Catrini PRATIHARI KUBONTUBUH
Indonesia is located in the ring of fire, facing earthquakes, volcano eruptions, floods and tsunami as a result. In addition, it suffers from man-made disasters such as violent ethnic and religious conflict. Several efforts have been made to establish disaster prevention, improve emergency rescue and relief, and deliver post-disaster recovery packages. Improved housing construction, control of development schemes at disaster-prone areas and early warning system trainings are part of the preventive measures. The focus on emergency rescue and relief has broadened from health, food, shelter, and public facilities to include the protection and recovery of cultural assets. Cultural heritage is often highly valued and hence an irreplaceable asset for disaster-affected communities. Post-disaster recovery and relief for historic cities is not only a matter of housing rehabilitation and reconstruction, but has to cover the sustainable recovery of both physical settlement facilities and socio-cultural assets.
The disasters which have occurred in Indonesia in recent times have brought home the serious need for mitigation, and hence, called for documentation and scientific investigation, using a variety of methods. Collaborative work among local heritage organizations, donors, government and the community itself play an important role within historic cities management.
While the earthquake and tsunami have caused a shockwave in Aceh and Nias, also Yogyakarta, Bengkulu and Padang have suffered high-magnitude earthquakes since. Other areas of Indonesia are also under threat. First emergency response focused on shelter, food and health, commonly known as people’s basic needs. However, disasters damage and destroy not only human lives, but also the community’s historical and cultural heritage. When cultural heritage is destroyed, people suffer a fundamental loss, which is not always sufficiently recognized in practice. Yet, if a comprehensive recovery program of reconstruction and rehabilitation is carried out, including attention paid to the communities’ cultural activities, a stronger sense of identity and livelihood sustainability may result. Hence, ‘first aid’ for cultural heritage damaged or destroyed by disasters is deemed very important.
The Indonesian Heritage Trust as a melting pot of local heritage organizations and individual heritage activists has started programs to raise the awareness of all parties (government, professional, private sector and community, including youth) on the importance of heritage conservation, through education (both formal and non-formal), training, public campaigns, and other persuasive approaches. The Indonesian Heritage Trust established a unit of Heritage Emergency Response (HER) in 2007 to stress the importance of saving heritage from disaster not only for the conservation of the heritage and history itself, but also for helping restore a sense of normalcy and enabling people to move forward, by enhancing their psychological survival after their traumatic experience of disaster.