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.