Archipelago, Indonesia Clare Brett Smith
Archipelago,Indonesia is a travel memoir and a supplement to the Smith Family Album series.
So far there have been
several travel memoirs, some more familyoriented than others (Buon Viaggio, England, Guatemala), some with a strong emphasis on Aid to Artisans work (Honduras, Ghana, Hungary), and some general enough, I think, to interest anyone (Japan, China, Oaxaca). C.B.S. 2012
Archipelago, Indonesia
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Bali, 1991
A few, very few, of Indonesia’s 17,000 islands From the western tip of Sumatra to the
before had we traveled anywhere with a
eastern border between Papua and Papua
group (China in 1977), but this was organized
New Guinea, the Indonesian archipelago
by the Pacific Asia Travel Association, PATA,
stretches along the equator more than 3,000
a supporter of ATA, and we were invited to
miles, about the same as from home to San
come along.
Francisco. It’s a watery world, with thousands
It seems inappropriate to call this memoir
of miles of coast, but known also for its varied
Archipelago, Indonesia when our experience is
landscape, volcanos, tsunamis, fertile paddies,
limited to just these few islands, Java, Bali,
ancient monuments, multiple cultures and
Lombok, Komodo, Sumba, Sumbawa and,
religions, dance, music and arts. In the 1980s
Timor out of an incredible total of thousands
we searched for crafts for Primitive Artisan. We
of islands. Still, even from our admittedly
visited again in the 90s
limited viewpoint, it is an endlessly fascinating
for Aid to Artisans’
Kasongan Project, and yet again on a cruise
and beautiful place.
ship from Bali east to Timor. We had never been on a cruise ship before, and only once
Clare Brett Smith, April 2012
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Bali Banners, formed on twentyfoot tall bamboo poles 4
Off the coast of Sumbawa, 1991
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Bali, 1981
Bali Beach, 1981
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Java, 1981
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Borobudur, 1981
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Borobudur, was originally carved about 800A.D. and was being restored by Unesco in 1981
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thought to represent a Cinese trading junk
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Javanese Gamelan players, 1981
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Temple guardian, Bali, 1981
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Ready for a procession, Bali, 1991
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Balinese dance group, 1981
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Balinese Dancer, 1981
Barong Dancer, Bali, 1981
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Sumbawa welcome, 1991
Sumbawa, 1991
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Sumbawa , 1991
Sumba, 1991
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Timor, 1991
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Wayang Kulit, shadow puppet, Java, 1981
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Burge meets a Buddha, Borobudur, 1981
A man from Ubud meets a frightfuk sight - Burge and me, 1981
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Komodo Dragon, 1991
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This fanciful terra cotta dragon made in ATA’s Kasongan Project was only five inches long, unlike the real Komodo dragons that run from four to six feet in length.
Kate Kerr and Phillip Gearheart ran ATA’s Kasongan Project in the 1980s. It was intended to improve the durability of these fragile pieces so they could be shipped overseas or even to a nearby city. (photo of the potter by Kate Kerr)
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Traditional open firing does not fire clay at a high enough temperature. and the pieces emerge low-fired and fragile.
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Phillip built the kiln, and improved the firing, but there were complications: jealousy in the village because there was only one kiln and it was on one family’s land; disapproval of change; and the firing required more work, more preparation, and a purer, grit-free mixture of clay body. For a while the kiln was abandoned and chickens were allowed to roost within its cozy space. Eventually an entrepreneur, the project’s taxi driver, decided to buy any pieces that survived the street firing and re-fire in the new kiln at a higher more even temperature. This was entrepreneurial and very successful. Nowadays people think the figures with their multiple scales and great detail come from an ancient tradition. Actually, we learned that they were developed in the 1930s by a German artist and intended to replicate Chinese bronzes. There’s always a question of finding the marketplace. Who will be the buyers of these fantastic figures? Our target was the growing garden market. That was twenty years ago, and I wonder where these figures can now be found.
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Imaginary terra cotta beast from Kasongan
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Javanese style clothing, but this couple was carved and painted in Bali
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We met Ida Bagus Tilem, master carver from Bali, at the World Craft Council Conference in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1976, and we found him five years later when we visited the woodcarving and art village of Ubud, in Bali. He is especially noted, like his father and grandfather before him, for very deep and intricate carved scenes like those on the following page. 34
Clare with Ida Bagus Tilem in 1981
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We first saw the Sumba Ikat cloth in an exhibit at the WCC Conference in Mexico and didn’t realize that the more usual coloring was with natural dyes as in the photgraph at right taken on Sumba. There is a huge variety of motif and all of it significant, although everyone from our ship was too busy buying to think about symbolism, local deities and dragons.
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Sumba dancer, 1991
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Vendors followed us to the dock hoping for one more sale.
Sumbawa, 1991
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Sumbawa elder, 1991
Mother and child, Lombok, 1991
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Java, 1981
Denpasar Market 1981
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Timor market
A more modern side of life in Indonesia, a young woman rides through Jakarta on her motor bike.
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NOTES On Timor we were shown how to make a lyre from a Lontar Palm leaf and how to play it.
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NOTES We went ashore to special beaches and uninhabited islands. The cruise was a test run for PATA, assessing the marketability of a run down the strait to various normally unvisited islands. We enjoyed the amazing access although, toward the end of the trip, a serious storm came up, a few people got seasick, and the ship turned back. Robertson Collins (Robbie, upper left) was our friend at PATA, and a champion of Aid to Artisans. A debonair traveler through life as well as the world, one of his essays was about his life as a “Disorderly Journey�. He had been the manager for Ginger Rogers, lived in Oregon but also in Singapore. He died of dengue fever in Singapore in 2003. 50
Encounters along the way were sometimes lovely and other times, as when Burge tasted betel, not a success, but he would certainly have liked to encounter a younger version of the lady at lower right
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Batik is a Javanese specialty. We imported hundreds of these batik boxes. Batik workshop at upper right. Batik, worn as a sarong, is everyday wear in Java.
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and more NOTES
We watched a silversmith working in repoussĂŠ technique to decorate the hard hat of an oil company executive. Silvesmiths near Jogjakarta made the belt, right, and I wish I had bought it. Bottom, left, Mr. Wieksosanto, a Chinese-Indonesian, was our exporter in Java and taught us how to step up to quantity buying with his $10,000 minimum order. With me, the lady at right was the director of the Bali Crafts Council and our guide there.
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Š 2012 Clare Brett Smith Farmington, Connecticut 54
You’ll proba bly recog nize som e Indonesian things around the house.