Eddy Utama promotes Indonesian traditional arts

Eddy Utama promotes Indonesian traditional arts

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Eddy Utama's professions -- photographer, filmmaker, journalist
and writer -- focus on traditional arts, especially in West
Sumatra.

"I learn about people through their traditional arts. I can do
this through the media of photography or film, or others," Eddy
said in an interview with The Jakarta Post recently.

Eddy and celebrated choreographer Boi G. Sakti were the
initiators of the Art'Suku, Kencan Budaya Nusantara (Tribal Art,
Cultural Rendezvous of the Archipelago) festival held at the
Ismail Marzuki Art Center in Central Jakarta.

Some of Eddy's photos on the Mentawai tribe were exhibited at
last week's festival, which also featured dance, music and the
rituals of three tribes: the Mentawai of West Sumatra, Dayak
Ngaju of Central Kalimantan and several tribes from Nabire in
Papua.

Eddy, who was also a member of the festival's steering
committee, was assigned to approach the officials and traditional
leaders, called Kirei, of the Mentawai people for the event.

"We want their performance to be really traditional and
genuine. They should not be created like the ceremonial of
official dances which are often staged in the stage palace," the
former chairman of the West Sumatra Art Council said.

For almost three months, Eddy visited remote areas in the
Mentawai islands of Siberut, Sipora, North Pagai and South Pagai.
It takes about eight hours by speedboat to reach those islands
from the West Sumatra coast.

During the New Order regime, he said many traditional arts
were packaged for commercial purposes or tourism, in an effort
which distorted the genuine arts.

Eddy, who also leads the Talago Buni dance group, has tried to
preserves traditional arts, especially the art of Minangkabau of
West Sumatra, such as Talempong dance and Randai traditional
theater.

Eddy's photos on Minangkabau traditional arts were exhibited
at the Fueller Museum of the University of California at Los
Angeles in 1997 and the University of Hawaii in 2001.

His new photos will be displayed at "the Circle Spirit of
Minangkabau Art" exhibition at the University of Hawaii in
January, next year.

Born on Aug. 1 in 1959, in Lubuk Sikaping, West Pasaman
regency, Eddy, who studied at the School of Cinematography of the
Jakarta Arts Institute in 1979, is also interested on documentary
films.

West Pasaman regency is the hometown of several noted film
directors, including the late Asrul Sani, Hasmanan and Yasman
Yazid.

Two years ago, Eddy was a consultant for a television series
titled Duo Datuk which stirred controversy among cultural leaders
of West Sumatra due to depiction of the clash of traditional and
modern values in the region.

Besides the Mentawai film, which is still being processed,
Eddy also planned to make other documentary films on various
traditional arts in West Sumatra.

Married to Noni Sukmawati, an art lecturer of Andalas
University in Padang, West Sumatra, Eddy is also a West Sumatra
coordinator for the Nusantara Art Education Program for high
schools.

The education program, which was funded by the Ford Foundation
and organized by the Nusantara Art Education Foundation, has been
implemented in four provinces, North Sumatra, West Sumatra,
Jakarta and East Nusa Tenggara for a year.

"We teach students traditional arts with a different approach.
So far, most students learn about the arts with a standard
Western approach," said Eddy, who has 16-year-old twin daughters,
Ama Sukma Utama and Ami Sukma Utami.

Eddy is also a member of a team from the Nusantara Art
Education Foundation, which is preparing dozens of books on
traditional arts for junior and senior high schools.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, another education program in
Muhammadiyah Islamic elementary schools in West Sumatra is
coordinated by Eddy.

"In the past, Muhammadiyah did not really like the arts. But
now dendang (traditional singing) and the piring (dish) dance are
popular among students," the former cultural editor of Padang-
based Singgalang daily said.

Eddy, who was once an editor of the Genta Budaya West Sumatra
art journal, said the arts education program was implemented
carefully, especially in West Sumatra due to certain sensitive
issues, such as Westernization.

Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Islamic
organization, with a large number of followers in West Sumatra,
is viewed by many as having less appreciation for traditional
arts than the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul
Ulama.