CIE - Centre for International Heritage Activities
Centrum voor Internationale Erfgoedactiviteiten
Mutual Heritage Activities with Indonesia
Symposium
'Making Heritage Our Resource- Discussions on the Mutual Cultural Heritage Cooperation Indonesia and the Netherlands'
Status: Complete
Duration: 2010
Partners: Indonesian Heritage Trust- BPPI (Badan Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia), Bandung Heritage Society, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands Embassy to Indonesia, National Railway Company Indonesia- Heritage Conservation Division.
Introduction:
CIE together with BPPI organised a meeting in Bandung to discuss the mutual cultural heritage cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands. It was a 4 day event in total, beginning in Jakarta, with the whole delegation being taken to Bandung on a specially arranged heritage train by the National Railway Company.
The BPPI selected the themes for the discussions:
Actions and techniques of heritage conservation
Strengthening the institution and heritage programmes
Heritage investment
Capacity Building
The meeting was officially opened by the Chairman of BPPI and the Deputy Head of Mission at the Nethelands Embassy to Indonesia.
Outline:
8 different Indonesian heritage organisations presented their experiences in working with mutual cultural heritage projects. This was then followed by discussions focused around the different types of cooperation and achievements over the last few years, as well as priorities for future cooperation.
The meeting also aimed to address certain questions:
What kinds of cooperation has been conducted so far?
Who are the major players in both countries?
What have been the main achievements in Indonesia and the Netherlands?
What are the priorities for cooperation in the next 5 years?
What would be the most effective strategy for intervention?
Who are the target groups?
Where are the geographical areas we should be targeting?
Recommendations:
Here are a few select highlights of the recommendations from the Indonesia symposium.
More capacity building is needed for emergency responses and manuals
Cooperations should focus upon the content of shared heritage from both perspectives; both Dutch and Indonesian.
Possibilities and chances for cooperation within the Netherlands have to be equally distributed to places outside of Jakarta and Java, as well as improving communications with heritage networks in these areas
Heritage Education was also highlighted as an area to focus upon.
An effective strategy should be sought for intervention in order to empower heritage organisations, creating long-term planning for achievements, to raise awareness of all sectors and levels. It was suggested that capacity building training should be implemented in historical area management for heritage cities, measurement and documentation, as well as project management and heritage society/NGO management. Capacity building should also seek to improve upon the knowledge and skills of heritage managers and organisations.
In terms of geographical foci, it was suggested that places within the Ring of Fire, and cities who are members of the Heritage Cities Network, and more locations outside of Java should be priorities.
Documents:
Report here
See the pictures below and here
Indonesia Counterpart Day
Status: Complete
Duration: 2007
Outline:
In 2007 CIE organised a counterpart day to our heritage day held the previous year. Participants were brought together who work with the Dutch heritage field with projects in Indonesia. The day consisted of presentations in the morning, followed by workshops in the afternoon. The workshops were designed to discuss possibilities for more cooperation and better connections between involved organisations.
Recommendations:
The groups came up with the idea to work from incidental heritage projects that could evolve into more comprehensive heritage programmes. They called for improved structures for coordination of future international heritage projects and sharing of information about projects. They also desired for the joining of expertise, knowledge and information about heritage projects via the internet, through an online database, in order to benefit a larger heritage field and to encourage transparancy.
It was suggested to focus upon capacity building as an important theme or goal, in order to ensure long-term impacts. The infrastructure should be further strengthened for smaller organisations through making expertise and capacity more available. Larger institutions can and should take on supportive roles and facilitate in the development of infrastructure for the smaller organisations.
Indonesia Heritage Day
Status: Complete
Duration: 2007
Partners: Museum Volkenkunde
Introduction:
This event was one of CIE's first Heritage Days. We organised it in response to the call of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to make use of international cultural funds in more strategic and structural ways. Therefore CIE took the opportunity to organise this heritage symposium, bringing together many experts and practitioners, with the aim at creating more coordination and coherence with mutual cultural heritage projects. The day brought together 85 participants who are working with and in Indonesia, to share their knowledge and experience. The day was opened by the Director of the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, and the Indonesian Embassy to the Netherlands was represented by their Cultural Attachee.
Outline:
Presentations were given by representatives of the Dutch National Archives, PAC Architects, Tropenmuseum and the Cemetery Peneleh Project in Surabaya.
The presentations were followed by lively discussions which were centered around five themes:
Museum Cooperation
Built Heritage
Archival Projects
Digitising Collections
Mutuality of Mutual Heritage.
During the workshops the participants drew recommendations for the cultural policy makers on the subjects of cooperation between Dutch organisations and their counterparts in Indonesia.
22 organisations also took the opportunity offered by CIE to present their heritage projects with Indonesia on through posters. This provides some publicity for the projects and groups, as well as giving them the opportunity to speak with interested parties at the event. All of the outcomes were presented to the Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, Culture and Science, to assist the policy makers in developing future knowledge exchange between cultural heritage projects.
Documents:
Examples of Heritage Day Posters
Cultural Heritage Connections
Status: Complete
Duration: 2007-2013
Partners: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Introduction:
This project was developed within the framework of shared cultural heritage. It was decided to establish an interactive online database regarding shared heritage cooperation with the priority countries. This would benefit current and future heritage cooperation through the provision of one central platform where information could be found detailing all past, current and proposed projects could be found, along with information about the experts and organisations involved. The users can share information and interact with the cultural heritage connections community, thereby creating a common resource tool.
The platform aimed to unite expertise and knowledge of projects in one central location and was set up in close contact with experts and organisations who participate actively in determining the contents of the platform. It was designed by CIE to be a tool for the heritage field, for governments and researchers, allowing them to add information and search for heritage projects and potential partners.
CIE made an inventory of the international heritage activities carried out abroad and within the Netherlands, which fell under the Dutch Mutual Cultural Heritage Policy. All the heritage projects within a specific country were inventoried and placed into a database, to be integrated into the platform. For each of the priority countries CIE organised two heritage days, one in the Netherlands and a counterpart day in the respective country, these were effective ways to not only raise the profile of the database and gather data but also to discuss the current state of heritage cooperation between the two countries and explore possibilities for the future.
Results:
The Cultural Heritage Connections platform was developed and built by CIE and is now managed by Dutch Culture.
To visit the database please click here
In 2013 CIE finalised our research report as a summary of all our work surrounding the Cultural Heritage Connections programme. The report concentrates on defining the positive and the 'bottlenecks' in current cultural heritage cooperation, formulating conclusions and recommendations for the priority countries.
The report was the final step in the completion of the information for the database, with conclusions highlighting the successes and areas for improvement, as well as an overview of the involved experts, organisations and projects within the Netherlands and the Priority Countries.
Through this Cultural Heritage Connections Database CIE has had the opportunity to actively expand its network of contacts and partners for future cooperation. As a network organisation it was our mission to make this network available to an international field. CIE hopes that through this database we have further stimulated professionalism and international collaboration in the field of mutual heritage.
Cultural Heritage Connections Launch
Status: Complete
Duration: June 2011
In 2011 CIE organised an International Heritage Cooperation Event, which was attended by over 100 international and national heritage experts. The hightlight of the day was the launch of the Cultural Heritage Connections platform. It was officially launched by the Director of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Coordinator of Culture, Sport and Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Representatives of international heritage organisations, museums, universities and national agencies discussed strategies and inspirational methods for international cooperation on cultural heritage. A panel of international and national heritage experts then discussed and debated if, or why, colonial heritage can become common ground for international cooperation.