosystem,
where cultural pursuits can act as potential vehicles in improving life and livelihood chances and choices
of cultural practitioners. Any ecosystem comprises of a set of external factors, which in dialogue with
each other, determine the socio-economic fate of the living components within the ecosystem. External
factors of an ecosystem broadly consist of social, economic, political and psychological dimensions.
Within the social paradigm, our intervention has significantly contributed to awareness building regarding
improved gender participation in cultural pursuits, where contemporary scenario highlights presence of
over 60% women patuas in Pingla. We have also successfully achieved safeguarding and transmission
of heritage components to younger generations through skill transmission workshops, where at present,
out migration from Pingla has significantly reduced and the younger generations show enhanced
enthusiasm in pursuing Patachitra as a profession given the proven socio-economic benefits practicing
of the art form has secured in contemporary times. From an economic angle, there has been significant
market expansion of the patuas, thereby improving the average income level of the entire community
and in neighbourhood areas. Politically, Pingla has recently emerged as a cultural hotspot with improved
avenues for community members in the decision making and local governance forum. The local, national
and global visibility of Pingla’s patuas and their practiced Patachitra has psychologically boosted the
morale of these tradition bearers. The resultant pride and recognition accredited to the ICH practice
has given a cultural identity to the practitioners as ‘artists’. The creation of a conducive ecosystem has
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been the product of identifying the ICH practices of the patuas as cultural enterprise and them as cultural
entrepreneurs, where value creation through their aesthetic production has made their cultural pursuits a
tool to achieve holistic development.
Gorbhanga in Nadia
Gorbhanga in Nadia is now a nationally and internationally acclaimed seat of Baul music. The eternal
search for the ‘true self” is the main essence of Baul songs. The Bauls are minstrels whose song and
dance reflect the joy, love and longing for mystical union with the Divine. Their music is their means to
dissolve into a greater ease with the Supreme Being. Living an esoteric life, denouncing the material
world, they urge people to rise above the divides created by caste, creed and religion to find peace.
We started working with the Bauls of Gorbhanga in 2005. Back then, it was a secluded village comprising
of scattered temporary settlements where the Bauls lived. While some of these musicians practiced
music out of passion, how to convert the same into a reliable source of livelihood was heavily unknown
hence unventured by them. Our intervention mainly focused in nurturing the musical tradition of the Bauls
so that the same can become a source of sustainable livelihood. In this regard, we conducted several
capacity building and skill transmission workshops. Capacity building workshops facilitated discussion of
Bauls with other domain experts, where through purposive exchange, the Bauls were taught to identify
the heritage components of their ICH practice, how to fine-tune their cultural presentations by keeping in
mind the content and context, what aspects of their ICH should be changed, what needs to be changed
and what should not be changed. The workshops attempted to develop their capabilities and make Bauls
stalwarts in spiritual music. Safeguarding the ICH has been done through organizing skill transmission
workshops, where experienced Bauls taught the younger generations the intricacies of their musical and
philosophical heritage. These workshops not only facilitated skill transmission to the latter generations
but also contributed in retaining younger generations within the practice of Baul music. The practitioners
of Gorbhanga also contributed immensely in reviving Bengali Qawwali in 2010 - 2011. As a result,
contemporary times have witnessed a drastic reduction in the average age of practicing Bauls from 50
to 34. Retention of the younger generation within the ICH practice has also significantly reduced out
migration of the young members in search of menial jobs.
A basic folk centre has been developed at Gorbhanga with the support of European Union in 2010,
which has emerged as a community space dedicated to ICH practice. The folk-art centre upholds the
philosophy of Baul music and provides a rehearsal space for the Baul community. Bauls call their meeting
space Akhra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1DUcy4nxJM). Designed to curate the philosophical
and practical narratives of Baul music, the folk-art centre at Gorbhanga has helped set a local context for
the history, social significance and cultural evolution of the Bauls and their musical heritage. To accredit
local, national and global visibility, pride and recognition to the Bauls and their musical heritage, a Baul
festival has been organized yearly at Gorbhanga starting in 2010. With different categories of visitors,
including but not limited to music specialists, attending the Baul festival, the Bauls get a chance to
engage and talk about their musical heritage and inform outsiders about the philosophy behind their
musical practice. Also, at the same time, people from far and wide get a chance to meet, interact and
celebrate Baul music in its in-situ cultural locale.
Our intervention has significantly extended the market for the Bauls. While back in 2005, practicing
Baul music was more of a passion, at present, the average income of Gorbhanga’s Bauls is Rs 8000,
while the leading artists earn around Rs 20,000 per show. The Bauls receive invitations to perform in
different shows, locally, nationally and globally all year round. In Gorbhanga, most of the Bauls perform
in the local area and in the adjoining districts, 30% of Bauls have performed in India, Delhi, Assam,
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Tripura, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Goa, Maharastra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chennai, etc. Many
of them have also traveled to countries like UK, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Spain, Japan, China, etc.
To present their music to a global audience. Famous music critic Simon Broughton visited Gorbhanga
in 2012 and even mentioned the story of Gorbhanga in his TED Talk in 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Zenp6VIrV5U).
Our intervention’s conducive ecosystem identified Baul music as a cultural enterprise and Baul musicians
as cultural entrepreneurs whose value creation through cultural production has made their ICH and
inhabited locale visible and prominent in the contemporary social setup. While the intervention has
contributed socially in terms of safeguarding and generational transmission of the musical heritage of
the Bauls, economically, the initiatives have succeeded in making Baul music a source of reliable and
stable livelihood generation. Politically, Gorbhanga, over the past decade, has become a soulful seat of
Baul music, attracting music lovers from all over the world to experience an immersive cultural journey.
Exposure and enhancement of market opportunities have accredited the Bauls with a sense of pride,
recognition and cultural identity, where their essence of existence has become synonymous with their
celebrated ICH practice.
Charida in Purulia
Charida village in Baghmundi block of Purulia district in West Bengal is the home to 115 households of
mask makers. The art of Chau mask making started in Charida around 150 years ago, during the rule of
King Madan Mohan Singh Deo of Baghmundi. The masks portray gods, goddesses, demons, animals
and birds. These mask makers traditionally made masks for Chau dance an acrobatic mask dance form
unique to Purulia and inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of ICH of Humanity in 2010.
When our intervention started in 2013, mask makers did not enjoy recognition as independent artists
as they used to supply chau mask to the masked dancers of Purulia. They had a meagre income from
making and selling Chau dance masks to the Chau dance groups during the seasonal performances.
During the rest of the year, they would manage with an irregular income from labour jobs and lived in
poverty.
Our AFL programme focused on Chau mask-makers for reviving and revitalizing their unique skills of
making colourful and diverse masks of different sizes from recycled paper and cloth that were painted
upon to create different characters of Gods and Goddesses, local tribal people, and animals. The mask
makers were first brought under the category of government-recognized skilled crafts persons by their
worth to link them to various social and entrepreneurial schemes specifically meant for the development
and growth of craftspeople of India. Along with this support, the innovation and diversifying their products
enhanced their capacities. With new capacities and exposure, the artists eventually took it upon
themselves to develop their village, Charida, into a cultural tourism destination. With the participation of
the artists, a community museum was set up in the village by the Govt of West Bengal, which showcases
the history and culture of Charida mask-makers, old traditional masks, the process of mask-making and
a gallery of different types of masks.
As Charida is in the foothills of Ayodhya Hills, a popular tourism destination, outreach activities were
undertaken targeting hotels and transportation providers to include the village in the tourism itinerary.
Today Charida is a branded and highly sought after cultural hub and has grown into a robust local industry
where artist entrepreneurs have further expanded their work and created employment for local youth.
Artists work from their homes, and all the porches of their houses are workshops of mask making from
where they also sell their craft. The main village street looks stunning with these masks of bright colours
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hung in and outside every workshop, with benches outside for visitors to sit, observe mask-making,
and purchase masks. All the families have experienced an almost two-fold increase in their production
size, leading to enhanced monthly incomes, thus establishing Charida mask-making as a sustainable
and primary livelihood for the artists. The Chau Mask of Charida was also Geographical Indication (GI)
registered in 2018, adding to their branding and value as a cultural tourism destination.
The market for Charida’s mask makers significantly got extended after our intervention. While in 2013,
the average monthly income of the artists ranged between Rs1500–2000, at present, the average
income has increased to Rs15,000, which for leading artists have become over Rs30,000. The exposure
of artists has also significantly improved over the span of time. The Chau mask makers now participate
in fairs supported by West Bengal Khadi Village Industries Board (WBKVIB), District Industries Centre
(DIC), Purulia district administration, DC Handicrafts, etc. at Kolkata, Delhi, Surajkund (Haryana), Siliguri,
Jaipur etc. where the substantial sale takes place. More than 50% have attended fairs in other cities in
West Bengal, like Kolkata, Siliguri and Bolpur. 25% have attended fairs at the National level in cities like
Delhi, Haryana, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Odisha, Goa, etc. The sale at Charida village
is substantial during the tourist season (October to April), i.e. about Rs1.5-2 lakhs per day. Category A
artists with a high level of skill base have international exposure. They have attended fairs in Russia,
Germany, America, Norway, UK and Japan.
The activities undertaken have created a conducive ecosystem for the Chau mask makers of Charida.
From a social angle, our intervention has significantly contributed in the safeguarding of traditional
handicraft practice and transmitting the knowledge of indigenous craftsmanship to the younger generation.
Economically, the mask makers are now much better off, depicting an increase in the average income
of the overall community of mask makers. Politically, Purulia was a disturbed and unrest area. The
flourishing of tourism in the district in recent years, premised on its ICH-based offerings, have made
Charida and overall Purulia a popular cultural destination, attracting more tourists than popular tourist
destinations in West Bengal like Dooars. Psychologically, the exposure and income enhancement have
boosted the aesthetic and moral spirit of the community and neighbourhood. The resultant pride and
recognition have encouraged in creating aspirations among the young generation of Charida. They
willingly prefer to stay in the village, choose mask making as a professional endeavour and use digital
media to reach the global audience.
Addressing the SDGs
Agenda 2030, adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, identifies 17 interconnected SDGs and 169
associated targets to address the most pressing challenges of our times, ranging from the fight against
poverty, hunger, and climate change to the reduction of inequalities. Inclusive and ambitious, these goals
are intended to leave no one behind. Heritage is directly mentioned in only one of the 169 targets (Target
11.4), which aims to ‘strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage’,
which is part of Goal 11: to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.
While some see this brief mention of culture and heritage in the SDGs as a major victory compared to
the complete absence of the topics in earlier international developmental frameworks, it needs to be
remembered that the focus mainly lies in safeguarding heritage components. The topics in practical
agenda have seldom been linked to addressing broader concerns like how protection of culture and
heritage can facilitate poverty alleviation, and gender and environmental justice (Labadi, 2022).
Our intervention attempts to further a praxis (theory and practice) based charter showcasing how practical
roadmap to safeguard heritage components can have a positive spill over effect in addressing broader
concerns of poverty, gender discrimination, economic inequality and creating sustainable and resilient
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communities. This section discusses at length how our work to attain holistic rural development premised
on the respective rural locales’ ICH based offerings has successfully addressed four major SDG agendas,
namely SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and
SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).
SDG 1: No Poverty – Poverty alleviation requires a holistic focus and is not simply restricted to ensuring
economic betterment. It includes within its broad purview attributes necessary for improving quality of
life. While our intervention has explicitly contributed to the income enhancement of ICH practitioners (as
detailed in the earlier section), it has also paved the path for better living standards within the community.
While the initial years of the intervention saw deplorable conditions in the villages regarding electricity
and sanitation, at present all the three enlisted villages are 100% electrified with improved hygiene
and sanitation facilities. Education level has also improved, where majority of the community members
are now convinced of the importance of education and are sending their children to schools. Health
parameters and preventive health awareness have also seen a drastic rise. While over 40% of the
community initially suffered from lingering illness, their general health and awareness have significantly
improved. Our intervention has also successfully addressed other social maladies like child marriage
and drug abuse. Networking and social capital of ICH communities have also significantly improved post-
intervention. The practitioners are now visiting different national and international locales and developing
contacts to enhance their entrepreneurial abilities. The exposure of ICH communities in national and
international platforms is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Enhancement of International and National Exposure from 2005/2013 to 2022
Improvement of health, education, sanitation and access to electricity and enhancement of social capital
of ICH communities are major indicators of improved quality of living. Significant improvement along
the lines mentioned above reflects better living standards of living of ICH practtioners post-intervention,
thus achieving poverty alleviation along a holistic axis, which happens to be the first major agenda of the
SDGs.
SDG 5: Gender Equality – Gender equality, the fifth agenda of the SDGs have been addressed and
achieved through our intervention. In Pingla, over 60% of the overall patuas are women, while during
the early intervention years, women’s participation was almost negligible. It is inspiring to see how a
significant majority of women are increasingly getting associated with ICH practices in Pingla. They are
also breaking gender restrictions and traveling to locales far and wide to promote and exhibit their ICH
creations. Though Baul music and Chau mask making is an inherently male-dominated cultural practice,
there are about 15 female Chau dance groups in Purulia (which was zero about 7 years back) and the
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female members of the Chau mask making community at present play a very active role in Chau mask
making as assistants. In the case of Baul music, female singers have also started coming up, though in
Gorbhanga its more male-centric till date, but women have made active contributions in safeguarding
and transmitting the heritage components of their cultural pursuits to younger generations.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - The undertaken initiatives in all the three mentioned ICH
villages of West Bengal has significantly contributed in ensuring decent work and economic growth of
overall village community members. The ICH communities of Pingla, Gorbhanga and Charida explicitly
record an overall enhancement of average income, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Income Enhancement Graph of Pingla & Gorbhanga
(from 2005 to 2022) and Charida (2013 to 2022)
Apart from the income enhancement of ICH practitioners in these villages, our intervention has significantly
contributed to the growth of local tourism as a resultant effect of enhanced visibility and recognition of the
ICH elements, their practitioners, and the in-situ village locales. The growth of local tourism has brought
economic benefits to the village community. The community members, who are not ICH practitioners
have derived several opportunities to provide tourism services and make it a source of livelihood. Local
homestays have developed in artists’ houses, many members are engaged in providing local cuisines to
visitors, and some members have been trained to act as community volunteers, narrating to the tourists
the history and practice of their unique ICH offerings. Treating ICH as a cultural enterprise and the
practitioners as cultural entrepreneurs have also enhanced avenues of local employment generation
premised on cultural offerings. This highlights the efficacy of our intervention in addressing the major
concern of economic inequality, enlisted as the eighth agenda of the SDGs.
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities – The efficacy of our intervention rests with the fact that
even in the absence of external supervision and hand holding, the three villages of Pingla, Gorbhanga
and Charida continue to retain the positive changes brought forward due to the intervention. The impact
of the intervention can be traced to the significant enhancement of community resilience achieved as an
outcome. The community has devised mechanism to collectively work towards practicing and promoting
their ICH and village locales. Over 50% of members from each community have a digital and social
media presence. They use these virtual platforms to promote and propagate their practiced ICH to a
pool of global audiences. Enhancement of both physical and virtual purposive exchange within and
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outside the community of ICH practitioners have improved inter and intra communitarian linkage and
contributed in cultivating and enhancing bridging and bonding social capital, an important parameter
to achieve sustainability and resilience. The resultant visibility led to local tourism development, but the
commercialization of the virgin rural locales also has significant risk factors. Developing communication
strategies and training community members on the pros and cons of tourism and hospitality have equipped
them to develop strategies to handle the negatives of tourism development. Overall, the contextual
parameters undertaken as a part of our intervention has been conducive to making ICH communities
resilient and sustainable, which are the major targets of the eleventh agenda of the SDGs.
E. CONCLUSION
The findings of the paper highlight the effectiveness of strengthening ICH practices in achieving
holistic rural development and addressing the SDGs. Treating ICH as a cultural enterprise and ICH
practitioners as cultural entrepreneurs paves the path for identifying these practices and practitioners as
essentially ‘productive’ to contemporary socio-economic setup. Development of cultural identity of ICH
practitioners and their inhabited locales has been proven as mandatory prerequisites to attain holistic
rural development. The resultant spill over effect in addressing SDGs marks the efficacy of the initiatives,
whose impact analysis highlights the potency of culture and heritage as appropriate developmental tools.
While this paper establishes the directly proportional relation between strengthening ICH practices and
rural development by citing the case studies of three rural locales of West Bengal, the adhered AFL
methodology provides a replicable framework, which can be implemented in any scenario with contextual
modifications to achieve culture-led development. Given the potential of culture and heritage in ensuring
individual and collective development, it can be rightly said in conclusion that culture and heritage have
the power to transform birth (often without purpose) into life (necessarily with aspirations).
F. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors of this paper, i.e, Amitava Bhattacharya and Sneha Bhattacharyya on behalf of Contact
Base (aka, banglanatak dot com, the organization which designed & implemented Art for Life) would like
to acknowledge the contributions of the three communities i.e, Pingla Patachitra, Charida Chau mask
makers and Gorbhanga Baul Fakirs for their support and cooperation and the contributions made by all
agencies including European Union, UNESCO, Govt of West Bengal & associated departments/ district
authorities, External Evaluators, Research organization HIPAMS, Individuals like Simon Broughton,
Media houses like Times Now, Govt agency like myGov, and other entities/ individuals who were referred
in developing the paper. The responsibility for the opinions expressed in this chapter remains with the
authors.
G. REFERENCE
Labadi, S. (2022). Rethinking Heritage for Sustainable Development: International Frameworks, Local
Impacts. UCL Press.
Labadi, S., Giliberto, F., Rosetti, I., Shetabi, L., & Yıldırım, E. (2021, March). Heritage And The Sustainable
Development Goals: Policy Guidance For Heritage And Development Actors. ICOMOS.
Prakash, B.(2019). Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing the ‘folk performance’ in India. Oxford University
Press Sayers,S.(2007).The Concept of Labour:Marx and His Critics.Science&Society, 71(04),431-
454. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40404442
Times Now coverage of banglanatak dot com. (2012, December 17). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=E2mONyXeVAo
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development. (n.d.). Https://Sdgs.Un.Org/Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
UNESCO - Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. (n.d.).
Https://Ich.Unesco.Org/En/Convention. https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention
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MS. VANESSA ACHILLES
Independence Researcher, Wachtberg, Germany
Ms. Vanessa Achilles is an independent researcher. Her research interests focus on the linkages
between ICH and development, ICH and education and ICH in cities. She coordinated the
capacity-building programme for the 2003 Convention in Asia-Pacific and ICH-related projects
for the UNESCO Bangkok Office from 2012 to 2017, as well as projects on cultural industries,
cultural tourism, cultural policies and cultural approaches to development from 2002 to 2017.
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BRINGING LIVING HERITAGE TO SCHOOLS:
A RESOURCE KIT TO HELP TEACHERS DEVELOP CONTEXTUALIZED AND ENGAGING
ACTIVITIES.
Vanessa Achilles
Wachtberg, Germany
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Teaching with or about living heritage or intangible cultural heritage (ICH), is a pedagogical approach
that has a high potential to enrich the learning process. Living heritage includes knowledge and skills
that are practiced by people and passed on to younger generations. All students, teachers and nearby
communities have a living heritage. And this widely available resource can be integrated with various
school activities. Such approach has numerous benefits. Bringing ICH with which students are familiar
into the lessons will make them more contextualized. The hands-on lessons help students understand
new information and concepts more easily. Learning with ICH is engaging, practical and fun. Students can
share their respective knowledge, fostering mutual understanding and enhancing inclusion and tolerance.
All these contribute to quality education. Teachers can explore innovative pedagogies and collaborate
with colleagues in a multidisciplinary project. Bringing ICH into school increases students’ awareness
and contributes to its safeguarding for the whole community’s benefit. Teachers are best inspired by
their fellow teachers. This is why UNESCO compiled their real-lives experiences into a comprehensive
resource kit. It targets teachers of all grades and all subjects related to arts and culture and any other
discipline interested in testing innovative pedagogies to make their teaching more contextualized and
more efficient. The backbone of this kit is a 6 step methodology. It is enriched with numerous examples
identified during previous projects in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The resource kit is complemented by short
documentaries, video animations and an online course on the GCED online platform. The resource kit
encourages teachers to collaborate with community members who have an in-depth knowledge of their
living heritage. The latter can share knowledge and ideas for activities with teachers, and in some cases,
help teach some of the lessons.
Keywords: ICH, Living Heritage, School, Transformative Education
A. INTRODUCTION
School should be a happy place where students are willing to engage in activities, learn, share and
develop into citizens contributing to society’s well-being. Most people spend a significant share of their
youth, and sometimes their adult years, in the education system. It is, therefore, not a surprise that
quality education is one of the goals identified to address the challenges that our world is facing today
as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Interestingly, this objective,
also called sustainable development 4 (SDG 4), focuses on quantitative indicators (e.g., all girls and
boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education) and qualitative aspects of
education. It is essential to give a central place to strengthening education’s contribution to the fulfillment
of human rights, peace and responsible citizenship and this goes through, among other aspects, the
acceptation and appreciation of the world’s cultural diversity.
B. BRINGING CULTURE TO SCHOOL
Teaching and Learning with Living Heritage
Over time, numerous initiatives et pedagogical approaches have been promoted, with Global Citizenship
Education (GCED) or Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) leading this movement. Bringing
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culture to the schools is one way to advance this objective while safeguarding and promoting it. From
World Heritage Education to Arts Education, UNESCO has spearheaded these initiatives for over four
decades.
Teaching with or about living heritage or intangible cultural heritage (ICH), is one of the approaches
to enrich the learning process. Living heritage includes knowledge and skills practiced by people and
passed on to younger generations. They have music, dances, rituals, local health practices, drama,
cuisine, crafts skills, festivals and many others. All students and their families, all teachers and all people
living in communities near the schools have a living heritage that is part of their identity. Whether they
share the same practices or have different ones, these constitute a vast reservoir of knowledge and skills
available locally. ICH is often transmitted informally within families or communities. Some elements can be
taught through the formal education system. Some schools propose classes or traditional music, dances
and crafts or use local literature in language classes. Innovative pedagogical approaches have also
been exploring how to teach with living heritage. This means that the living heritage provides examples,
content, pedagogic tool, or method to teach other subjects to enrich the teaching and learning process.
This can apply to all curriculum subjects and extra-curricular school activities.
For instance, students can calculate proportions for cooking ingredients in math and sciences. They can
visualize geometric concepts through textile patterns. Music instruments can experiment with sound,
vibration and oscillation in physics. In biology, they can look at local plants and animals’ seasons and
life cycles. In social studies or history, they can analyze and compare the historical, social and political
context of a living heritage element in the past and nowadays. They can reflect on the evolution of gender
roles and social structures through practice. The list is endless.
Such approach has numerous benefits for the students, the school and the communities. Bringing ICH
with which students are familiar into the lessons will make them more contextualized. Some lessons
can be very hands-on, and help the students understand new information and concepts more easily.
Learning with ICH is engaging, practical and fun. In multicultural classrooms, students can share their
respective knowledge, fostering mutual understanding and enhancing inclusion and tolerance. All these
contribute to quality education. Teachers can explore innovative pedagogies. They can also collaborate
with colleagues in multidisciplinary projects, as ICH elements can often been explored from multiple
perspectives. Bringing a living heritage element in school also increases students’ awareness and
therefore contributes to its safeguarding for the whole community’s benefit. This approach aligns with
GCED or ESD principles and objectives, and their relationship is mutually beneficial.
C. BUILDING UP ON REAL EXPERIENCE
From several projects in Asia-Pacific and Europe, UNESCO developed a 6-step methodology that guides
educators into developing their own contextualized lessons connected to local living heritage, their own
or that of their students. In 2021, a pilot phase was conducted in 21 schools in 6 countries: Cambodia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, and the methodology was refined.
Six teams of facilitators trained and supported teachers in their respective countries. From these pilots
came a rich set of experiences and lesson plans that fed into and enriched the methodology. The approach
emphasized the importance of the schools collaborating with the surrounding communities, who are the
main custodians of the local living heritage and invaluable resource persons. Local practitioners helped
teachers acquire knowledge on some ICH elements, develop lessons, and even sometimes taught the
classes. Just to name a few, mothers in Nepal helped with a cooking class, musicians demonstrated their
art in Kazakhstan, and a woodcarver taught a craft class in his Thai village.
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The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the project. Schools in many countries were closed. In-
person meetings were canceled. Living heritage festivals and events were canceled or the practice was
disrupted. The facilitators and local partners had to adapt quickly to the ever-changing situation. Despite
these challenges, teachers’ training and school activities took place, often online and sometimes in
person. Over 100 lessons were developed. A Kyrgyz school created an ICH museum to hold their lessons.
The Nepalese experience was so successful that a district now expands its approach to all its schools.
Fifteen lessons were incorporated into Cambodia’s new Arts and Culture Education curriculum. The
creative solutions that emerged during this dark period can be applauded. Most of the 2000 participating
students wore masks, but one could still see the smile on their faces and the sparkles in their eyes when
they attended these innovative lessons. The very positive feedback received from them, as well as from
the teachers is all the more meaningful.
Figure 1. 6-Step Methodology to Bring ICH into Schools
D. A PACKAGE TO SUPPORT TEACHERS AND MORE
Teachers are best inspired by their fellow teachers. This is why UNESCO compiled their real-lives
experiences into a comprehensive resources kit. The backbone of this kit is the methodology. It is
enriched with numerous examples for the 6 pilot countries, plus examples identified during the previous
projects.
As a starting point, a series of video animations introduce the key ideas of the approach and the main
actions different stakeholders can take.
A downloadable and printable resource kit and an online course detail the concepts and methodology
to dive deeper. The online course targets teachers of all grades and all subjects related to arts and
culture and any other discipline interested in testing innovative pedagogies to make their teaching more
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contextualized and more efficient. Most content and examples displayed in the course are from primary
and lower secondary levels, but the methodology can be applied to all grades.
The project’s facilitators developed the course. It is composed of five modules. The first module lays
down the concepts: What is living heritage, and what is teaching with living heritage in schools. Module
two to four guide the participant through the six steps of the methodology, from exploring how one can
find information about ICH and work with community partners to developing activities and assessing
the outcomes. The last module suggests ways to connect the methodology to the reality of the different
schools for a more sustainable approach. It includes suggestions on how to teach with living heritage in a
multicultural environment, how to develop the partnership, especially in the community, or how to connect
this approach with existing education priorities already applied in a school such as GCED or ESD.
Each module comprises three to five videos illustrated by numerous real-life examples. At the end of
each module, the participants are encouraged to reflect on a short assignment. Module after module, not
only do the participants learn new skills, but they also develop their lesson plan or activity connected to
living heritage.
A set of tools complements both the resource kit, and the online course: examples of lesson plans and
suggestions on how to connect different school subjects to living heritage for inspiration, advice on how
to collect information on living heritage, and links to additional resources for those who wish to deepen
their understanding of specific topics.
The teachers are the main target group for these resources. Yet, as demonstrated by this project, teachers
do not work alone. Their work is framed by the education policies, curriculum and programmes and
schools’ missions. Therefore, a guide for school managers and policymakers proposes ways to support
teachers interested in teaching with living heritage and as communities are the main custodians of their
living heritage, another guide suggests how the parents and local practitioners can collaborate with the
schools and teachers to enrich the lessons and safeguard their practice.
Living heritage is everywhere, and the opportunities to bring it to school to enrich pedagogical activities
are unlimited. UNESCO invites teachers and all those interested to discover the resource kit and to
explore how the methodology could be applied in schools near you.
• Printable resource kit: Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in Asia-Pacific: A
Resource kit (available soon)
• Video animation series: https://bangkok.unesco.org/content/
animationseriesteachingandlearning intangible-culturalheritage-asia-and-pacific
• Online course (self-paced, free on the GCED Online Campus platform):
https://www.gcedonlinecampus.org/_HTML/closed_course_view.php?id=81
Repository of lessons integrating ICH: https://ich.unesco.org/en/clearinghouse-education
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E. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project has been implemented by UNESCO Bangkok, in close collaboration with the UNESCO offices
in Almaty, Katmandu and Phnom Penh, in partnership and with generous funding from the International
Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the
auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP) and The Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding
under the auspices of UNESCO (APCEIU), and with additional financial support from Chengdu Culture
and Tourism Group. A previous version of this article was published in ICH Courier Volume 50.
F. REFERENCE
UNESCO. (2015). Learning with Intangible Heritage for a Sustainable Future: Guidelines for Educators
in the Asia-Pacific Region.https://bangkok.unesco.org/content/learning-intangible-heritage-
sustainable-future-guidelines-educators-asia-pacific-region
UNESCO. (2015). Global Citizenship Education: Topics and Learning Objectives. https://www.
gcedclearinghouse.org/resources/global-citizenship-education-topics-and-learning-
objectives?language=en
UNESCO. (2021). Teaching and learning with and about intangible cultural heritage in Asia-Pacific: a
Survey report. https://bangkok.unesco.org/content/new-resources-available-intangible-cultural-
heritage-education-asia-and-pacific
UNESCO. (2021). Teaching and Learning with Living Heritage: A Resource Kit for Teachers Based on
the Lessons Learnt from a Joint UNESCO-EU Pilot Project. https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/52066-
EN.pdf
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PROF. TS. DR. RUSLAN ABDUL RAHIM
Rector National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage (ASWARA)
Malaysia
Upon completing his diploma, Prof. Ts. Dr. Ruslan Abdul Rahim earned his stripes in the
Malaysia advertising industry during the mid-80s. A stint as the sole graphic designer at Proton’s
Research & Development Department saw him finally pursuing and obtaining his Masters (MSc
Communications) at the renowned Pratt Institute, New York City, United States of America. It was
here that he honed his skills in New Media encompassing Computers Graphics and Animation.
A shift in his academic out look brought a deep commitment towards exploration of design in the
realm of the then burgeoning World Wide Web. This led him to embark on his doctoral research
on Interface Design for Dyslexia at the University of Brighton, Est Sussex, United Kingdom till
the new millennium. He is presently the Dean at the Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Teknologi
Mara (UITM).
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PANACEA OR PREDICAMENT: A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF
THE ARTS & CULTURE
Ruslan Bin Abdul Rahim
National Academy of Art, Culture & Heritage Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has literally changed lives and also the landscape of societal life. Much of
daily routine human activities has taken a digitally technological enhancement of huge proportions. This
includes higher education together with the preservation of the Arts, Culture & Heritage. This paper
purports some proponents of digitalization in the delivery of higher education in the context of Cultural
preservation. Much of any country or people’s cultural heritage is preserved by established mechanisms
of which is highly appreciated. The physical existence of such entities carries nuances and experience for
those who are fortunate enough to visit such artefacts. The premise of the digital revolution and advances
brings forth new and never before experiences for all. Virtual parallel worlds evolutionary immersive and
virtual worlds hold new possibilities for all. These augers a wider and larger global audience to ‘visit’
numerous cultural heritage sites; not just the tangible but to a certain extent the intangible too. As we
follow the development of virtual entities such as the Metaverse, it is clearly evident of the exponential
growth that is happening right before us. The realm of higher education has to also make serious efforts
to compliment this. The future generation are already evolving and key players in the education sector
must follow. Perhaps a healthy culture of sharing would be the logical way forward. This is certainly
possible with the advent of available digital technology and applications which are readily accessible
for all stakeholders in the higher education sector to take on. The consequences could be dire if this
realization of advancing digital technology is not harnessed and acted upon.
Keywords: Arts, Culture & Heritage, Digital Revolution, Higher Education, Immersive, Metaverse,
Preservation, Virtual Worlds
A. INTRODUCTION
Much has been touted with the advent of recent technological advancements during the COVID 19
pandemic. SDG 4 encompasses the broad area of Quality Education. The dissemination & sharing
of cultural knowledge can be realized via formal and non-formal education. The provision of a global
network for knowledge sharing on intangible living heritage must be prepared and developed in this post
Covid 19 phase. Educational institutions of Higher Learning can cover three broad areas of action in this
foreseeable future:-
• leverage opportunities offered by digital technologies to support resilience and safeguarding
• strengthen direct support mechanisms to living heritage bearers
• integrate living heritage safeguarding into emergency preparedness, response and recovery plans
Much of the educational content on living heritage presently being offered can be digitally transformed for
both formal and non-formal education. The emerging and existing digital platforms such as Meta and a
slew of social media networks brings forth a high potential of knowledge sharing on a global scale. This
potential must be taken up by educational institutions in order to realize the full advantage of what the
digital realm brings.
Presently, there are in existence many initiatives undertaken by educational institutions in digitizing
teaching & learning content. Much can be shared for the sustainability of the living heritage.
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“A common language connects the members of a community into an information-sharing network with
formidable collective powers.”
Culturally, humans are astonishingly diverse, and that is part of our power. We are extraordinarily
sociable and we love to travel. The very premise that a common visual langguange or narrative can
also unite societies at large is a very powerful element. This is extremely prevalent in the digital realm at
present. Much of what we as a society consume is very much via impactful visual narratives. It is through
this narrative and the burgeoning medium that is the Metaverse that the message of preservation,
conservation and even revival can reach a new generation.
But given the ever-shortening attention span of today’s audience, can the message be brought home
effectively? Need there be a strategy to be coupled with the dissemination of this body of knowledge?
History has never been a popular topic of the masses. Today’s media coverage of this issue has time
and time again resurfaced in which debate after debate has ensued. it is purported that contemporary
aspects like gamification in education be the proverbial silver bullet. This begs the opposing issue of
academia having to re-skill themselves with fresh new digital skills & tools. This is beyond teaching
oneself word processing and illustrative software. it is now a world of online gaming strategy coupled
with delivering learning content effectively. Pedagogy as we know is certainly shifting onto new levels.
As mentioned earlier on parallel worlds akin to the present physical world is now growing right before our
very eyes. Daily activities of commerce, entertainment, education are now seeing exponential growth in
the digital realm. All this is being constantly and brought to our attention such as the Internet of Things
[IoT], Web 3.0, Mixed Reality [XR], Crypto commerce and much more.
The recent pandemic is seems as having accelerated the push towards a higher dependence on digital
technology. This is a phenomenon that is here to stay. It would be naive of us to say that we will return
‘to what it was before’ as we go about our daily lives.
Artificial communities such as social networks is about building small societies. People, when faced
with social dilemmas can cooperate as in the real world acting in a normal human fashion. Much has
been achieved through collective and united efforts of communities. The topology of social networks
is somewhat determined by variables such as the structure of interactions. Also factoring in how much
information are given about the respective surroundings. This has resulted in achieving objectives and
ideals of mutual benefit.
B. CONVERGENT EVOLUTION
The evolution of similar plans that occupy similar evolutionary niches; this pattern of traits is human
social behavior that realizes a continuity of knowledge dissemination through higher education. There
has been many initiatives and collective efforts being conducted globally since the pandemic ensued.
This is especially so for the growing Generation MZ ~ the Millennials & Gen Z. This rise of this particular
Generation MZ is making its presence felt on a global scale. The phenomenon of Gen MZ becoming “the
next big thing” in our society both as powerful consumers and impactful members of the companies they
work for poses an interesting question: Are the companies and Gen MZ on the same page when it comes
to Environment, Social & Governance [ESG] values? Gen MZ which values connection, meaningfulness
and communication as well as social values is the litmus of present establishments success in the ESG
landscape.
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This issue is more than just about concerns of caring about Gen MZ at companies and raising their voices
proactively and collectively, or Gen MZ consumers who will turn their back on a company’s products.
While Gen MZ may not be the most affluent generation of our society (yet), their attitude toward viewing
ESG from a sustainability perspective draws respect. Gen MZ members are not only “digital natives” but
also “ESG natives.”
C. THE SHARING OF COLLECTIVE CULTURES AND ITS NARRATIVES
Closer to home, the Malaysian National Academy of Arts, Culture & Heritage [ ASWARA] very recently
hosted a gathering of ASEAN member countries with the over- arching objective of generating new
knowledge on the Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage. A programme of ASEAN Member State
(AMS) delegates as participants within the expertise of creative multimedia - ranging from multimedia
artists and designers, academicians, cultural officers, 3D artists, as well as visual artists congregated in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The programme is a part of the ASEAN SARONG Diplomacy: Unity in Cultural Diversity that is a
cultural mapping programme through a series of workshop that exposes ASEAN Member States (AMS)
participants to case studies in Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality (VR) / Mixed Reality (MR) =
Extended Reality (XR) for cultural heritage context. The theme ASEAN SARONG Diplomacy was chosen
because of the commonality in the ubiquitous Sarong in the member countries of ASEAN. Here lies an
example of an Intangible Cultural Heritage from everyday life of a regional society.
Figure 1. A digital photograph of the Preah Tineang Chan Chhaya (Khmer)
or known as the “Moonlight Pavilion” is an open-air pavilion that functions as
a performance stage for Khmer classical dances of the past and present. It
is one of the most notable buildings of the palace as it is easily seen from
the outside as it was built alongside a section of the palace walls. The mirror
reflection is interpreted as the reflection of life which has undergone the
pandemic which is represented in darkness.
Figure 2. The Barabah dance; inspired by the agility of the Merbah bird.
Its Characteristics of being nimble, flexible, active chirping, having brightly
colored plumage is distinct. It is also active in the mornings and evenings,
in shrubs and tree branches. The Merbah bird is a fruit and insect eater.
Other characteristics of the Merbah bird which are inspired for dance are
their agility and flexibility. Through this video mapping initiative it is aspired
to overcome the lack of cultural insight, especially of traditional dance can
capture the interest and attention of today’s Gen MZ.
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Figure 3. Illustrates a novel approach of utilizing Anime toy models dressed
up Sarong costumes and a traditional Thai style headdress. This ‘hybrid’
approach highlights a possible fusion of the traditional and the contemporary.
Figure 4. This artwork puts forward on how the pandemic struggle has
become a part of Filipino culture and heritage as it envelops and embodies
all. Bawat Sinulid (thread) symbolize these experiences. The original
Sarong pattern was derived from various Filipino indigenous textile
patterns to signify the resilience of Filipinos as they face the pandemic. It
also serves as a positive setting for a better tomorrow. The pandemic was
indeed a trying time for Filipinos and during this period, glimpses of light
and hope have emerged. Filipinos stood together, worked together, and
helped each other to keep fighting and hope for a better tomorrow.
Download SARONG AR E-Catalogue bit.ly/SARONG_E-CATALOGUE
D. REFERENCE
Last name, initial s of first name. (year). Book s Title. City: Publisher.
Christakis, A.C. (2019). BLUEPRINT. the evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. New York, USA: Little,
Brown Spark.
Hamilton, E. (2012). Mythology. New York, USA: Hatchette Book Group.
Bucolic, S. (2015). Are we there yet?: Insights on how to lead by design.The Netherlands. BIS Publishers.
Schilling, M.A. (2018). Quirky. New York, USA: Hatchette Book Group.
Poke, G., Whitham, G. (2010). Understand Art History. United Kingdom. Hatchette UK
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MR. MOHD. AMRAN MOHD. HARIS
Deputy Director General, Planning & Policy, The National
Department for Culture and Arts. Malaysia
Mr. Mohd Amran is a Bachelor holder of Public Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia
(UUM), Kedah. He has served the government for over 20 years and has extensive experience in
the management of the arts and culture. His career involvement both at national and international
levels:
• Coordinator for the participation of 120 children of PERMATA Seni who have been invited
to perform in the Friendship Across Generations concert in conjunction with the 40’th
Anniversary of The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between Malaysia and The
People’s Republic of China’ di Concert Hall, National Museum, Beijing in 28 May 2014
• Coordinator for the participation of 60 children of PERMATA Seni who have been invited
to perform in the ‘Global Good Governance Awards 2016’ at the Hyatt Regency Istanbul,
Atakoy Turkey
• Participant to 7’th World Summit on Culture and Arts participant in the Republic of Malta
• Participant for the ‘International Culture and Arts Forum’ (ICAF) 2018 at the Royal
University of Fine Arts (RUFA) Phnom Pehn, Cambodia
• Programme Coordinator for the 8’th World Summit on Arts and Culture 2019 Programme,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Department of National Heritage / Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
THE NATIONAL DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE AND ARTS (JKKN) AND ITS ROLES IN
CONSERVING AND PRESERVING MALAYSIAN ARTS, CULTURE AND HERITAGE
Mohd. Amran Mohd. Haris
The National Department for Culture and Arts, Malaysia
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Arts, culture and heritage have been incorporated into shaping national identity, well-being and unity
among Malaysians. Their roles have evolved from the artistic creation of the arts to contribute to heritage
wealth and national identity. They have become more and more important in strengthening communities
among Malaysians whilst improving their livelihoods through economic and creative engagement. The
National Department for Culture and Arts (JKKN), Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia, is
one of the government agencies responsible for upholding and developing the arts and culture of the
nation. JKKN is tasked with safeguarding, sustaining, spurring, and fostering the nation’s cultural arts
and heritage. Towards that end, JKKN continues to develop capacity-building programmes to spur arts
practitioners’ engagement in the nation’s socio-economic sector through innovative and creative cultural
arts-related activities. The effort is equally taken to sustain interest and awareness of the nation’s own arts
and heritage in light of globalisation. Six (6) strategic thrusts have been placed to achieve as developed
nation of cultured citizens, which are:
1. Expanding human capital development in the cultural arts
2. Expediting initiatives for the conservation and preservation of culture and arts
3. Enhancing the accessibility of culture and arts facilities and services for the community
4. Realigning good governance to place cultural arts as one of the nation’s industrial contributors
5. Increasing cultural networking among organisations in order to advance cultural arts excellence and
6. Stabilising good governance to ensure organisational rapid growth and success
A. INTRODUCTION
I would like to highlight various programmes and initiatives undertaken by the department, as follows:
i) Research Programme
ii) Documentation and Publication
iii) Cultural Mapping
iv) Cultural Arts Guidance Programme
v) Apprenticeship Programme
vi) The Traditional Arts Showcase
vii) Living Arts Cultural Festival
RESEARCH PROGRAMME
“Arts for Arts Sake” will remain the effort undertaken by JKKN to constantly enrich the country’s intangible
cultural heritage wealth. One of our efforts, through research and development, has enabled us to revive
obsolete/dying arts while forgotten artists/practitioners are rediscovered and entrepreneurs created,
further adding to our inventory. Since 2005, JKKN has focused on research and conservation of cultural
art throughout the country. It involves field research activities, manuscript writings, research journal
articles as well as training officers, through the implementation of writing workshops. JKKN has set
targeted research and emphasises the two pronged goal, namely:
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i. JKKN officers’ self-development. They are trained and guided in order to produce highly skilled
research officers and become focal point in research and writing
ii Publication of quality research books that meet book standards. It involves thorough and in-
depth research. JKKN is in the process of planning and intends to publish a JKKN journal
that focuses on arts and culture issues in Malaysia. A total of 35 journal articles for scholarly
publications have been successfully produced. It is hoped that this effort by JKKN will develop a
journal writing standard that meets the guidelines of MyCite and Scopus in the future.
In 2005, our traditional Malay theatre of Mak Yong received recognition by UNESCO as a “Masterpieces
of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. Mak Yong is regarded as the most authentic and
representative of Malay performing arts because it has been largely untouched by external influences
DOCUMENTATION AND PUBLICATION
JKKN is in the midst of preparing the comprehensive framework of the Digital Transformation Plan that
comprises five (5) JKKN’s core to sustain, conserve, preserve, nurture, guide and promote the arts and
culture towards the digital era.
The scope of digitisation includes upgrading the Website, Cultural Mapping, Neucanvas Digital
Documentation (e-archive of documentation materials), e-Library, e-Inventory, e-Learning, digital
publishing (e-books, e-bulletins, e-catalogs) as well as developing culture and arts digital content using
the latest technologies (Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)).
Apart from that, efforts to publish culture and arts research materials are also implemented through the
cooperation of Policy and Research Division JKKN, as well as books related to arts and culture, as an
effort to increase the number of reference materials in digital and non-digital form by giving priority to the
field of arts that are almost extinct, such as Mek Mulung, Rebana Kercing, Anak Umbang and many
more, will be made into written material for the reference of future generations. In line with the digital
transformation, JKKN has also produced two pilot publishing projects involving physical publication with
a combination of AR digital content and audio books through the publication of the books “The Beauty
of Malaysian Songket” “Keindahan Kain Tenun Songket Malaysia” and Mek Mulung: “ A Heritage Mek
Mulung: “Warisan yang Ditemui Semula”.
CULTURAL MAPPING
Cultural mapping has been recognised by UNESCO as a crucial tool and technique in preserving the
world’s intangible and tangible cultural assets. It is essential to understand the factors that influence
perceptions of places, paying particular attention to personal and community interpretations of culture.
Cultural Mapping was initiated by JKKN in 2017 as an initiative to deliver arts and culture information
to the public, researchers, students etc, through an online platform. Cultural Mapping (Pemetaan
Budaya) is a database of Malaysian arts, culture and heritage that includes dance, music, traditional
theatre, customs, food and traditional games. Cultural Mapping can be reached via https://
pemetaanbudaya.my. At this moment, our Cultural Mapping has reached more than 4 million viewers.
CULTURAL ARTS GUIDANCE PROGRAMME
JKKN works hand in hand with the Ministry of Education to ensure that the nation’s arts treasure continue
to shine and are cherished by youngsters. The Arts Guidance Programme (BSB) was initiated to guide,
nurture and train both primary and secondary students in the significance of art and creativity so that
they can be adaptable to embrace multiskill-oriented education and intelligence in dealing with highly
competitive and challenging world ahead.
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Department of National Heritage / Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
Since 2004, in the form of arts guidance and training, the Arts Guidance Programme (BSB) has been
implemented for a period of six (6) months through the formation of Kelab Tunas Budaya for primary
school, Kelab Giat Budaya for secondary school, Arts Literacy Programme, Collaboration Programme
with Malaysian Prison Department and Cultural Arts Guidance Centre, which also involved the Orang
Asli community. Students/participants are taught based on JKKN’s art module. The learning sessions
were conducted by the National Cultural Arts Trainer (JSBN). There are six (6) art fields, namely: theatre,
dance, music (gamelan and kompang), traditional games (gasing), linguistic arts and Malay martial arts
(silat).
Extending our aspiration to train young and new talents, the Jewel of the Arts (PERMATA SENI) was
formed and rebranded as GENIUS Seni in 2019. It is a structured learning and practical programme
designed for talented children between the ages of 7 to 18 in the performing arts of dance, music,
and choir. The objective is to help spur and realise the Government’s vision for the development of
human capital that is exceptionally talented in cultural arts as well as instil a strong national identity in
young people. We anticipate these young participants will lead the path as future bearers of sustainable
arts excellence in the country. Since it was established in 2010, a total of 2817 participants have been
involved in the GENUS Seni programme.
APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME
Since 2009, the National Department for Culture and Arts (JKKN) has implemented the Apprenticeship
Programme as an effort to preserve and conserve traditional arts through the creation of successor
groups. Until 2022, there will be 86 groups with 1,848 trainees under this programme involving 65 arts.
Other than periodic training, the participants are also exposed to stage performances. In 2022, this
programme was implemented in fourteen (14) states as follows:
NO. STATE TYPE OF ART FIELD APPRENTICESHIP GROUP
Perlis Terinai Music
1 Perlis Music of Terinai Shadow Puppets’
Penang Traditional Theatre
2 Kedah Wayang Gedek Gendang Panjang
Hamdolok
3 Penang Traditional Theatre Malacca Rebana Keras & Rejang
4 Perak Gendang Panjang Dikir Rebana Negeri Sembilan
Brainy Bunch Islamic International
5 Johor Hamdolok School Gambus
Alliance Dhol
6 Malacca Puisi Rejang & Rebana Gendang Pahang
Terengganu Anak Umbang
Keras Rebana Mangkuk Sri Kemahang
Sri Ritma Borneo
7 Negeri Sembilan Dikir Rebana
Dusun Labuk Cultural
8 Selangor Gambus Selangor
9 Kuala Lumpur Dhol
10 Pahang Gendang Pahang
11 Terengganu Anak Umbang
12 Kelantan Rebana Mangkuk
13 Sarawak Music and Dance of
Melanau
14 Sabah Dusun Labuk
Ethnic – Magalai Labuk
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THE TRADITIONAL ARTS SHOWCASE
The National Department for Culture and Arts (JKKN) is fully committed to the effort of uplifting authentic
and traditional arts and heritage. Essentially, the programme is a means to preserve and conserve
traditional artistic heritage, apart from elevating the art to a higher level. Throughout ten (10) years of
implementation, the Traditional Arts Showcase has featured 51 types of traditional performing arts in
three genres: dance, music and theatre, by collaborating with 103 performing art groups comprising
government agencies, public universities, and non-government organisations (NGOs).
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 and 2021, the National Department for Culture and Arts (JKKN)
remains committed to implementing several activities and programmes, including the Online Traditional
Arts Showcase to ensure the sustainability and preservation of traditional performing arts and heritage.
As a result, the Traditional Arts Showcase has gained a new audience where statistics of live screening
reports via Facebook showed a total of 48,281 views from around the world for five (5) performance
groups in 2021.
LIVING ARTS CULTURAL FESTIVAL
This programme is another initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia, conducted
by the National Department for Culture and Arts. The Living Arts Cultural Festival aims to highlight and
elevate the uniqueness of world cultural heritage. It highlights almost extinct cultural arts and becomes
a catalyst for conservation and preservation efforts. This festival brings together the arts practised by
communities from all over the world that have been recognised by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), gazetted as National Heritage and almost-extinct arts
and culture. It is hoped that the programme will be a catalyst in the effort to preserve our national heritage.
The COVID-19 pandemic faced by the world today does not hinder JKKN’s efforts to continue to carry
out art and culture activities and programmes as it continues virtually. In fact, being online, it has gained
strong participation from many countries. Notably, other than Malaysia, the LACF 2021 hosted the
participation of 14 countries, such as Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, Lao
PDR, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. Forty-nine Intangible
Cultural Heritage were showcased in the LACF 2021 and UNESCO has acknowledged fifteen of these.
As in 2022, the implementation of LACF will take place on 4-6 November 2022 via hybrid.
WAY FORWARD
With a vision to be the arts and culture leader and a catalyst for Malaysians who practise high-value
culture that can strengthen national identity as well as the empowerment of arts, culture and heritage
for socioeconomic development. Through JKKN’s mission to strengthen efforts to conserve, maintain,
develop, and promote arts, culture and heritage; Integrating elements of arts and culture to strengthen
national identity, well-being and unity; Encouraging the involvement of arts and culture activists in the
economic field through innovative arts and cultural activities; and contributing to the growth of cultural
tourism activities.
B. CONCLUSION
JKKN will continue the existing strategic network and synergy with other Ministries, Departments,
corporate bodies, GLCs, and higher education institutions to mobilise and collect resources effectively
to ensure that arts, culture, and heritage continue to be preserved, sustained and developed as inputs
to nation building and unity, strengthening communities, enriching lives and creating livelihoods among
the people.
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Department of National Heritage / Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
DR. ADI PRASETIJO
Lecturer, Anthropology Department, University of Diponegoro,
Indonesia.
Dr. Adi Prasetijo received his bachelor’s degree in archaeology from UGM in 1997, followed
by a master’s degree in anthropology from University of Indonesia in 2005 and a doctorate in
anthropology from University Science Malaysia in 2014. The focus of his research is on the
Indonesian hunting and gathering group. He is currently employed as a lecturer at University of
Diponegoro in Semarang, Indonesia’s Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences.
He was awarded a fellowship at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan in Osaka in 2019
to work on the Asian hunting and gathering community desk. He is also member of ICOMOS
Indonesia and the International Society for Hunter-Gatherer Group, which is based in Liverpool,
United Kingdom.
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INTANGIBLE CULTURE HERITAGE AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION: A TRAJECTORY FOR
INDIGENOUS RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN INDONESIA
Adi Prasetijo
Anthropology Department, Faculty of Humanities, University of Diponegoro, Indonesia
[email protected]/[email protected]
Makrus Ali (MA)
Intersectoral Collaborative on Indigenous Religion (ICIR)
[email protected]/[email protected]
ABSTRACT
Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia gained momentum for their recognition after, in 2012, the Indonesian
government recognized their existence legally. Likewise, the state also recognized the existence of an
Indigenous Religious Group in 2017. Local belief, often referred to as ancestral religion, is a religion
rooted in traditions and culture in Indonesia. It is often referred to as “original religion,” “local religion,” or
“archipelago religion,” which is very closely related to “local wisdom” influenced by indigenous peoples.
There is a long history of unequal treatment by the state and the public towards indigenous peoples and
believers, resulting in negative stereotypes and stigma against them. This religious marginalization then
resulted in the general public’s understanding and view of beliefs and their believers from seeing the flow
of belief as a cultural tradition as a negative thing. Indigenous Religious Groups as a vulnerable group
that is constantly at risk and in a marginal position. Cultural heritage has a significant role in recognizing
and strengthening the identity of indigenous peoples and believers. Cultural heritage is an object or
intangible attribute that is the identity of a society or group inherited from previous generations and
preserved for generations to come. Cultural heritage in this context becomes identity reinforcement and
has a significant role to re-strengthen traditions and rituals that were once lost. One of the requirements
for the recognition of Indigenous Law Communities recognized by the state is the existence of a cultural
heritage that shows the consistency of the determination of the identity of this group. The strength of
this cultural inheritance, they may recover sovereignty over their traditional territory and forest. In this
instance, the role of Intangible Culture Heritage as a Tool for Social Inclusion is for the community to
appreciate the existing cultural differences. This presentation will look at the role of cultural heritage as A
Trajectory for Indigenous Religious Groups in Indonesia.
Keywords: Indigenous Religious Group, Intangible Heritage, Social Inclusion
A. Introduction
Indigenous religions and those who practice them are now integral to Indonesia’s rich and varied cultural
landscape. This indigenous religion is practiced by the people of Indonesia’s indigenous tribes. They form
indigenous religion as a component of indigenous belief systems and practices. Since the beginning of
the development of tribal life in Indonesia, both have been present simultaneously. To this point, they
have been subjected to a process of marginalization by the religious group that holds the preponderant
position in the community. This group views the indigenous religion as a sort of heresy.
For a considerable time, the Indonesian government has acknowledged this religious community’s
presence. For instance, in 1951, the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia recognized the
presence of 73 in the “List of sects, faiths, and beliefs other than Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity
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and Catholicism” (Subagya, 1993:9). According to statistics that were made public in 2017, the Ministry
of Education and Culture for Believers in Indonesia recognized 178 religious groups that were dispersed
across 730 districts (Kemendikbud 2018). According to information provided by the Association of
Indonesian Supreme Trustees/Majelis Luhur Kepercayaan Indonesia (MLKI), there are forty belief groups
in the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the year 2020. This includes both belief groups that have been
inventoried and those that have not been inventoried by the Directorate of Trust and Tradition, Director
General of Culture, Ministry of Education and Culture (MLKI, 2020). There have been rapid growth in the
number of people who follow this community.
A fresh wind is blowing in the direction of Indonesia’s indigenous religious communities because of the
Constitutional Court Decision no. 97 of 2016. At a session on 7’th November, 2017, the Constitutional
Court granted all the requests from indigenous religious organizations that desire state recognition in
recording documents related to population administration. A court review of the Population Administration
Law no. 23 of 2006 on the inclusion of the religion column on identity cards resulted in the decision of
MK/97/PUU-XVI/2016. This decision was issued because of the review.
Before the Constitutional Court 97/2016, members of indigenous religions were considered a minority,
and the state had not provided them with official recognition or services that included their beliefs. It is
common for people to mistake the existence of indigenous religion for that of a heretical and irreligious
sect. They are a group on the margins of society because of numerous stigmas, which lead to violations
of economic, social and cultural rights, leading to various types of discrimination. Forms of discrimination
are detailed below in Table 1:
No Forms of Discrimination Effect on The Group
1. Refusal to recognize identity as an indigenous Discrimination of indigenous religious groups by the
religion majority group from the process from birth to death
2. Undocumented married cases and procedures Marriages of original religious adherents cannot be
for marriage vows etc., only exist according to recorded, impacting other civil rights
religion by applicable laws and regulations The absence of creed marriage procedures makes the
award a record
3. Refusal to register children’s birth certificates In addition to being unable to get the right to education by
from indigenous religion communities by the their religion and belief, children from indigenous religious
state communities are also forced to take lessons from the
dominant religion by the majority religious group
4. Rejection and obstacles in funeral affairs for In many cases, the bodies of indigenous religious
indigenous religious communities communities cannot be buried in public cemeteries
5. Refusal to establish places of worship and In addition to “minority” religious groups who have
destroy rites belonging to indigenous religious difficulty establishing houses of worship, local religious
communities groups also find it challenging to maintain places of
worship
6. Waiver of right to record. Fill in the religion Indigenous religious groups cannot fill the religion column
column by the religion and belief in the ID card according to their religion and beliefs
7. Restrictions on freedom of expression and The expression of the spiritual culture of the indigenous
self-development for indigenous religious religious community often gets repression and prohibition
communities
126 Table 1. Forms of Discrimination Against Indigenous Religious Communities
Source: Note by Author (2022)
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The indigenous religious group has been subjected to discrimination, which served as the impetus for
the government to take official legal action through a judicial review of Administrative Law no. 23 of 2006.
One of the types of discrimination was the recognition of the freedom to practice a religion, which was not
allowed to be reflected on identification cards (KTP). Because members of indigenous religions are not
counted in the KTP column, the current system of population administration is regarded as insufficiently
inclusive.
The ruling 97/XI/2016 made by the Constitutional Court has immediate repercussions for indigenous
religious communities. When discussing the indigenous religions of Indonesia, there are two primary
categories of people that need to be considered: indigenous peoples and believers.
A brief mention of faith-based groups was included in the Joint Ministerial Regulations No. 43 and 41
published in 2009. ‘Belief in God Almighty is a statement and implementation of a personal relationship
with God Almighty based on a belief manifested by the behavior of piety and worship of God Almighty
and the practice of nobility whose teachings are sourced from the local wisdom of the Indonesian nation,’
it has been said. ‘Belief in God Almighty’ is a statement and implementation of a personal relationship
with God Almighty based on a belief manifested by the behavior. Therefore, the word “belief” denotes
“belief” in its literal sense, but it relates to what is referred to as “indigenous religion” in this study. Even
though the term “indigenous peoples” can be understood in several different ways, this article will focus
on traditional communities.9 , indigenous peoples and customary law communities.
Picture 1. Maps of Indigenous Religious Group spread out in 16 Provinces
Source: Directorate of Belief in God Almighty and Customary Law Community,
Ministry of Education and Culture
9 Traditional communities are understood as social communities based on customs. Still, it does not have other characteristics possessed by customary
law communities, such as the relatively complete organizational structure of customary administr
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Picture 2. Maps of Indigenous People
Source: Directorate of Belief in God Almighty and Customary Law Community,
Ministry of Education and Culture
The indigenous religious group in Indonesia is home to a sizeable and widely dispersed population,
making it quantitatively and qualitatively significant. There are 175 communities of believers in Indonesia,
and they are dispersed across 16 different provinces, according to the records of the Directorate of
Belief in God Almighty and Indigenous Peoples within the Directorate General of Culture within the
Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud, 2020). According to the same data source, the
indigenous population comprises 828 communities dispersed across the whole archipelago of Indonesia
(Kemendikbud, 2020).
The indigenous religious group, which was previously a secret population, will, because of the decision
of the Constitutional Court 97/2016, receive the fulfillment of their citizenship requirements in the form
of acknowledgment from the state. According to Kristian Stoke (2017), full citizenship exists within a
tiered citizenship dimension consisting of four quadrants that need to be completed to achieve inclusive
citizenship status. In his book published in 2017, Stoke (2017) discusses citizenship in terms of its four
different quadrants, which are as follows: citizenship as a legal status, citizenship as a right; citizenship
as membership; and citizenship as participation. Membership, legal status and rights will not qualify
someone for citizenship if they do not participate in political life. Without a legally recognized status,
membership, privileges and participation will be incompatible with legal citizenship. To avoid the social
obligations of citizenship, membership, legal status and involvement without rights are required. The
cultural benefits of citizenship will not be available if legal status, rights, or participation are denied
without membership.
The Constitutional Court Decision 97/2016 is a practice of fulfilling legal status and rights and encouraging
participation, but it does not entirely fulfill membership for indigenous religious communities. This decision
was made about the citizenship dimension by Stoke (2017), many of the cultural spaces of indigenous
religions have not been considered and as a result, there have been instances of violation. In the context
of the discussion on how indigenous religious groups can achieve a sense of civic fulfillment, this article
presents the concept of intangible cultural legacy as an alternative method.
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In order to establish inclusive citizenship, it is necessary to consider the wide variety of heritage indigenous
religions. The fact that indigenous peoples are adherents to local religions means that indigenous religion
is also a component of the context of indigenous peoples. It is established in Law No. 41/1999 on Forestry
that communities governed by customary law are valid so long as it can be proven that these communities
still exist and other groups acknowledge the rights of their members. After that, they harvest items from
the forest to fulfill the day-to-day needs of the indigenous people and carry out forest management
operations based on customary law that is not in direct opposition to the law. According to Law No. 41 of
1999, the existence of communities governed by customary law is recognized if, in reality, they meet the
following elements: the community is still in the form of an association; then there is the institution in the
state of the apparatus of customary rulers; there is also a clear area governed by customary law there
are legal institutions and instruments, exceptionally customary courts, which are still being adhered to
and finally, they are still collecting forest products in tanneries.
Indigenous religious groups, the history of the Indigenous Law Community, how to trace the history of
MHA, myths, folklore, and legends, among other things the community model of paguyuban or kinship,
with its egalitarian, decision-making and deliberative aspects Adat institutions in the form of Customary
Rulers, with their customary institutions, customary structures, traditional leaders and other aspects the
existence of customary areas and customary systems; and so on are all examples. The utilization of this
information serves as the basis for building and enhancing the identities of native religious communities.
As a result, when customary forests are declared as part of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples,
the situation becomes more complex. The indigenous peoples’ religious practices have elevated the
significance of many of the customary sacred forests. For instance, a breach of religious rights occurs
when customary woodlands are cut down to make way for agriculture. Not only are there ceremonies,
but there are also customary woodlands. In addition, customary woods are essential repositories of
intellectual property and traditional knowledge for indigenous faiths, both of which should be protected.
For indigenous religious communities, understanding their cultural legacy, particularly their intangible
culture, becomes a vital component of the analysis that goes into developing strategies for social inclusion.
In the context of discussions on cultural heritage, the intangible cultural heritage acknowledged in the
international document ESS810 is the type of heritage that needs to be protected and managed to
contribute to sustainable development. According to international criteria, the practices, representations,
expressions and knowledge of linked objects or artifacts handed down from one generation to the next
are all considered part of intangible cultural heritage. Oral traditions, performing arts, social practices,
rituals and celebrations, social practices and knowledge and practices about the cosmos are some of
the forms it can take. A strong connection exists between the indigenous religious community and the
components that constitute the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In order to provide the indigenous religious
community with the possibility for the Intangible Cultural Heritage to serve as one means toward the goal
of fulfilling inclusive citizenship.11
Indigenous Religious as A Right
Indigenous religions have been frequently included in the discussion of religious studies up until this
point. The idea of world religion is deconstructed through the utilization of indigenous religious practices.
10 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2018. 2017. The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage
Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris. Source: http://www.whc.unesco.org/en/guidelines/
11 Indonesia has ratified intangible cultural heritage through Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 78 of 2007 concerning the
Ratification of the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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The indigenous people are classified as animists due to their belief system, which is seen as archaic and
antiquated (Tylor: 1871). The world indigenous paradigm has evolved into a well-established doctrine
that marginalizes native religions by referring to their practices as examples of animist culture. Post-
colonial scholars, who believed that Tylor’s opinions contributed to the project of colonialism, were not
fans of his research and gave it negative reviews (De Wesse: 2010, de Montclos: 2008, Aragon: 2000,
Keyer: 1993; Kammerer: 1990).
In contrast to the world religion paradigm, indigenous religion is founded on the cosmological idea that
the cosmos is inhabited by various “persons”, including both human and non-human beings. The concept
of personhood is not synonymous with that of human beings but is instead understood to transcend
beyond them (Maarif:2019). Responsibility, ethics and reciprocity in intersubjective relationships are the
three fundamental tenets that underpin the indigenous religion paradigm. Both man and nature are
considered to be equally essential themes. The indigenous religion paradigm is quite near to believers and
indigenous peoples who share the same slice within the setting of Indonesia. Believers and indigenous
peoples have religious rituals that do not adhere to a hierarchical structure; humans and nature are
seen to be on an equal footing. This behavior can be observed in various indigenous peoples’ traditional
festivities, rituals and other sociocultural organizations. Since indigenous peoples and believers share
aspects and parallels of the same sociocultural traditions, the term “indigenous religion” will be used to
refer to both groups throughout the remainder of this paper.
Following the ruling by the Constitutional Court in 97/2016, the religious studies field no longer has a
monopoly on the study of indigenous religion. The situation of Indigenous religion is investigated in
Indonesia’s context of the growth of religious freedom and becomes a developing sociological study. This
research was carried out before and after the country achieved its current level of religious tolerance.
Some academics have commented on the approach that democracy and politics take toward social
inclusion. According to the annual report of the UGM CRCS for 2019, the level of social inclusion achieved
in advocating for indigenous religious groups is highest in five provinces. The process of building social
relations and respecting individuals and groups so that they can participate fully in decision-making,
economic, social, political and cultural activities and are equal in accessing and controlling resources
for the fulfillment of fundamental rights, so that they can experience a standard of living is what is meant
by the term “social inclusion.” In this case, social inclusion is building social relations and respecting
individuals and groups. A living level that is acceptable for the community as a whole). To put it another
way, the existence of individual or group social relationships via emphasizing collective involvement
(Silver: 2015), the existence of fairness or equality of participation and the prioritization of collective
participation (Fraser: 2010).
It is generally agreed that social inclusion as a strategy for campaigning on behalf of indigenous religious
communities is effective. The ruling made by the Constitutional Court in 2016 (case number 97/2016),
which grants indigenous religions official status in the law, affects positive developments in public
services. The state acknowledges the existence of indigenous religious communities by recognizing
the organizations’ religious identities. In Indonesia, lobbying for religious pluralism can be replaced with
an approach that is more effective than focusing on social inclusion. Indonesia’s advocacy of various
freedoms has been founded on analyzing power, rights and interests. This is according to the opinion
of Samsu Riza Panggabean, which was published in Bagir (2014). Advocating for the rights of minority
groups, including the rights of indigenous religious groups to obtain their right to determine their identity,
including their choice of religion, is one strategy for achieving social inclusion. This strategy involves
advocating for the rights of minority groups.
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After the decision of the Constitutional Court in 97/2016, some recent research on indigenous religion
has taken an approach that emphasizes inclusive citizenship (CRCS: 2019, Mubarak: 2020). The Stokk
(2017) layered inclusive citizenship approach (legal status, rights, participation, membership) will be
re-examined in this paper. This approach, which has to be supplemented by supporting instruments, is
the focus of this research. An instrument that will increase the analysis of the membership of indigenous
religious organizations is called Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is a tool.
This paper will focus on the Marapu community in Sumba as an example case that shows how the
preservation of intangible heritage can become one tool that supports the identification of recognizing the
right of the indigenous religious group. The Marapu religion is one of Indonesia’s indigenous religions with
a reasonably large population (BPS East Sumba 2013). In addition, the Marapu community in Sumba is
one of the example cases that show how the preservation of intangible heritage can become one tool that
supports the identification of recognizing right.
The Position of Indigenous Religion in the Advancement of Indonesian Culture
In 2017, the government of Indonesia adopted a law to promote the country’s rich cultural heritage. The
culture of Indonesia is going to get a boost from this law. In addition to the Cultural Conservation Law
No. 11 of 2010, this law helps to strengthen the country’s cultural heritage. The legislation on cultural
heritage safeguards cultural resources in the form of cultural heritage. Act. No. 5 of 2017 concerning
the Advancement of Culture, Article 1 paragraph (3) defines the Advancement of Culture as an effort to
increase cultural resilience and the contribution of Indonesian culture amid world civilization through the
protection, development, utilization, and fostering of culture. The promotion of culture as a tactical policy
instrument focuses on ten elements of culture called the OPK or Object for the Advancement of Culture.
The ten OPKs include a) oral traditions, b) manuscripts, c) customs, d) rites, e) traditional knowledge, f)
traditional technology, g) art, h) language, i) folk games, and j) traditional sports.
The Ministry of Education and Culture, concerning the law for the Advancement of Culture (2017),
established the Indonesian cultural strategy as a strategic plan, which was subsequently translated
into seven strategic agendas. These agendas focus on the following areas: Included in these are the
following: developing and utilizing cultural wealth to strengthen Indonesia’s position in the international
world; utilizing objects of cultural advancement to improve community welfare; promoting a culture that
protects biodiversity and strengthens ecosystems; ensuring an inclusive culture; providing a space for
diverse cultural expression and encouraging interaction to strengthen inclusive culture; protecting and
developing traditional cultural values, expressions and practices to enrich national culture; protecting and
developing traditional cultural values, expressions and practices to enrich national culture.
The indigenous religious group holds a significant place under the law for the Advancement of Culture.
The indigenous religious community’s cultural landscape includes the ten artifacts for developing
culture, which is an essential component of that environment. To provide comprehensive services for the
indigenous religious group, the presence of the law for the Advancement of Culture was necessary. One
of the primary goals of Indonesia’s cultural strategy is to make the country’s culture more welcoming to
people of all backgrounds. This can be accomplished by making efforts to protect people’s freedom to
maintain and develop their cultural values, by increasing efforts to preserve and develop cultural heritage
as evidence of the expression of cultural diversity, and by encouraging cultural interaction across groups
and regions with a spirit of unity and togetherness. Within this discussion’s framework, intangible heritage
further bolsters indigenous religious communities’ identities within the context of Indonesia’s rich cultural
diversity.
12. The Convention for The Safeguarding of The Intangible Cultural, UNESCO-Intangible Cultural Heritage, Paris 17 October 2003, ich.unesco.org
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The spirit of the law for the Advancement of Culture is matched by the principles established by UNESCO
in the strategy for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.The Convention for the Safeguarding of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage12 UNESCO states that intangible culture is manifested in five cultural
domains. These cultural domains are as follows: (a) oral tradition and expression, including language
as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage (b) performing art (c) social practices, rituals, and festive
events (e) traditional craftsmanship. In addition, UNESCO highlights that the preservation of intangible
culture is compatible with international human rights instruments, which protect every community, group
or individual’s economic, social, political and cultural rights in achieving sustainable development.
The substantial momentum that should be used to build the indigenous religious community is provided
by Law no. 5 of 2017 for the Advancement of Culture. This law was passed in 2017. In addition, the Law
for the Advancement of Culture requires that the regions turn the Principles of Regional Culture into
a strategic instrument at the regional level. This requirement is included in the law. In the meantime,
the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was already part of the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage is an international instrument that affirms the role of the indigenous
religious group within the cultural landscape.
A significant component of legal reference for the administration of Indonesian culture is the Law for
the Advancement of Culture (Law for the Promotion of Culture). According to Indonesia’s Law for the
Advancement of Culture, the primary focus of cultural promotion should be on cultural items, despite
the country’s extensive collection of diverse heritage assets. Protecting the nation’s cultural history is
one of the primary focuses of the Law for the Advancement of Culture (Law for the Advancement of
Culture). According to the Law for the Advancement of Culture, the country’s cultural heritage consists of
the various ethnic groups, customs, languages, knowledge, technologies, traditions, beliefs and artistic
expressions inside the country. As a result, the Law for the Advancement of Culture transforms into a
legislative instrument that outlines the significance of effectively administering intangible cultural heritage
within the context of the national cultural plan.
Intangible Culture Heritage as Social Inclusive tools for Indigenous Religion
The promulgation of Decision 97/2016 by the Constitutional Court, in combination with the enactment of
the law for the Advancement of Culture no. 5 of 2017, was recently passed. Both of these legal items will
affect the community of Indigenous Religions in some way. The judgment that the Constitutional Court
issued in 97/2016 had several direct repercussions, one of which was a modification to the name of the
Indigenous Religions community in the ID Card (KTP) column. Previously, the only religious identity
option accessible to them was the one that appeared on their ID card (Islam, Christianity, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Confucianism). Another possibility is that they do not fill in the ID Card field, instead leaving
it blank (-). It is vital to change the ID card column for the indigenous religious community to expose the
number of indigenous groups that have been thought to be a hidden population.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration (2021)
released data on replacing the ID Card column in the indigenous religion community. On December 31’st,
2020, as many as 105,057 indigenous religious communities changed their population administration
data. There are seven regencies or cities out of 398 regencies or cities in Indonesia with the highest
number of indigenous religions that have replaced their ID cards column. Illustration as detailed below
in Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Districts with the highest number of indigenous religions recorded
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs, Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration (2021)
This data surprised some circles; the number of 105,057 is not so significant compared to the number
of indigenous religions, which reached 1,003 (2021). As a new legal identity, the change in the ID card
column did not get much enthusiasm from the indigenous religious community. This figure assumes that
the Indigenous religion dimension is not only approached with legal status, rights and participation but
also membership issues that must be treated with a cultural approach. Stokke (2017) implies that full
citizenship must fulfill all four dimensions. Indigenous Religion communities need tools that can capture
their cultural landscape.
The Law for the Advancement of Culture is a legal umbrella that can be utilized further to develop
indigenous communities’ cultural and religious landscape. Protecting, developing, utilizing and coaching
are the four strategic stages incorporated into the efforts to foster culture. Taking inventory of the Object
for the Advancement of Culture as part of the protection measures involves recording, documenting,
determining and updating the information (OPK). In addition, numerous revitalization, repatriation and
restoration initiatives are underway to protect OPK.
According to information provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (2021), East Sumba is the region that has
the highest number of areas that reported changes in population administration records. This information
was obtained from the region. One of the regencies that makes up East Nusa Tenggara Province and
can be found on the island of Sumba is called East Sumba. The Merapu group is considered one of
Sumba’s traditional faiths. Marapu, the indigenous religion of Sumba, can be interpreted differently. The
word Marapu is derived from the words ma, which means “which,” and rappu, which means “invisible”
or “hidden.” A further interpretation of the word Marapu is composed of the words mera, which indicates
comparable, and appu, which refers to the ancestor (Yewangoe: 1980, Kipp: 1987, Kuiper: 1998). The five
ways humans can achieve essential harmony are harmony between humans and the cosmos, harmony
between humans and the environment, harmony between humans and others, harmony between humans
who violate prohibitions and those who are offended and harmony between humans and the environment
themselves (Mike, 2016).
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Photo 1. Rato Marapu, indigenous religion leader in Sumba
Source: Author Collection (2017)
In the document on the Principles of Regional Culture (PPKD) of East Nusa Tenggara Province (2018),
Marapu is one of the local religions inventoried as one of the OPKS. The strategic document of regional
culture is the central mandate to implement the Law for the Advancement of Culture in the regions. From
the document on the Principles of Regional Culture (PPKD) of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Marapu is
noted to have six important OPKS, some of which are shown in the table below.
Types of Objects for the Number Elements
Advancement of Culture
5 Li Dadi; Li Moruk, Li Lawi, Li Mangoma, Li Mati, Li Nyabba
Customs 3 Tauna Usu Manua, Parung Ta Kodonga Ratu, Perung Ta Liangu
Rites Marapu
6 Making ikat clothes, traditional accessories, weaving, bamboo crafts,
Traditional knowledge local food, jewelry
3 Looms, pottery, katippa
Traditional technology 16 Tarian Kataga, Tarian Herung Laba, Tarian Reia, Kayawara, Na
Traditional Art Rengu, Payoyela, Nenggu Sarama, Negu Korung, Harama, Jungga,
4 Kataga Nequ, Pahat Batu Kubur, Pahat Tiang Rumah, Wuruwenya
Language 4 Anakalang, Magena, Mamboru, Mapaena
Traditional game Pawolung Manu (cock fighting), Palapang Jara (horse racing), Patau
Kajia (gasing), Kaula (congklak)
Table 2. OPK Marapu di Sumba
Source: Main Thoughts of Regional Culture of East Nusa Tenggara Province (2018)
Compared with the Ministry of Home Affairs data in 2020, which states that East Sumba has a large
population of indigenous religions, specifically Marapu the data from OPK for the Province of NTT is
interesting. This shows that 12.61 percent of the total population lives in East Sumba. Nggay Mehang
Tana, a follower of the Marapu religion who hails from East Sumba, is one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing
judicial review of the population administration.
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In West Sumba, awareness of maintaining the Intangible culture in the Marapu community. Doka Kaka
Village, Loli sub-district, West Sumba Regency, includes the Marapu value in the village regulation policy.
Residents of the village of Doka Kaka keep the spring a protected area because it is closely related to
the Marapu rite (Mike: 2018). Concerning the protection of springs and rituals, the Wai Humba Festival is
worth noting. One crucial festival held regularly is the Wai Humba Festival, the Festival of Sumbanesse.
The festival was held for the first time in 2012 and was spearheaded by community leaders and local
NGOs. The Wai Humba Festival aims to promote environmental conservation while preserving the
cultural heritage of Sumba in the context of the marapu belief. Marapu plays a central role in the Wai
Humba festival. The leader of Marapu, Wunangu and Rato lead the ritual on Haharu hill (East Sumba).
Ideas of environmental protection in Sumba are closely related to the Marapu belief. Marapu refers to
ancestral spirits and other spirits. According to the belief, the “rite of water” (kalarat wai) is performed at
freshwater springs, where marapu followers ask for clean water and express their gratitude to marapu.
Springs are regarded as sacred places and polluting them is strictly prohibited.
The experience of Marapu Sumba is a case study to examine the complexity of the dimensions of social
inclusion for indigenous religious communities in Indonesia. First, data from the Ministry of Home Affairs
states that East Sumba has the most access to identity changes after the MK/97 decision. They are
certainly the Marapu community. Marapu is the second largest population, 14.21% or equivalent to
33,939 people (BPS 2013).
Photo 2. The Marapu leader leads the Ritual of the Wai Humba Festival
Source: Author (2017)
The object of advancing the culture of the NTT Province is where the data comes from that will be
provided to you in the next step of the process. These statistics shed light on the crucial role of the
Marapu community in producing Sumba’s distinctive cultural identity during its creation. Marapu has
supported the many diverse attempts undertaken to preserve the cultural past of Sumba and Marapu
has been helpful in the various initiatives that have been done. The Wai Humba Festival is an event that
uses the Marapu way of life and a fundamental set of concepts as the basis for the project to monetize
environmental conservation and raise awareness about the issue.
Donders Foundation, a local community-based organization in Southwest Sumba, is aware of the potential
importance of traditional religion in the Marapu community. The Donders Foundation, which has been
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working alongside Marapu in recent years since 2017, aims to expand access to public services that are
inclusive of all people while also paying attention to Marapu’s cultural legacy. The Donders Foundation
has compiled a list of Marapu poetry from various communities throughout 2017-2019. Additionally, the
Donders Foundation assisted with capacity-building and profiling efforts on behalf of Rato, the religious
leader of the Marapu people.13 Donders Foundation has compiled hundreds of profiles of Rato in West
Sumba and Southwest Sumba, including his place in rituals and his responsibilities in performing them.
Stokke’s (2017) layered citizenship approach stresses that the fulfillment of inclusive citizenship is
integrative and can be accomplished through efforts to attain legal status, rights, participation and
membership in a community. The East Sumba Marapu case study shows that indigenous religions have
a cultural landscape dimension that considers cultural legacy, including intangible cultural heritage. This
fact is brought to our attention by the study. The footprints of the Sumbanese, who view Marapu as a
cultural landscape, lend support to the fervor with which Marapu Sumba advocates for a modification to
the identification card. Marapu, or the value of the Sumbanese way of life, is extremely important to the
Sumbanese people. In addition, intangible cultural heritage refers to the culture still actively practiced by
the Sumba people.
B. CONCLUSION
This paper does not intend to argue against the several methodologies from the social sciences that have,
up to this point, made the study of indigenous religion more fruitful. The approach of inclusive citizenship
is one of them that may be found in the paradigm of social inclusion. Through utilizing various intangible
heritage practices, Marapu Sumba’s expertise has contributed to the expansion of the paradigm of social
inclusion. The Law for the Advancement of Culture, which seeks to promote cultures that are more
accepting of a diverse range of people and perspectives, is aligned with efforts to preserve intangible
heritage.
The Law for the Advancement of Culture states that one of its principles is diversity. This means
acknowledging and maintaining differences in ethnicity, race, religion and belief. Efforts to preserve
intangible culture are indirectly a form of implementation of the Law for the Advancement of Culture that
promotes an inclusive culture. When the use of intangible heritage makes inclusive social tools for self-
identification because there are so many types of indigenous peoples in Indonesia, not all of which are
summarized in the concept of indigenous religious groups. Then the position of marginality as expressed
in the indigenous religious concept does not become a significant part of determining Indigenous People.
Then also, in the territory of indigenous peoples, there is management and autonomy in the area’s
direction. Still, not all indigenous groups have the type of territorial control that is autonomous. Traditions
in indigenous religions refer to traditional living traditions based on natural resource management and
are non-modern, but not all indigenous religious groups are like that. The concept of indigenous religion
then emphasizes how the indigenous religious group manages its identity as an indigenous community.
An alternate approach to doing an inclusive cultural analysis in indigenous religious discourse can be
found in Intangible Heritage. To this point, discussions regarding indigenous religion have taken place
within the context of religious governance and cultural government. Each other’s arguments in the Marapu
Sumba case are persuasive. The management of a well-established Marapu culture encourages the
acceleration of legal identity (through the high change in identity cards after the MK 97/2016 decision),
the fulfillment of socio-cultural-economic rights, and Marapu’s participation in the implementation of
development. These goals can be accomplished through the high change in identity cards.
13 Yayasan Donders. 2018. Profil Rato Marapu dan Umbu. Sumba Barat Daya: 2018
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C. REFERENCE
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Dinas Kebudayaan Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur. (2018). Pokok Pemikiran Kebudayaan Daerah.
Kupang.
Direktorat Kepercayaan terhadap Tuhan Yang Maha Esa. (2020). Review Terminologi dan Strategi
Pemenuhan Hak Penghayat Kepercayaan Terhadap Tuhan Yang Maha Esa dan Masyarakat Adat.
Jakarta.
Fraser, N. (2010). Injustice at Intersecting Scales: On ‘Social Exclusion’ and the ‘Global Poor. European
Journal of Social Theory 13(3) 363–371. DOI:10.1177/1368431010371758
Hillary Silver. (1995). Reconceptualizing social disadvantage: Three paradigms of social exclusion. In G.
Rodgers, C. Gore, & J. B. Figueiredo (Eds.), Social exclusion: Rhetoric, reality, responses. Geneva,
Switzerland: International Institute for Labour Studies, United Nations Development Programme.
Husni Mubarak. (2022). Advokasi Inklusi Sosial: Praktik Baik Advokasi Penghayat Marapu Sumba di
NTT. Jakarta: The Asia Foundation
J.F. Holleman. (1981). Van Vollenhoven on Indonesian Adat Law.
Kemendikbud (2017) Undang-undang no. 5 tahun 2017 tentang Pemajuan Kebudayaan.
Kipp, R. S. & Rogers, S. (1987). Indonesian Religions in Transition. Tucson: The University of Arizona
Press
Kuipers, J. (1998). Language, Identity, and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual
Speech on the Island of Sumba. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maarif, Samsul.2018.Pasang surut Rekognisi Agama Leluhur dalam Politik Agama di Indonesia.
Yogyakarta. CRCS.
Pater Mike. (2018). MARAPU Pa Maringngi Pa Malala Humba (Marapu Memberkati Humba). Magelang:
Borobudur Writers Festival
Samsul Maraif, dkk. (2019). Merangkul Penghayat Kepercayaan Melalui Advokasi Inklusi Sosial.
Yogyakrta: CRCS UGM
Stokke, Kristian. (2017). “Politics of Citizenship: Towards an Analytical Framework” in Eric Hiariej and
Kristian Stokke (eds). Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia. Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia
Subagya, Rahmat. 1993. Kepercayaan, Kebatinan, Kerohanian, Kejiwaan, dan Agama. Yogyakarta.
Kanisius.
Tylor, E.B. (1871). Primitive Culture: Research into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion,
Art, and Custom. London: Murray.
UNESCO, The Convention for The Safeguarding of The Intangible Cultural, UNESCO-Intangible Cultural
Heritage, Paris 17 October 2003, ich.unesco.org
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2018. 2017. The Operational Guidelines
for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris.
http://www.whc.unesco.org/en/guidelines/
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2018. 2017. The Operational Guidelines
for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris.
http://www.whc.unesco.org/en/guidelines/
Yayasan Donders. 2018. Profil Rato Marapu dan Umbu. Sumba Barat Daya
Zainal Abidin Bagir, (2014). Memetakan Masalah dan Advokasi untuk Keragaman Agama, dalam Bagir.
Z. A. dkk, Mengelola Keberagaman dan Kebebasan Beragama, Sejarah Tradisi dan Advokasi.
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Makoto Koike. (2019) Indigenous and Local Knowledge Promoting SDGs in Indonesia: The case of
The Sumbanese Cultural Festival. Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development,
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People, Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 44.
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DR. SHERNAZ CAMA
Lecturer, University of Delhi & Director Parzor Foundation New
Delhi, India
Dr. Shernaz Cama, Associate Professor, teaches at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.
She is Advisor, Fulbright Educational Programme, Executive Council Member, Temple of
Understanding, Honorary Research Fellow, College of Humanities, University of Exeter and
Member, Arts and Humanities Research Council, (AHRC), U.K. as well as Member, International
Advisory Group of the European Research Council, ERC. Dr. Cama has edited and authored
several books and guided international senior scholars in their research projects. In 1999, Dr.
Cama was invited by UNESCO to initiate a project on the Preservation and Promotion of Parsi
Zoroastrian Culture and Heritage. As Honorary Director of Parzor Foundation, she guides
researches in Zoroastrian culture and demography in India and abroad. Dr. Cama has produced
several movies for the Parzor project, curated the largest ever exposition on the Zoroastrians in
the Everlasting Flame International Programme, 2016, has coordinated and won for Navroze,
a Multinational Candidature, the UNESCO Award, “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible
Heritage of Humanity”, now called ICH. Dr. Cama has been awarded the Mazda Education
Foundation Award, the Mancherji Edalji Joshi Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to
the Zoroastrian community and the World Zoroastrian Congress, July 2022, World Community
Service Award.
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NAVROZE: COOPERATION ACROSS COUNTRIES
Shernaz Cama
University of Delhi & Parzor Foundation, New Delhi, India
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
The Covid pandemic has led to reimagining physical and mental ecosystems across the world, building
stronger communities to achieve the interlinked Sustainable Development Goals, 2030. How does this fit
in with the Convention for Intangible Cultural Heritage and why is a Bronze Age festival important for both
the SDG and the ICH today? Across Central Asia the coming of the Spring Equinox is a time of community
celebration; bidding farewell to not only the cold of winter but the coldness of broken relationships while
recreating bonds between humanity and nature. The limited space of the Haft Sheen Table is a metaphor
for the Vernal Equinox celebrated as the New Year by more than 300 million people worldwide, from the
Balkans to India and Diasporas across the globe. Many of these neighbouring countries may quarrel
over political boundaries, but share a cultural and emotional bond about Navroze. Thanksgiving, to the
seven elements which make up life, celebrations of nature blossoming, picnics by streams, songs, dance
and performances are all part of a living cultural heritage passed on across generations by an osmotic
process of observance, continuity and thoughtful change. First inscribed in 2009 on the Representative
List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO and then recognized by the Sixty-
fourth General Assembly, Plenary, 71st Meeting (PM) as “International Day of Nowruz”, it affirms a life of
harmony with the earth, the cosmic cycles of renewal and respect for all Creation. This time of peace and
solidarity fits in perfectly with the goals of equality, purity of water and earth, responsibility towards our
‘One Earth’ while emphasizing the role of women in maintaining traditions and passing them forward to
the next generation. This multifaceted festival of joy had almost died out in many countries of its origin.
The role of UNESCO and the effort of Non-Govenmental Organizations, Governments and civil society to
preserve, protect and revive this valuable legacy have resulted in ten years of oral tradition research, field
documentation with film and photography, while celebrations of Navroze have revived across the world,
especially among youth. Working on an early multinational candidature, at a time when communications
were much more difficult than today, was not an easy task. Yet, the reward of witnessing its instant
recognition ten years later, by the whole world, at the Almond Blossom Festival, Agrigento, Italy, 2019
has been our reward.
Key words: Humanity, Intangible Heritage, Nature, Navroze, Revival
A. INTRODUCTION
Cultural memory reflects the similarities and diversity of people across boundaries of time and space, but
is fragile. Every day, irreplaceable parts of this memory disappear forever. UNESCO, the world agency
responsible for the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage, in 1992, launched the Memory
of the World Programme to guard against a globally growing “collective amnesia”. This was because of
the realization that cultural heritage is not just found in tangible objects. It includes living expressions;
traditions handed down from our ancestors and safeguarded so as to be able to pass them on to our
descendants. This culminated in the creation of the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible
Cultural Heritage in 2003.
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The urgency in the 21st century is that as the world globalized, a cultural hierarchy emerged. Customs
and traditions were being lost in the race for modernization. Intangible heritage only survives as long
as it is practiced; it is a living form of oral traditions, songs and music, the performing arts, crafts whose
techniques are learnt by osmosis in families and social practices particularly rituals and festivals, mainly
preserved by women across the centuries. The importance of this living tradition is that it holds within
knowledge and practices of how to live in harmony with nature, the animal kingdom and with communities
around us. This harmony is necessary not just for mutual respect but to provide conditions for creativity
of the human imagination. From 2001, UNESCO encouraged communities and countries to protect this
intangible cultural heritage, awarding the title Masterpieces of the Oral & Intangible Heritage of Humanity
to make practitioners and states recognize their value to our world. There was a need to protect not
just traditional forms of cultural expression but even the spaces which they occupied within a culture.
Living heritage is not static, it changes sometimes even within a short period of time and adapts to new
circumstances but its core beliefs are the bedrock on which cultures stand.
The Navroze Candidature
There was almost a sense of pleasant wonder, even disbelief, when countries cut off from each other for
centuries but once part of the Old Persian Empire, decided to come together with UNESCO to protect
and sustain the ancient Spring Festival-Navroze. Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz
Republic, Pakistan and India, recognizing an impending loss decided to put aside political and religious
differences to celebrate the joy of nature as it comes back to life. This task was not easy because fax
messages sent to governments took a long time to reach the communities who had kept the celebrations
alive despite several kinds of pressures. Navroze is spelt and celebrated in different fashions but the
first positive was that this plan of working together to declare Navroze an Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity, created a sense of bonding across these regions. It also provided contacts at grass roots,
reminding each community in each country of what it had preserved and what it had forgotten. This
sense of bonding created fellowship and a recognition of a common identity across Central Asia. The
core of this bonding is nature. 21st March in the Western Hemisphere is the return of the sun, flowers
and green grass, a time of welcoming and thanksgiving. It is also a reminder of the eternal cycle of life.
Navroze became a timely reminder of man’s place in this eternal cycle at a time when the effects of
pollution and climate change were becoming obvious not just in these lands but across the globe. It is
for this reason, besides others, that a Bronze Age festival fits in with the Sustainable Development Goals
which we need to foster among all people. The first attempt was to revive a sense of community in each
country, not just through governmental decrees or conferences but by asking people at even the village
level, particularly those of the grandparent generation, to share their memories and stories, teach their
games and dances, recreate the embroideries and teach new generations the symbolism of each aspect
of these cultural traditions. The methodology of recording at that time was expensive because it needed
professional photography and audio-visual equipment. Intangible heritage can be lost very rapidly and
once the communities recognized the urgency, they gathered funds from within their own small finances
rather than wait for funding and lose valuable documentation.
The importance of planting seeds, even in a small pot and watching them grow in each home brought
back a sense of gratitude along with a sense of purpose – it showcased ecological practices in each
home. For the ten years that Navroze was recorded and dossiers submitted, awareness increased
across each region, while other nations too joined the original countries to record and revive their own
celebrations of the festival. The reimagining of ecosystems, the rebuilding of knowledge for children and
the regeneration of nature possible, with simple changes in a consumer - based lifestyle, found young
people as the most inspired inheritors of ancient wisdom. This is primarily because Navroze, like all
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community-based festivals, teaches by practice not by preaching. It fits in perfectly with the Environmental
classes introduced in schools across the world which teach the SDGs and the Green Movement kept
alive particularly by young women, who want to reclaim clean air and water as their birth right.
UNESCO had given a system of documentation which provided good guidelines. Research and recording
in homes and documentation of methods of celebration by each organization with photography and films
encouraged each family to decorate their Haft Sheen table in competition with their neighbours, but
more importantly to explain its meaning to each child and visitor. The core belief of the Spring Festival
is revitalization, putting the old behind and welcoming the new. The spring cleaning or Khaneh tekani
of Iran reminded the Parsis of India why they purified and cleaned their houses, wore new clothes and
welcomed Navroze with music. The warmth of fires, be they of the fire censer of the Zoroastrians being
taken around the home or in courtyards, where a bonfire is lit and young and old leap over the flames
calling for strength and joy, both are symbolic of the coming of light and warmth. Water cleanses, sends
away Dard-o-Bala, pain and unhappiness, brings in freshness and health. These are symbolic attempts
to rediscover purity; in nature and in human relations. Visits are made and broken relationships restored.
The sense of fraternity is paramount as rich and poor come together to eat, enjoy traditional games and
girls create flower garlands.
Azerbaijan in its recordings showcased the importance given to earth, water, fire and wind, the four
elements comprising existence. Fire, through bonfires, torches and candles, is light, defeating the dark
forces of evil. In Tajikistan, water of springs and rivers are celebrated, while for Turkey, traditionally
Nevruz is when the god of goodness overcomes the god of evil. Across all these communities cleaning
water sources and planting trees is important.
The preparation of sweets, pastries and communal cooking as well as communal sharing of food and
sweets is an important part of tradition. Because of the recording of oral traditions, many of these recipes
have now been documented for posterity. Sharing of food is part of the philanthropy expected on Navroze.
While in Achaemenian Persia, gifts were brought from across the empire to the Great King at Persepolis,
the King also returned gifts and gave charity to all. This tradition is a part of repaying the generosity of
mother earth. Coloured eggs, painted with different patterns symbolize fecundity and with the special
breads of Navroze, these countries have realized that the European Easter festival of the Resurrection
of Christ, draws upon this ancient tradition. The placing of a holy book, be it the Avesta or the Koran or
even Collections of spiritual poems reaffirms faith.
The revival of traditional music and crafts made by hand has been another positive of the recognition
of ancient skills and creativity. Due to urbanization and demographic shifts, a primarily agricultural
thanksgiving was being taken over by market forces. The importance of intangible cultural heritage is that
traditions, knowledge and the symbolism of the procedures, is as important as the practice. Transference
to market forces has a negative impact on memory and maintenance of a festival. Similarly, the extended
family gatherings of Navroze had been impacted by the nuclear family, while lack of space and time was
leading to weakening of bonds of kinship. The reiteration of Navroze as a festival of global importance
has helped established the Haft Sheen table, not only in the home but at community gatherings,
acknowledging that a culture’s traditional roots can have a global meaning and impact.
B. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Over the ten years of celebrating Navroze as an intangible cultural heritage of the human genius, recognition
has been created not just of its role in promoting identity and solidarity in its original homelands, but its
promotion of human values of the care for creation, the role of women as preservers and keepers of the
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deepest memories of humanity, empathy among people, reconciliation and above all the celebration of
joy. It provides hope for the future as well as respect for the past. Across countries with the UNESCO and
UN declarations of 2009, when UNESCO inscribed Navroze on the Representative List of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the UN declared 21st March as International Day of Nowruz at the
Sixty-fourth General Assembly, Plenary, there has been international recognition of this festival. Coming
together with great solidarity despite political differences, five Presidents, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad along with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talebani, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Tajik
President Emomali Rahmon and Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamed attended the event
convened for the first time after the United Nations recognized Noruz as an international day in 2010 .
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson in a personal tweet wished Nowruz Piroz
to all those celebrating around the world on 20th March 2022, while USA President and First Lady, Joe
& Jill Biden spoke of how:
The Nowruz holiday brings family and friends together around the table to give thanks for
loved ones, count our blessings, share meals and gifts, reflect on the year that has passed,
and welcome the arrival of spring and the possibilities of a new season. That spirit of new
beginnings and the joy of Nowruz is reflected in our own Haft-Sin table at the White House,
representing our hopes for the new year.
This would have been unheard of before UNESCO declared Navroze as part of the ICH. UNESCO’s
inclusion of Navroze in the Representative List has succeeded in creating a process of understanding
and dialogue across civilizations, even those politically separated such as Iran and the USA. It is this
factor which is so important for global understanding and transformation. The commonality of human
culture which Navroze represents crosses all human made boundaries because it is core to the basis
of life. The SDG have recognized that a human centric world is not sustainable. We are a part of life
and by threatening ecosystems are at a point where we can destroy this beautiful world. Reimagining
development and learning to live with humility on this our One Earth, is imperative. Sustainability is
necessary to be included, not just in higher education, but in all interactions of life. Sustainability also
includes a work-life balance, the need to celebrate and enjoy nature in all its bounty while resting the
mind and body. The modern age was one of conquest; mankind ‘conquered’ mountains and oceans, the
Moon and outer space. The postmodern age has recognized that this has led to global warming and
destruction not only of habitat but of the human psyche. The balance and harmony of the Haft Sheen
table needs to be celebrated in its complete significance. We need:
Sherbet (sweet drink), Sahkar (sugar) and Shaheed (honey) - for sweetness in life
Shirka (vinegar) - for patience and understanding
Shama (candle) - for light
Sonbol - flowers for spring
Sheer/Falooda (milk) - wealth of the Animal Kingdom
Sherab (wine) - for health and enjoyment.
Above all humanity needs care of the spirit and body symbolized by the:
Sheesha (mirror) to smile at oneself and make a wish for the new year & a needle & thread - symbolic
of repairing relationships.
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In 2019, India was represented by Parzor at the 74th Almond Blossom Festival in Agrigento, Sicily,
Italy where it showcased Navroze. Agrigento is a UNESCO heritage site for the Archaeological and
Landscape Park of the Valley of Temples (Valle dei Templi). This coming together of the tangible and
intangible emphasized that equal importance that should be given to both types of heritage. The festival,
with the participation of countries from across the world respects cultural creativity hosting art forms,
rituals and heritage that are part of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage list. It was heartening to know that
several local Italian residents not only had heard of Navroze and its traditional roots in Zoroastrianism,
but had tasted several of the Iranian sweets laid on the table and recognized the table’s roots from Iran.
The audience enjoyed interacting at the table especially the ‘looking into the mirror with a smile,’ ritual
for a happy future. One thing realized strongly was that most participation at the festival was by youth
groups from various countries. This goes to show that increasingly youth are the key to carrying forward
cultural heritage.
C. CONCLUSION
However, ICH needs the connections made by communities from each country to be sustained even
after the given period of time for documentation is over. With support from governments, the NGOs and
those directly involved should be able to communicate with each other without going through constantly
shifting bureaucracy. Many plans, such as Navroze tourist circuits, future research on aspects of music
and traditional dance forms as well as natural places of celebration, could not be completed. If these
lacunae can be corrected and a final dossier shared in book and online PDF formats, it will be a valuable
document for posterity. Heritage is relevant for a group but only when groups come together across
geographical spaces to strengthen original cultural bonds, does the world take notice. The diaspora plays
an important role in adapting traditional forms to contemporary living and making heritage inclusive of all
those around, who come from different cultures. Respect for tradition and for the individuals who have
sustained it needs to be stressed in all documentation and Awards, while awareness of one intangible
heritage, often reminds other cultures of their own forms of traditions stimulating them to protect these
before they disappear. In this way the world understands humanity’s cultural diversity and it becomes a
method of continued creativity. Only if transmitted from generation to generation and adapted to living
environments, can intangible heritage combine with the hopes of sustainable development, create mutual
respect for each community and raise awareness about the importance of oral wisdom handed down
across generations.
D. REFERENCE
Website
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-newyear-idUKTRE62Q0OP20100327
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/20/statement-by-president-joe-
biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-marking-nowruz/
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE 143
Department of National Heritage / Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
DR. PATRICIA ANN HARDWICK
Senior Lecturer/Research Fellow, Music and Performing Art
Department & Malay Civilisation Institute, Sultan Idris Education
University, Malaysia
Dr. Patricia Ann Hardwick is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Sultan
Idris Education University. She holds a Ph.D in Folklore & Ethnomusicology and Anthropology
from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research has been published in Bookbird: Journal
of International Children’s Literature, Asian Ethnology, JMBRAS, Folklore Forum, Midwestern
Folklore and Music and Medicine. Her research has been supported by the Department of
National Heritage (Malaysia), the Institute of Sacred Music (Yale), Fulbright (MACEE 2003-2004
Malaysia, AMINEF 2018-2019 Indonesia), AIFIS and the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program
(U.S. Department of Education). Patricia’s current research interests include intangible cultural
heritage, digital humanities, archiving and cultural sustainability. Currently Patricia is leading a
Fundamental Research (FRGS) project funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education
titled Sustaining Sustainability Fundamental Research Strategies of Resilience and Adaptive
Management in Malaysian Performing Arts.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE 145
Department of National Heritage / Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
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