Treechada Chotiratanapinun
After having conducted wide-ranging research on how the creative businesses in Thailand employ the notion of sustainability in their practices, I decided to explore the sustainability issues further in a more specific, yet broader scope – the craft and design industries in other Southeast Asian countries. I initially chose to do ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia because it is one of the world’s largest craft exporters. Funded by the British Council, I carried out ethnographic research in Java and Bali in relationship to the establishment of the new Indonesian International Design Centre or IIDC in Yogyakarta. As now I have gained competent knowledge from my extensive research and work experience with the United States Agency for International Development, this paper presents interesting findings and subtly develops a comparison of craft practices in Indonesia and Thailand. It offers three case studies, two from Indonesia and one from Thailand, which look at various issues around the notion of sustainability within the local, contemporary craft practices. The case studies include the followings:
When Balinese Culture Meets Globalisation: Cultural Artefacts Versus Productive Commodities
The Power Structure within the Indonesian Craft Industries
Doi Tung Development Project: Craft Practices for Sustainable Livelihoods of Ethnic Minority in the North of Thailand
According to the economic history of Southeast Asia, ASEAN economies have been enormously trade-oriented by nature. As they aim to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region, creative practices play a crucial role in the economies of ASEAN countries. UNESCO also asserted that the handicraft sector is a major contributor to sustainable economic development at the eradication of poverty in local economies. (UNESCO Bangkok 2007) However, like most countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Thailand have experienced rapid industrial and urban development and have been greatly affected by the globalisation of capitalism. Folk wisdom and indigenous knowledge have played a less and less important role in making a living within these modernised societies. For a number of craft practitioners to survive the modern world, they have gradually gone through the transition to modernity as they have developed their techniques, created the new aesthetic quality and adapted their perception on marketing. But to pursue the sustainable future, there are a number of factors involved and things vary from one place to another since contexts are different.
Indonesia is a large archipelago comprising more than 17,000 islands and around
300 ethnic groups, each with cultural differences. Due to the fact that a large number of craft industries in Indonesia have encompassed a number of distortions, concerning ecology, economy, culture and social wellbeing, the key objective of my study was to explore the sustainable craft practices in Indonesia, considering how these practices have been operated locally and whether they do their practices in conjunction with grass-root livelihood development and supporting the current social movement of ethical consumption.
Looking at its historical background, Indonesia is regarded as a significant link in world traffic and cultural communications and its craft culture originated from the geographic position. In course of time, it has been influenced from both East and West. Due to an exposure to other cultures through trade, the original craft traditions received influences from religions and immigrant craftspeople. When these traders settled, their artistic assets began the development of local arts. A number of contemporary craft objects have often been developed from the usage of everyday household items, some of which were decorated and used for ceremonial purposes.
After the long, miserable Dutch colonial period and the Japanese invasion and occupation, nowadays the Indonesian government is particularly aware of the country’s cultural diversity and places a high value on the preservation of regional arts and crafts. In many parts of Indonesia, children are often taught craft skills at home as part of growing up and simple craft techniques are taught in school. Therefore, most of the Indonesian people can naturally become skilled labour and quick to learn new craft techniques. Abundant local materials and the government’s cheap labour policy are also principal factors. Undoubtedly, Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest craft exporters. The country is well known for its rich arts and craft traditions of woodcarving and batik textile prints. Crafted goods labeled ‘Made in Indonesia’ are available in retails around the world.
Unfortunately, natural resources in Indonesia have been exploited for decades by numerous industries. Deforestation problem in Indonesia is spreading. Its various craft industries have also contributed to this crisis. And while the government continues to focus on cheap-labour policy, questions on sustainability have been raised. To point out these issues, I would like to clarify through the two case studies below.
To a lot of people, Bali is just a tourist destination where visitors can find beautiful beaches, lovely native people and cheap seafood. In fact, Bali is an exceptional island where abundant nature and rich culture coexist in harmony. In the countryside, green spaces are well preserved and people lead their lives simply and sustainably. Since Hinduism is the dominant religion, the lives of indigenous Balinese people in every aspect are contentedly attached with Hindu rituals, from birth to death, from daily basis to special occasions. Such surroundings are great for creative practices as the place offers wonderful source of inspiration and natural materials. Fast growing plants like bamboo and lontar or palmyra palm are widely used for utilitarian, cultural and commercial purposes.
Bangli is a prominent area of bamboo craft productions, a large number of bamboo products are made here by the local artisans with supply from the bamboo forests located nearby. Looking at the people’s typical family compound houses, bamboo is used as a primary building material. It is common that they build their kitchens almost entirely with bamboo. They also craft bamboo objects for living. Slats of bamboo were dried in several outdoor spaces, soon ready to dye and weave. Men deal with structural tasks while women do housework and work on weaving. Other family members cook and look after the children. Owing to the fact that bamboo plays a vital role as a fundamental material for making Hindu offerings, working with bamboo is part of their culture
The leaves of lontar have long been used for making basketry. Located in an outskirt area of Ubud, many family compound houses are the home of lontar weavers. The material supply and product orders come directly from export companies. Family members weave lontar in their own accommodations as a laidback activity on a daily basis. The manual dexterity of the elderly reflects the fact that the weaving practice has been existed in the area for years. Skills can be transferred informally within the family via observation so it is common that 10-year-old children in the village know how to weave basic patterns. Due to the fact that they get paid per piece and do not have any restriction on working hours, it is very flexible for them to manage their own time, weaving alongside their other daily activities
To research the Indonesian contemporary craft culture, my intention was to explore the boundary between the craft objects being ‘cultural artefacts’ and ‘productive commodities’ by looking at how a craft piece has been or can be shifted from one category to another. While Balinese architecture and sculptures seem to be the least affected arts by western influence, a large number of other commercial creative practices have been carried out through western preferences. This is not only because of the growth of tourism, but also the continuing stream of migration from other islands and foreign countries. It is evident that Bali attracts creative practitioners and investors from overseas. Most of the designs of craft products for export are fusion, merging western forms with local materials. Due to the nature of the export business, they rely very much on seasonal design trends. It is noticeable from simplified shapes and fashionable colours used in each product. When enquiring about the originality of the designs and their design process, I was often informed that the looks of the products are heavily influenced from images in international design magazines like ELLE Decor, Vogue Living and Belle as well as from websites. The western buyers also frequently bring their own designs and ask the craftspeople to combine with local materials. This type of process is clearly more like styling rather than designing because of the lack of original concept. The synergy of working between the maker, the designer and the marketer is not common.
This is evident that, even though the western markets appreciate the exoticness of Indonesian crafts, they mostly accept the westernised version. Obviously, the design outcomes are not production from the Balinese people’s folk wisdoms or traditional craft cultures. These products are just a unique marketable blend of Balinese craftsmanship, locally available materials and foreign aesthetic. Many fusion objects are produced nearly completely out of the original context yet intriguing. In spite of the fact that wine and chopsticks are not part of the indigenous eating culture, a wine container beautifully made out of a kind of tropical material only available in Indonesia with a European-looking form and colour and a set of a Japanese noodle bowl together with a pair of chopsticks with traditional batik pattern painted all over can be found in a decent craft shop.
As creative businesses in Bali seem to be thriving and healthy, the majority of the investors, management people and designers are migrants. The influx of money through tourism and migration in Bali seems to be perfect for the local economy but it is becoming problematic to preserve the indigenous culture. In my opinion, the Balinese culture itself has now become commodity. In term of tourism, it can’t be denied that the rich culture is the top selling point of Bali. For its craft culture, while East-meet-West-style craft products are popular for export and among tourists, their original culturally-influenced handicrafts, carved limestone sculptures of Hindu Gods for example, are often undervalued as exotic souvenirs. The actual meanings of such artefacts are often neglected.
While craft practices can be found in every island of Indonesia, the main commercial craft production sites are Java and Bali. In Java the majority of the craft makers work in workshops whereas in Bali the majority of the craftspeople work at home. These people normally get paid per item. For most of the time, making skills can be transferred without any proper training as observation is the key. But since most of the craftspeople in Indonesia are grass-root, they barely know about design trends and marketing. The fact that they possess great making skills does not reflect the worth of their craftsmanship in a monetary term. A number of export companies have had to introduce the western concept of home accessories, provide a series of workshops on quality control and feed the orders from the international buyers to their makers and suppliers. This is transparent enough to explain why the craft-makers are the recipient of power in this context.
The hierarchy is apparently top-down, which the overseas buyer is the player holding most power. Their orders are processed through an export company and then forwarded to the community leaders. As a representative of a craftspeople community, the leader’s role is to communicate with the company, receive the orders, pass on messages and allocate tasks to the group. But the community leader only has a fair amount of negotiate power.
Fig.1 The diagram illustrates the common hierarchy within the craft industries, showing the top-to-bottom flow of power.
Within a business framework, it is often that the overseas buyers do not understand when the makers choose to be present at their cultural ceremonies over work. Apart from the official Muslim holidays, Javanese people also have other cultural or communal commitments to attend. This is also an identical issue with Balinese practitioners as their Hindu rituals are vital. Concisely, indigenous culture and business model often contradict and such challenge influences the power structure to some extent, especially in Bali. This is the reason why most of the practices in Bali are still in the form of cottage industry, which the craftspeople work at home and get paid per item. But after all, the rest of the industries still do not have much negotiation power and most entirely depend on the international buyers and the global market situation. In short, whereas the craftspeople have little understanding of business, the overseas buyers also lack respect for these people’s indigenous cultures.
Price competitiveness clearly is the significant factor that attracts the overseas buyers but it becomes a threat for the grass-root makers in the industry as well as the environment. At the end of the day, to compete with the attractive cheap items from China, the Philippines and Vietnam, the design firms and export companies are striving to offer low cost craft products. As a result, depletion and depreciation of natural capital are major hidden costs. With economic constraint,
getting low pay and insufficient welfare, it is also difficult for the grass-root makers to achieve the state of wellbeing. Health and safety is a serious issue to point out. The working conditions of many workshops I visited in Yogyakarta are quite worrying. Strong commercial adhesives and other toxic chemicals are extensively used and protective masks are not provided, or if provided, the makers prefer not to wear them. A celebrated craft entrepreneur Warwick Purser proclaimed in his book Made in Indonesia that the industries strongly express commitment on ethical design and corporate social responsibility. (Purser 2007) In reality these are not yet the apparent message to send across to the western buyers and other observers though. Despite there is a strong will to push the boundary using sustainability as a solid ground, the matter of production cost seems to be a huge factor that obstructs their effective environmentally-and- socially-friendly performances.
Fig.2 A craft supplier in Yogyakarta, where the craftspeople prefer to work on the floor with bare feet and a large amount of toxic glue is used.
Fig.3 At one craft manufacturer, the craftspeople always put their drinks on top of toxic chemical containers.
It is obvious that the notion of sustainability is imperative for the craft and design practices in Indonesia. Regardless of the fact that forests are still at risk from illegal and destructive logging, thoughts and actions on sustainability have already been existed within many small craft practices. Some woodworking practices have their own soft wood re-plantation programs. More and more craft products are made of reused and recycled materials. There are also fair trade projects initiated or facilitated by non-profit organisations and religious foundations that use the concept of sustainability to help artisans to respect and enhance their own culture and environment. For example, Mitra Bali is a foundation and a member of International Federation for Alternative Trade that supports local artisans. They function as a market and export facilitator for the small craft producers missing out to large well-established, commission paying
businesses. Derived as a balance of decent income and healthy way of life, their practices are truly, pleasantly self-sufficient. Moreover, international non-profit organisations such as British Council and SENADA, which is a body funded by the United States Agency for International Development, have recently held events around the topic of Sustainable Design, aiming to educate Indonesian design and craft practitioners. This has encouraged the emergence of more sustainable practices within the creative industries in Java and Bali. However, sustainability is neither yet widely practiced in the industries nor recognised as a subject or topic in formal design education.
Since Thailand's export products have lost competitiveness to countries with cheaper production costs, the idea of creative economy has gradually become an answer. The enhancement of creativity has been recently regarded as part of the measures for economic restructuring particularly in agricultural and manufacturing sectors. According to the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2007-2011), Thailand has attempted to improve its role in international trade to be more proactive and has shifted its focus to the knowledge and creativity-based production with an aim of adding more value to Thai products. One of the key objectives is utilising local wisdoms and Thai-ness to generate value creation in products while branding and marketing strategies must be appropriately enhanced to increase sales. Thanks to the rising value of creative industries, the aspect of Thai crafts is worth taking into consideration. However, even though there are a number of manufacturing industries countrywide, it is noticeable that Thailand has yet to effectively transfer craft knowledge into industrial applications.
Thai arts and crafts traditionally encompassed a broad range of influences including Indian, Sri Lankan, Khmer, and Chinese. On the other hand, local crafts these days represent basic traditions of Thai village life. And in numerous areas, craft activities are a driving force of local employment. Initiated by Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, craft trainings have been long provided through the Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques as a means to create supplementary occupations for the poverty-stricken farmers who either face with problems in their cultivation practices or become vacant after the harvesting season. Hence, a number of craft industries have been widely operated as part of rural development projects nationwide.
Additionally, many districts are renowned for their own distinctive craft traditions. This led to the rationale of One Tambon One Product program (OTOP) which was initiated by the government in 2001 under the leadership of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, aiming to support the unique locally made products of each subdistrict in Thailand and encouraging village communities to improve local product quality and marketing. Disappointedly, the program has not been successful in a long run and brought about wide criticism due to the fact that the program was originally one of a series of Shinawatra’s political ploys in order to gain popularity from grass-root people.
Nowadays, thanks to an awareness of the importance of marketing in today's global economy, the craft sector thrives as contemporary design plays a key role in revitalising and elevating local crafts to a new level. Besides, big design firms and creative organisations put an emphasis on research and development since it is an essential factor for the success of their craft-based designs. In Thailand’s design scene, craft products are now often made fashionable through a combination between cutting-edge design, local craft techniques and natural
materials. To visualise how this can be carried out and corresponded to the concept of creative economy, below I would like to give a case study of a sustainable alternative livelihood development project in Thailand that employs craft practices as part of their development scheme.
Doi Tung Development Project, Mae Fah Luang Foundation, is the first sustainable alternative livelihood development project in Thailand. Under the patronage of Princess Srinagarindra, the late Mother of His Majesty King Bhumibhol, the project was founded in 16 January 1987 to carry out development activities to improve the quality of life of ethnic hill minorities in Doi Tung area. The primary activities took place in the heart of the infamous Golden Triangle, the joint borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, where the people used to grow opium as it was their only means of survival. Because the hill tribes did not possess the documentation needed to register for Thai citizenship, they had many difficulties. Unfortunately, poverty was a huge problem in the area and it had led to many extreme social and ecological effects. While deforestation for slash-and-burn agriculture and poppy fields enormously damaged the ecosystem, many villagers were also forced into child labour and prostitution.
The project’s mission is to ensure that the people of Doi Tung are economically self-reliant and able to continue the process of their own development as responsible citizens, amid an ever-evolving globalised world, without compromising the environment or their own cultural values. Their activities took the form of livelihood development, encompassing the reforestation of watershed areas and the development of various social enterprises to benefit local hill tribes. The project worked to provide physical infrastructure, health care, access to formal education and job alternatives with a good source of income and stability for approximately 11,000 people at Doi Tung – ex-growers, traffickers and recovering addicts alike. In this way, they do not need to leave their home in search of work elsewhere. Although focusing on social benefits, the project effectively generates financial benefits for the people.
Predominantly replacing opium with macadamia and coffee, economic forestry has allowed villagers to earn income from licit activities in their natural surroundings without having to engage in shifting cultivation or harming the environment. Crop replacement has eventually become value added production. Roasted macadamia nuts and coffee made from high-quality aromatic Arabica beans harvested in Doi Tung are served through the project’s own up-market coffee chain, Café Doi Tung, which currently have nearly twenty branches in Thailand. Besides, as the surroundings was revitalised together with the creations of the Royal Villa, the Princess Mother Commemorative Hall, Mae Fah Luang Garden, the Hall of Opium Museum, an arboretum and other cultural constructions, Doi Tung now offers itself as a sustainable tourist destination while the locals learn the hospitality business through practice.
Along with the project's reforestation activities, the Cottage Industries Centre provide the people of Doi Tung a range of craft trainings and close supervisions by designers. Their craft practices help enhance a growing sense of good local stewardship of the forests. Natural materials and indigenous culture offer an endless source of inspiration for the development of their products. In this way, their indigenous crafts, which are a celebrated cultural asset of the local hill tribes, are revived. Locally available natural materials like jute, hemp, vetiver grass and the bark of mulberry trees and banana have been utilised through both
traditional and modern techniques. Natural waste materials are used in their craft practices too, for example, using macadamia husks as fuel for ceramic ovens, making use of vetiver grass ashes as colour glazes for ceramics ware and producing dyes from coffee beans. Their products include ceramics ware, mulberry paper products and textile items such as apparels, accessories, home furnishing products and hand-tufted carpets, available to purchase at the project’s own retails named Doi Tung Lifestyle which can be found in twelve prime locations in four provinces.
As a matter of fact, Doi Tung coffee is not much different from Starbucks in terms of quality or taste but charges less and helps the country stop money outflows in the form of coffee imports. Moreover, with the slogan Lifestyle for Livelihood, the craft products subtly present their intangible value through the storytelling nature of the brand and the unique blend of hill tribe handicrafts and modern design. In my opinion, their textile products appear to be most successful. Recent evident accomplishments are a collaboration project with Converse, introducing a limited edition of sneakers using Doi Tung woven fabrics, and a fashion collection From the Hands of the Hills, launched at Bangkok International Fashion Week.
Fig.4 Doi Tung’s From the Hands of the Hills Fashion Collection at Bangkok International Fashion Week 2006
It is stated in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes publication that ‘household income in the Doi Tung project rose sevenfold, while the percentage of those lacking citizenship fell by half.’ (UNODC 2005: vi) Now the people of Doi Tung have employment opportunities. They can choose to work on a variety of industries in the area, such as macadamia economic forests, coffee-roasting plants, tissue culture facilities in the horticulture production, hand weaving textile, ceramics and so on. It is amazing to see ex-opium growers learning landscape design and ex-addicts reforesting the hillsides, which were denuded from shifting cultivation. ‘These local people have made Doi Tung a signature Thai brand. Opium is all but a thing of the past’, said Mom Rajawongse Disnadda Diskul, the secretary-general of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation and Chief Executive Officer of the Doi Tung Development Project, ‘most of all, the people have regained pride and dignity, which money cannot buy.’ (Diskul 2008)
The late Princess Mother always anticipated that Doi Tung products would sell because of the quality, not because of the buyer’s compassion for the project. Today, as creativity plays a vital role in the development of the project, the brand Doi Tung has come further than what she believed at the beginning. The projects hires professional business managers and distinguished local designers to help strengthen the brand so that their enterprises can compete in the national as well as international markets. Since the project is recognised by many countries for its success in using sustainable alternative livelihood development as a solution to illicit crop cultivation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC)
allows Doi Tung to use its certification on all Doi Tung products. This greatly helps provoke the idea of ethical consumption and facilitate Doi Tung products to stand out at the international level.
As time goes by, marketing and branding activities become more and more fundamental for Doi Tung in order to lay a strong underpinning for the future. Since the project focuses on sustainability, initiating activities that let local communities help themselves, it was planned from the beginning to become self- governed by the end of 2017, when the residents take over its operations completely and become shareholders and owners. This highlights the fact that proceeds from their agricultural, tourism and craft industries are returned to the communities. It cannot be wrong to say that the Doi Tung brand reflects Thailand’s new-found belief in social entrepreneurship with great corporate social responsibility.
However, there are a few significant things to point out according to the success of Doi Tung. As a private non-profit organisation initiated by the late Princess Mother, there were thirty five government organisations participating in the project during its first fifteen years. That led to a firm groundwork of the project unquestionably. The project has only been able to manage its own budget after that. One major factor contributing to the project’s achievement is the fact that the royal family are important, beloved figures to whom Thai people always pay respect and support while criticism on how good or not the projects have been run is naturally refrained. This is a unique thing about Thailand. But it does not mean that this kind of sustainable alternative livelihood development cannot be applied in other contexts. Doi Tung has already extended such development assistance to Myanmar, Afghanistan and Indonesia over the last several years and those projects are progressing well. To come to the point, people-centric and designed to help the people help themselves, sustainable alternative livelihood development is a basic model that can be applied to various situations to tackle poverty and a lack of opportunity.
Both Indonesia and Thailand have rich cultural and artistic heritages. But when it comes to the commercialisation of craft production in the age of globalisation, each takes a different direction of economic policy. While Indonesia continues to focus on low-cost skilled labour strategy to attract buyers from overseas, Thailand concentrates on contemporary crafts as economic activities contributing to the growth of its creative economy. Therefore, sustainability of their craft practices is imperative to look at in this context.
For Indonesia, as one of the world's largest exporters of craft products, price competitiveness has always been the key for survival and growth of its craft sector. It is clear that their main purpose of making crafts nowadays is very much about making a living in an economic sense because the outcomes are often productive, commercial commodities, not cultural artefacts. In most cases, the way craftspeople work has been changed, from cottage industry to workshop- style or factory-like environment. This can be portrayed in a top-down hierarchy, which the overseas buyers holding most negotiate power and the craftspeople holding least negotiate power. In addition, since Bali is the country’s most popular tourist destination, it becomes a great craft outlet, providing products from all over the archipelago. As tourism thrives, craft and design businesses attract an influx of economic migrants from other islands and overseas to Bali. This appears to be problematic to preserve the indigenous culture. However,
there have also been a growing number of fair-trade craft practices, making use of environmentally sustainable resources and maintaining local artisan traditions.
When compared to Indonesia, Thailand obviously lacks advantage on labour cost. Since Thailand recently decided to build its economy with creativity, it focuses on various culturally-based economic activities. Today craft is not always seen as a single discipline any more. Instead, it has been integrated with design to create added value and made use of marketing and branding for promotions and publicity. Contemporary design-driven crafts are well-liked and traditional craft products are much less popular accordingly. Craft and design practices have been used in many sustainable development projects in Thailand too. In line with the case study of Doi Tung, the ethnic hill minorities who used to rely on opium cultivation and drug trafficking now demonstrate that they can play a role in the conservation of their environment while having licit occupations in agriculture, tourism and crafts. Their indigenous handicrafts formerly made solely for functional use in their rural society are now enlivened with contemporary design to become sustainable products. These products do not only generate decent income but also provoke the idea of ethical consumption to wide audience.
In a nutshell, the connection between craft and sustainability in the economic context of Indonesia and Thailand is rather complex. On the surface, as making skills can be transferred easily from one to another, craft activities readily help generate income for grass-root people. Influenced by the globalisation of capitalism, various kinds of their craft products are in demand for export. In reality, craft practices are broadly used in association with rural development to tackle poverty and social exclusion. But after all, the economic policy of each country leads the direction for its craft sector. Consequently, craft in this context is not just about making things but also an economic activity which may encompass a variety of current sustainability issues, including cultural preservation, human rights, environmental conservation and so on.
Diskul, Mom Rajawongse Disnadda (2008) Text of the opening speech at the World Forum Against Drugs in Stockholm – 100 Years of Drugs Prevention—How do we move forward?, 8 September.
Purser, Warwick (2007) Made in Indonesia: A Tribute to the Country's Craftspeople, Jakarta: Equinox Publishing.
Richter, Anne (1994) Arts and crafts of Indonesia, Sanfrancisco: Chronicle Books. Soebadio, Haryati (ed.) (1998); Art of Indonesia, Singapore: Periplus.
UNESCO Bangkok (2007) ‘AHPADA, UNESCO, SACICT Launch the Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts in Southeast Asia’, UNESCO Bangkok press release, April.
UNODC (2005) ‘Alternative Development: A Global Thematic Evaluation – Final Synthesis Report’ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes: vi-28.
Vimolsiri, Porametee (2009) Facing the Challenges Seminar, Thailand Creative and Design Center, 13 March.
Wong, John (1979) ASEAN Economies in Perspective: A Comparative Study of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, London: Palgrave Macmillan.