Accumulating Cultural Actions for Sustainable Living

“G20 Culture Ministers Meeting” was held on 13 September 2022 in Borobudur with the theme Culture for Sustainable Living. The theme was selected based on the notion that the world is currently being hit by a crisis in very basic areas, such as clothing, food and shelter. The consumptive and instant lifestyle has created heavy pressure on the carrying capacity of the environment. The meeting was conceived as a forum to roll out a new consensus in restoring human relations with nature by drawing inspiration from various local cultural practices that respect nature’s life cycle.

The ministerial level meeting was not a stand-alone event, but a culmination of a series of efforts in consolidating various local practices that took place in many regions and in many countries. In many regions in Indonesia there have been development of cultural management initiatives for the creation of a more sustainable way of life, which seeks to restore the harmonious relationship between humans and nature. These various initiatives were stimulated from the academic level, youth to the grassroots movement.

Grassroots Movement

Within the grassroots movement, especially at the village level, various initiatives have emerged to identify local cultural potential and transform it to become the main capital for a more environmentally friendly development and to support a more human-centred socio-economic development. The Villagebased Cultural Advancement Program is a manifestation of such initiatives. Representatives from all villages in the Borobudur area participated and held a series of Cultural Markets from July to September 2022, which showcased a variety of featured products that were selected through participatory mapping while participating in the Village-based Cultural Advancement Program. All of them are clear examples of how local culture can be a source of inspiration for creating a new, more sustainable lifestyle.

The series of activities within the framework of Pekan Kebudayaan DaerahPKD (Regional Culture Week) which have been held at the district/city level across Indonesia also continue. These activities provide a forum for inclusive interaction of all public initiatives in advancing regional culture, as well as a forum for artists and cultural practitioners to showcase their cultural expressions through the organisation of regular festivals in various regions in Indonesia. From PKD, it is expected that artists and cultural practitioners could find opportunities for development. Local culture can be an inspiration in organising brilliant strategies to overcome the obstacles of contemporary life.

Consolidation of Power

Various bottom-up initiatives that had been rolling since early 2022 have come together to become one gigantic force which laid the basis for the “G20 Culture Ministers Meeting”. All ideas and practices were presented during a forum called the Pekan Konsolidasi Tenaga Budaya-PEKAT Budaya (Cultural Workforce Consolidation Week) which was held in early September 2022. This forum gathered representatives from culture for sustainable living initiatives, including academics, youth, as well as representatives from the Village-based Advancement of Culture Programme and the Regional Culture Week. Held in parallel in five villages in the Borobudur area (Wringin Putih, Karanganyar,

Karangrejo, Wanurejo, and Candirejo), the collective deliberation forum brought together cultural actors, academics and village representatives to consolidate key messages to be conveyed at the G20 Culture Ministers Meeting on 13 September 2022.

To convey the key messages, community members in the Borobudur area participated in the cultural parade which travelled from Pawon Temple to Borobudur Temple on 12 September 2022 and held a large gathering upon their arrival at the Lumbini Garden of Borobudur Temple Compound. The cultural parade was a manifestation of the community’s seriousness in creating lifestyle changes, an embodiment of the collective energy of national cultural actors to create a new world that is fair and physically and spiritually prosperous. Through the 45-minute procession, there was a general will to restore cosmic harmony, to end the metabolic rift between humans and nature, through cultural means. The large gathering with participation of thousands of community members became the culmination of this procession. They held a ritual meal together at the Lumbini Garden as a symbol of solidarity with other creatures from different realms of nature and conveyed their aspirations through a series of performances which were artistic adaptations of the various issues they had discussed in the series of preceding activities.

New Commitment

This entire series of activities ultimately culminated in the “G20 Culture Ministers Meeting” at the Plataran Hotel on 13 September 2022. Representatives from the grassroots level movement conveyed the Borobudur Mandate, a manifesto that contains the stance of cultural actors from various regions and countries regarding what to do if life on earth will continue. This mandate states, among other things, that “we must leave behind a universe with better conditions than today”. The reading of the Borobudur Mandate became one of the key considerations in formulating the results of the meeting of ministers from G20 member countries in the field of culture.

In line with the Borobudur Mandate, the G20 Culture Ministers Meeting concluded with a joint commitment to encourage an increase in the role of culture to enable a transition towards a system that is more aligned with sustainable living. The Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia stated in the Chair’s Summary of the G20 Culture Ministers Meeting that culture has intrinsic value beyond its social and economic benefits, and that it is important to encourage significant changes in society’s ways of life that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Equally important is the joint commitment to explore the creation of the Global Arts and Culture Recovery Fund that could be managed by UNESCO, on a voluntary basis, to restore the cultural economic sector and to promote sustainable living, which could be discussed in the Finance Track of the G20”.

To reinforce the message of culturebased global recovery, the Ruwatan Bumi (Earth Healing Ritual) was held at Borobudur. Hundreds of delegates along with thousands of participants witnessed a series of performative rituals featuring traditional vocal-based songs from various parts of the archipelago. Messages of sustainable living based on traditional culture were highlighted through the fabric of local narratives. The “G20 Culture Ministers Meeting” is undoubtedly part of the cultural actions from various regions and parts of the world which encourage transition toward a system that is more aligned with sustainable living

(Martin Suryajaya, Indonesiana)