By Monika Swasti Winarnita
Selendang Sutra dancers in various traditional costumes for the Unity in Diversity dance. Mundaring Shire, Multicultural Festival 2007
Monika Swasti Winarnita
Anna is a dancer from an Indonesian dance group called Selendang Sutra (Silk Veil), based in Perth, Western Australia. Most of the dancers in Selendang Sutra are Indonesian citizens but are permanent residents of Australia with Anglo-Australian partners. Their main occupation is as housewives but some work and study also.
For these women, dancing began as an interesting and challenging pastime but the group developed to the point where they started performing and it is now one of several active Indonesian dance groups in Perth. Multicultural festivals, which occur regularly throughout the city, provide stages for their performances. They also perform at events run by the Indonesian consulate, which caters to the 10,000 strong Indonesian community.
Among the dances the group performs is one that takes Indonesia’s national motto, Unity in Diversity, as its name. When the dancers perform this dance, they feel patriotic. But they no longer perform it at ‘Indonesian only’ events.
Dancing as migrants
Suburbs like Victoria Park and those in the inner south of the Swan River, which have high concentrations of Indonesian migrants, provide a full range of amenities including a supermarket, restaurants, a hairdresser, massage and beautician services and a car rental agency, all owned and run by Indonesians. There are even churches where services are held in Indonesian language. It is not surprising then, that when Anna arrived in Perth in 2002 she found that many Indonesian migrants were involved almost exclusively in their own community. Like her compatriots, Anna lives a very Indonesian lifestyle. Interacting with Indonesians, eating Indonesian food and being involved in Indonesian activities like traditional dancing in her day-to-day life stops her from feeling homesick.
I feel like I am Indonesian when I am doing Indonesian dances
Anna would never have been interested in learning Indonesian traditional dances in Indonesia. To her they were unpopular and old-fashioned. But even in this quite cloistered environment, Anna’s experiences with the broader Perth community brought about some soulsearching. ‘Here in Australia people ask you which country you are from and that’s when I thought about what it meant to be Indonesian. So I decided to really learn about my culture through traditional dancing.’ When she met the women who had formed Selendang Sutra, she decided to join their troupe.
Unity in Diversity was one of the first dances the group learnt and performed. The dance incorporates movements from Aceh (Saman), North Sumatra (Serampang Duabelas), Java (Jaipongan) and Bali (Tabur Bunga), combined with movements from the 1988 National Aerobic Campaign, which were at that time compulsory in schools and government institutions. These movements include military march moves and poses in the shape of the Garuda eagle bird, the national symbol, which is always pictured with the words ’Unity in Diversity’ emblazoned on a ribbon held in its talons.
The Unity in Diversity dance includes movements from diverse ethnic traditions, including the West Java Jaipongan dance (left) and the Sumatran Serampang Duabelas (right)
Hetty Mochtar
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