The Directorate of Cultural Development and Utilization, the Ministry of Education and Culture, held the Nusantara Spice Culture Appreciation event. Running for two days, from 10 to 11 December 2020 at Aston Kartika Grogol, the event started with activity reports and highlights of activity achievements of the Spice Routes by Ananto Kusuma Seta, the Committee Chairman of the Spice Routes.
In his presentation, Ananto stated that 2020 is the first year of the Spice Routes’ long journey to get the recognition of UNESCO in 2024. The awareness year with the achieved milestone is putting the Spice Routes program into the tentative list of the UNESCO world heritage. The achieved awareness is covered in the digital platforms, from a website to social media.
To start the Spice Routes program, in his report, Ananto stated that at least three leading activities had been done; nomination, campaign, and cultural caravan. These three activities gave rise to several achievements. For example, there were seven main activities in the nomination category, from 16 Zamrud Khatulistiwa books; the guidelines of data collection based on collegers in collaboration with Universitas Indonesia; archive tracking with ANRI; and an international webinar, held by Negeri Rempah Foundation.
Further, the Gau Maraja Makassar Festival; Arka Kinari cultural caravan; Banda Spice Island Festival; Festival Pesona Jalur Rempah [The Enchanting Spice Routes Festival] East Belitung; and Pentas Virtual Rekonstruksi Budaya [Virtual Performance of Cultural Reconstruction] Pati also became the cultural caravans to increase awareness towards the Spice Routes program. Lastly, to reach more engagement from people, in 2020, the Spice Routes program generated a website and social media as a platform for any information related to the Spice Routes.
Besides the Spice Routes activities, there was a presentation about the survey result of Litbang Kompas in the same event concerning the public awareness about the Spice Routes. The survey was done in 10 provinces by face-to-face interviews and questionnaires to 600 respondents. The survey result of the Spice Routes was published in the Harian Kompas, Thursday edition, 10 December 2020.
In his presentation, the Researcher of Litbang Kompas Putri Arum Sari stated some exciting facts, but there were also notes to take. The two most interesting facts were that Indonesia is the 4th largest spice producer globally; second, 55% of spices lie in Southeast Asia and dominantly in Indonesia.
The survey result of the Spice Routes proved that today Indonesians associate spices with seasoning. 81,1% majority of the respondents are interested to know the kinds of spices of Nusantara. Meanwhile, based on the survey result, pepper becomes the most used Spice. The result that is no less interesting is that the majority of respondents said that Chef Juna (23%) is suitable to be the Indonesian Spice Ambassador, followed by Raffi Ahmad (8%) and Chef Renata (8%). It proves that people expect public figures to become the spice ambassador, and the majority have a background as chefs.
However, we need to note that the Spice Routes program socialization needs to start from the smallest level—the family. Putri suggested that the focus on strengthening the Spice Routes program needs to start from regions, not central. It is because Nusantara spices mostly come from regions.
As the Director-general of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Hilmar Farid, stated that the Spice Routes talk about not only the past but also the future by utilizing and managing the tremendous diversity for prosperity. Therefore, he expected that the Spice Routes Program could lead the people of Indonesia to find the strength, historical knowledge, local culture, and Nusantara’s wealth in its entirety for a better, just, humane, and sustainable future.
Text: Tiya Septiawati
Photo: Raditya M. Fadilla
Text: Dhiani Probhosiwi
