the New Colombo Plan (NCP) is a collaborative program between the Faculty of Engineering, and the Universitas Indonesia – the University of Queensland for two weeks, cultural activities are one of the main activities in this program. On Monday (06/02), 40 students from the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture, and Information Technology University of Queensland (EAIT-UQ) visited the Universitas Indonesia’s Makara Art Center (MAC) to take part in a local culture workshop. Before the cultural activities started, the students were given insight materials about various arts that would be studied in the workshop, including gamelan instruments, contemporary traditional dance, and written batik.
According to Badrul Munir, Director of Student Affairs at UI, this activity is an event to introduce UI to the international community through art. “Through activities like this, foreign students not only understand Nusantara art but can also experience the beauty of Nusantara art that they have received at UI,” said Munir.
After being divided into three groups, each training lasted 90 minutes. Dance training took place under the direction of Jufriandi Usman, gamelan training under the direction of Nanang Hape, and batik training under the direction of Nurul Kartika Sari. In gamelan training, several gamelan instruments learned by students are Kendang, Saron, Demung, Bonang, Kenong, Gong, and Kempul. Meanwhile, during the written batik training, the students made simple batik motifs such as kawung motifs, bird motifs, and floral motifs. Then training in contemporary traditional dance is carried out continuously by three groups of students in a series of songs.
Jake Joshua Mobbs, a student at the University of Queensland expressed his impressions during the cultural workshop, “Learning Indonesian culture is one of the most enjoyable activities for me in this program, especially when I practice dancing. Even though I’m not the type who likes or has a talent for dancing, I feel like getting out of my comfort zone to get deeper into Indonesian culture is fun. Especially when I do it with other friends.”
“Students at the University of Queensland will find it easier to dive into Indonesian culture and art through workshops organized by MAC UI. That way, the impressions generated from this activity will be more meaningful and can become one of the beautiful memories while participating in the NCP program series, “said Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU., Dean of the UI Faculty of Engineering.
At the end of the event, all UQ students presented their batik creations, performed contemporary traditional dances, and performed gamelan instruments. Contemporary traditional dance was again performed by students at the closing ceremony of the NCP program at Damar Langit Resort, Cisarua, Bogor. Apart from the workshop at MAC, previously the students had also participated in other cultural activities such as making woven puppets from cassava stems, planting rice, and making pottery which was held in the Cincinnatian Tourism Village and Griya Regato.
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Bureau of Public Communications
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia