10. Heartening Donations

Today began with an excited email from Mas Nashir. Someone who had purchased his book about our first Pulang Kampung journey, Berkelana dengan Sandra menyusuri ulos Batak (2010), had royally over-paid him for it.

With her blessing, he decided to donate the overpayment to the Pulang Kampung III pot. It is not a large amount of money, but it is doubly important because it comes from two kind hearts: the reader/purchaser and the author/seller. It represents goodwill, trust, excitement, a shared conception of what is good. I treasure it as a symbol of what a community can do when the will is there.

Little by little, the donations are flowing in. Many people are going to work on their “connections” for us and sometimes that has paid off tremendously. Many donations, so far, are promises that I believe will come true. We have a very long way to go, but our courage is mounting and we believe more than ever in our project. The little donation that came in this morning fed our energy.

1. Announcing Back to the Villages / Pulang Kampung III

MJA Nashir's poster for Back to the Villages III

In 2010 I brought my book Legacy in cloth, Batak textiles of Indonesia to the weavers in North Sumatra, so that they would have a record of their weaving heritage.  This was the first Back to the Villages Project.

The results of the journey were so spectacular that I swore to do it again, whenever I had published anew about Batak culture. I made good on my promise. In 2011 I brought copies of my exhibition catalogue, written for our exhibition in Jakarta’s Erasmus Huis to North Sumatra. It was intended especially for the people who figured in the exhibition. The catalogue was entitled Pulang Kampung / Back to the Villages, and it was about the original repatriation project in 2010. MJA Nashir accompanied me on this journey and we distributed copies of his book, Berkelana dengan Sandra, Menyusuri Ulos Batak at the same time. MJA Nashir was the photographer on the original journey and the book was his wonderfully detailed account of the journey. This second Back to the Villages project was relatively small and low key.

In the same year that we conducted Back to the Villages 2, MJA Nashir and I set to work on a film about Batak weaving techniques entitled Rangsa ni Tonun. That film is finally finished and now the time is ripe to conduct our third Back to the Villages project. During this journey, we want to travel as much as possible by boat to the villages around Lake Toba showing our film in a different village every day as soon as the sun goes down.

MJA Nashir has just finished designing the poster for this repatriation project. If we manage to find sufficient funding, the voyage will take place at the end of August and the beginning of September. This time our plans are bigger than ever and we are tailoring the project to focus on the most important facet of the two previous journeys, viz. inspiring pride in the villagers through the sympathetic presentation of their own cultural heritage.

We will use this website and a page that we are building on Facebook as our mouthpieces for the project.  Stay tuned! 

Nashir's Egg

August 6, 2011. It is an important day. MJA Nashir has finished his book about the Pulang Kampung project which I initiated last June. He was the project filmer/photographer and it has been my blessing that the project entered his heart. In his book he has documented every step of our journey in colourful and compelling detail, the most important travelogue in both of our lives. It is entitled Berkelana dengan Sandra, Menyusuri Ulos Batak.

Today Nashir leaves his home in Pekalongan and travels to Yogyakarta where he will work out the last details of the editing and also the layout and printing of the book. The published version is due to be launched at the opening of our exhibition about Proyek Pulang Kampung in Erasmus Huis, Jakarta, on September 22. Just a short 6 weeks away.

MJA Nashir’s book represents a year of dedicated, single-minded effort. He has worked non-stop, producing chapter after chapter, 18 in all. He has worked idealistically, driven by his need to share his vision with his readers, fellow Indonesians. He has a message. His book will convince every reader of the importance of keeping cultural heritage alive.

Nashir has earned no income during the time that he has written the book. He has run entirely on his inner resources. They are clearly vast and powerful. He is a man who lives by his principles because life for him would otherwise be faded and unhappy.

I wish MJA Nashir Godspeed. A special, intensely deserving person on a landmark mission.