What a beautiful morning to start the sixth day of our innovation lab. After breakfast, some of the Fellows continued working with their projects for their non-profit organization, while the others went out hunting for batik. We explored the city by checking out one of the nice batik shops here. Our Dutch fellows were very enthusiastic, looking and choosing their favorite Indonesian batik and souvenirs. Some of them even tried tasting ‘nasi lengko’; a famous traditional food from Cirebon.
We had the final passion talk session in the afternoon. Based from the previous sessions, all of us felt connected with each other from the shared topics, and we became more inspired as we witnessed living examples of how our Fellows showed compassion and dedication in taking care of others and being attentive regarding current world issues. One example was Stanley, who at his very young age, has the strong drive to work and help underprivileged, vulnerable people to access health facilities in their area. Charlotte’s growing concern with plastic waste was really inspiring, while Inra’s amazing story about how he survived from failures successfully led him into finding his passion in life. Lara showed us her passion in persevering Indonesian textiles that helped her connect to her identity as a Dutch and Indonesian. “To all Fellows, please be reminded that you all have a good heart, so keep on doing what is good, never give up and trust the process”
After learning the traditional dance from Cirebon on Tuesday, we had the batik workshop with Mas Gusak, the fourth generation of the batik makers in Cirebon, from the Trusmi village. He started the workshop by sharing his knowledge about the history of batik from generations to generations. Then, all Fellows had a joyous experience in making our own batik. We all love how challenging it was when using the batik drawing tool called ‘canting’, and with hot wax following the patterns that mas Gusak prepared for us. It was indeed a very wonderful experience as we all know that making Batik is a series of hard work. We deeply salute and admire all the batik makers for creating such a beautiful, unique work of art.
Maria Angela, Indonesian Innovation Lab Fellow