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I know that the official Batik Day has been over, but i can not help myself not to share the euphoria we had from the first #Batikday event launched up to now it’s still going on. Let me tell you a brief about this #Batikday event.

In 2009, UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO defines oral and intangible heritage as “the totality of tradition-based creations of a cultural community expressed by a group or individuals and recognized as reflecting the expectations of a community in so far as they reflect its cultural and social identity.”

So on October 2nd this year, the year which marks the 4th anniversary of Indonesia National Batik Day, I initiated a social movement to celebrate National Batik Day by bringing together representatives from online portals, community and netizens of Indonesia to support this movement, named #BatikDay; A Social Movement for Indonesia’s Heritage.

This social movement is organized to reflect the appreciation towards local heritage, cultivating the interests in Batik Indonesia while using the social media awareness in digital world. Together with wider public participation, my vision is so that we will be able to make batik loved by all Indonesian and to make it possible gaining international awareness. We arranged some programs during the campaign such as creating a microsite www.batikday.com to let people know anything about batik, we held a competition for media online and portals to change their cover website into batik-theme, we buzz in Twitter and Facebook the information about batik using #Batikday as the hashtag and we also sent some batik scarfs to international and local bloggers to let them know and experience themselves about batik and write a review about it on their blogs. This event was a big success, we got many attentions and positive feedback in social media and local-international press, and the most important thing is that international public awareness of Batik is raising up.  We even did trending topic almost the whole day in Twitter!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to know that many people and friends are contributing and helping us to spread the awareness, even some of Indonesia’s Ministers I highly respect joined to give their opinions and sponsoring this event. We got the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (ibu Mari Pangestu), Minister of State owned Enterprises (Bpk Dahlan Iskan) and Minister of Communication and Information (Bpk Tifatul Sembiring) to support this Batikday event.  You can see the interviews with the ministers regarding their opinions on Indonesian batik at www.batikday.com.  Here is the interview of ibu Mari Pangestu, our Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-e5kT_EtLk&feature=related  I’m so thankful for the support we got which beyond expectations, and I know that the love for Batik and other Indonesia precious heritage will never end. The richness of Indonesia’s culture can always astonish hearts of nations. This is just the beginning.

And now let me thank my fellow fashionable bloggers who had helped us spreading the beauty of Batik through their posts and their stylish sense.  Thank you to Riana Kesuma, Lenan and Ziba Label of Berbatik.com for supporting us by sharing the beautiful batik gifts to the lovely fashion bloggers.

Michelle Koesnadi from Glister Blister http://www.glistersandblisters.com/ She created this gorgeous deep purple crinkled chiffon batik scarf into a dress.  This Riana Kesuma batik scarf came from my personal collection which I never worn and I know that this would be a perfect gift for Michelle.

Silvia Siantar from Poisepolish www.poisepolish.com matched the Riana Kesuma dusty pink Crinkled Chiffon Batik scarf with her Aqua green Givenchy Antigona bag. This batik scarf was gifted by Riana Kesuma herself.

Qin from Qin At The Disco http://www.qinatthedisco.com This cute Singaporean fashion blogger rock the pink batik scarf from Riana Kesuma and iPad Batik Cover from Ziba Label (it can turn to be a cute clutch like item)

Natalie Zee Drieu from Coquette http://coquette.blogs.com The lovely Natalie wore a dusty pink silk scarf from Riana Kesuma. Love the soft colour on her.

Julie Wax from I Heart Heels http://www.iheartheels.com I love to see you this greyish blue silk batik scarf by LENAN on Julie, it looks great with her complexion and compliments her eye colors. LOVE!

Christina Topacio from Profresh Style www.profreshstyle.com Christina took a beautiful picture of the unwrapping of this gorgeous purple silk batik by LENAN from its gift box. The colour of this scarf is to die for.

They definitely turn Batik into one gorgeous and stylish fashion item!

I’m ecstatic to know many people begin to understand the beauty and how precious batik is. This beautiful heritage started long time ago, then it’s our turn to pass it on.  So our next agenda is, with the support of our Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, we were able to invite 6 fashion bloggers from different countries and local as well to join us at the Jakarta Fashion Week and a trip to visit the different Batik centers in Indonesia.  This definitely will be so much fun.  I am so excited to meet the everyone this upcoming week and I am bringing all the fashion bloggers to watch my favorite Batik and cloth maker show, OBIN.

CAN’T WAIT!!