Heritage runs deep in Sita's veins

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

For Laretna T. Adishakti, her very persona and heritage activities are one and the same, an integral whole.

Employed as a lecturer in Gadjah Mada University (UGM)'s School of Architecture, Laretna's interest in heritage started during her student days at the university. But she finally became completely hooked in the late 1980s when participating in a program overseas.

In 1987, she took a one-semester joint program course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the United States, and Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris, France. This gave her the opportunity to learn about heritage and its conservation.

"Then, I become more and more interested in heritage issues as I got the chance to view architectural sites in some 17 cities as part of my studies," recalled Laretna, the chairwoman of the Indonesia Heritage Year 2003 organizing committee.

The Indonesia Heritage Year was co-launched this month by State Minister for Tourism and Culture I Gde Ardhika and Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih in Sambi village, Sleman, some 20 kilometers north of Yogyakarta.

With her new-found interest, Laretna, who is better known as Sita, chose the Tamansari Water Castle in the Yogyakarta Palace's Jeron Beteng (inside the fortress) area as the subject of her thesis for her master's degree in architecture from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, the U.S., in 1988.

She studied the castle from the perspective of those aspects that to be protected along with the management aspect as regards the people living there. By studying it, she hoped the castle would be able to be better managed and make it more attractive, thus enabling it to become a heritage tourist attraction.

"I've done plenty of research and studies on Tamansari since then and made countless suggestions on how to better manage it. But nothing significant has been done so far," said Sita, who received her doctoral degree in engineering in 1997 from Kyoto University's Graduate School in Global Environmental Engineering, Japan.

Apart from teaching and chairing the committee, Sita has a long list of heritage activities in different organizations to her credit.

The 45-year-old, among other activities, chairs and is co- founder the Indonesian Network for Heritage Conservation (JPPI); chairwoman and co-founder of the Penang, Malaysia-based Asia West Pacific Network for Urban Conservation; head of UGM's School of Architecture's Center for Heritage Conservation; and chairs and co-founds the Jogja Heritage Society (JHS). She is also a former chairperson of the Jogja Forum for the Conservation of the Cultural Environment, which she co-founded in 2000.

Seeing no significant progress resulting from her efforts does not make Sita give up.

Realizing many things should be done -- for instance, not only the Taman Sari Water Castle but the Jeron Beteng area as a whole needs to be preserved, she, through the organizations that she chairs in cooperation with other heritage societies, initiated the publication of a guide map for tourists wanting to wanting to explore the Jeron Beteng heritage trail.

Many find the map amazing.

"I myself do not consider the map amazing. It sounds like it is because we, Indonesians, are not used to producing such documents. This is our weakness and needs to be gradually changed," said Sita, expressing that the publication of the map would inspire others to organize similar activities in other places throughout the country.

The woman, whose academic endeavors include studies on urban and rural conservation planning in the Minangkabau hinterland in West Sumatra, encourages the setting up of more heritage societies and centers. "This way we will be able to cover more and more areas, heritage sites, buildings and cultures," said the mother of three sons whose husband is currently living in Japan.

Heritage, according to Sita, does not just refer to our tangible inheritance, including the natural environment such as the flora and fauna, artificial environment such as artifacts, temples, buildings, sites, villages, towns -- or a mixture of the natural and artificial environments; but also intangible inheritance like culture or customs.

Today's people, she said, do not just have the task of conserving heritage but have the right to create their own heritage for the future as well.

"Conservation cannot be taken only as a preservation effort but it can as well be perceived as development. Everything, like villages and towns, also has the right to develop. Only, in this case, we have to develop them in such a way so that they will not lose any of their specific characteristics," she explained.

Unfortunately, she said, there is no agreement in the country regarding the definition of the word heritage, making it difficult for conservation activists to do their jobs.

"In the last few years, this lack of definition has been my main concern. That's why we have also agreed that at least, before Indonesia Heritage Year 2003 ends, we will hopefully be able to formulate a heritage charter. This is important because of our country's rich heritage," Sita said.

She realizes it will not be an easy job to decide on a clear- cut definition of heritage, as the facts show that there are not many heritage activists or societies around.

"The Indonesia Heritage Year 2003 organizing committee, for instance, only involves some 40 heritage organizations and some 120 activists," said Sita, who is now working hard to finish books on heritage conservation to provide people with more information on the subject.

She realizes, however, that everything runs in accordance with a process.

"Nothing can be done in a single minute. What I'm doing now is trying to spread as many heritage 'viruses' as possible, door to door and even face to face if necessary, so more people will become interested in doing what we're currently doing in conserving our heritage."