Indonesia Charter for Heritage Conservation

Indonesia Heritage Year 2003
Ciloto, 13 December 2003

Preamble

We, the advocates and practitioners for the conservation of Indonesian heritage, praise God Almighty that Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is endowed with the diversity and abundance of extraordinary nature and cultures that provide divinely inspired creativity, imagination, and vitality. Awareness, concern, and efforts for conservation have begun and need to be strengthened and continued. In the framework of Indonesia Heritage Year 2003, we have composed this charter affirming efforts for heritage conservation in Indonesia.Understanding

We share the understanding that:

1. The heritage of Indonesia is the legacy of nature, culture, and saujana, the weave of the two. Natural heritage is the construct of nature. Manmade heritage is the legacy of thought, emotion, intentions, and works that spring from over 500 ethnic groups in Tanah Air Indonesia, singularly, and together as one nation, and from the interactions with other cultures throughout its length of history. Saujana heritage is the inextricable unity between nature and manmade heritage in space and time.
2. Cultural heritage includes both tangible and intangible legacies;
3. Heritage, bequeathed from the generations that precede us, is the a vital foundation and initial capital for the development of the Indonesian nation in the future, and for these reasons, must be conserved and passed along to the next generation in good condition, without loss of value, and if possible with an enhanced value, to form heritage for the future.
4. Heritage conservation is the management of heritage through research, planning, preservation, maintenance, reuse, protection, and/or selected development, to maintain sustainability, harmony, and the capacity to respond to the dynamics of the age to develop a better quality of life.

Concern

We share concern that:

1. Much irreplaceable Indonesian heritage is degraded, damaged, destroyed, lost, or threatened through neglect, ignorance, incompetence, and mismanagement, for short-term gain, and by special interest groups.
2. There have been trivialization and impoverishment of culture and the weakening of creativity, initiative, and self-confidence urgently needed to face turbulent global change as well as to independently define the future of the nation.
3. There remain many social, political, economic, and resource allocation imbalances and a lack of clear frameworks. This is not favorable for heritage conservation efforts in Indonesia.
4. Opportunities within local, national, and global dynamics are not well recognized and utilized for social and economic transformations to enhance national development and heritage conservation in Indonesia.
5. Traditional ethnic groups, minorities, and certain communities are marginalized due to lack of understanding and appreciation of diversity, and the importance of weaving the diverse resources into symbiotic interactions of brotherhood.

Action

We, the advocates and practitioners of Indonesian heritage conservation, are determined to work hard together in healthy partnerships for a holistic, systematic, and sustainable heritage conservation through fair, democratic, and harmonious processes and mechanisms supported by clear and consistent laws.

We appeal to all parties to:

1. Take up an active role in heritage conservation through preservation, restoration, reconstruction, revitalization, adaptive reuse, or selected development.
2. Take immediate measures to save endangered heritage from damage, ruin and extinction.
3. Improve the capacity, principles, processes, and techniques of conservation in systematic, comprehensive ways appropriate to the Indonesian context.
4. Raise the awareness of all parties (government, professional, private sector, and community, including youth) on the importance of heritage conservation, through education (both formal and non-formal), training, public campaign, and other pursuasive approaches;
5. Raise institutional capacity, develop management systems, as well as role-sharing and responsibilty that are fair and inclusive of all people, so that conservation efforts can be carried out effectively with synergy.
6. Expand networks of cooperation and develop resources including means of funding to support heritage conservation.
7. Reinforce legal oversight, control, and enforcement through the development of regulations, the legal system, mechanisms that are clear, fair, consistent, and the strengthening of social control;
8. Understand and recognize the rights and potentials of marginalized people as well as to assist and re-empower the community in the conservation and stewardship of their heritage for sustained prosperity.

Close

This charter is the result of discussions amongst heritage conservation organizations from various regions, universities, bureaucrats, professionals in heritage conservation, and representatives from the community at large. The charter will be completed soon with a clear plan for realization.

We believe that heritage conservation in Indonesia will help to affirm the nation’s identity in the world’s very diverse and dynamic community, enhancing the quality of life, and to provide valuable contribution to the world community. We pray that our Creator will shower an abundance of strength, ability, and wisdom upon our nation and its leaders so we can achieve these goals.

We, the signatories below, are of one accord on the Indonesian Charter for Heritage Conservation and are determined to carry out together the Action Plan in the Indonesia Heritage Decade 2004-2013.

Indonesia Heritage Year 2003
Ciloto, 13 December 2003