Female workers put finishing touches on rattan products in Galmantro rattan tourism kampong, Tegalwangi village, Weru district, Cirebon, West Java, on March 22. The home-based rattan crafts producers in the area complain about the difficulties to get rattan raw materials over the last month.
Believed to have been first introduced to the region as a dowry hundreds of years ago, rattan is now a source of livelihood for millions in Cirebon regency, West Java. Now, amid a slump in the industry, local rattan craftspeople are persevering and hoping for a brighter future.
In the last two years, people in Galmantro hamlet, Tegalwangi village, Weru district, for instance, have opened up their village and turned it into a rattan tourism village. They produce their rattan creations in open spaces.
Everyone is welcome to see the handicrafts and learn how to make them. In January and February this year, 150 tourists came to the village to see the locals’ skills and buy rattan crafts directly from the craftspeople.
In one corner of the village on Thursday (30/3/2017), Suni, 50, and her husband Jumiat, 53, were finishing a “throne,” a Cirebon-style lounge chair with a tall backrest.
Suni said it was difficult to estimate her monthly income these days as orders were not as steady as they used to be. However, she said that rattan had long been a source of livelihood for her family. She belongs to the third generation of rattan craftspeople in her family.
“From rattan, I have been able to buy a house and a car and pay for my child’s college education. My child currently helps me market our products online,” Suni said.
Cirebon Industry and Trade Agency industry division head Eli Lilis Surtini said local rattan craftspeople also participated in training and exhibitions.
“In order to motivate them, the Cirebon regent issued a circular on the use of rattan furniture and crafts in local administrative offices in 2016. We also established cooperation with Mamuju in West Sulawesi to ensure the supply of raw materials,” Eli said.
A prince’s prayer
The creativity of locals in developing the rattan industry did not come out of the blue. Tegalwangi village head Asun said that the relationship between locals and rattan was established seven centuries ago. A local prince and disseminator of Islamic teachings in the 14th century, Prince Kejaksan, was the one who started it all.
As the tale goes, Asun said, Prince Kejaksan wished to propose to Nyi Mas Sumantro, a woman from Wadas, which was part of Tegalwangi.
“After much contemplation, Prince Kejaksan finally brought rattan as a dowry,” Asun said. The rattan was taken from forests in Kuningan regency.
However, when the prince was about to hand over the dowry, it was found that the amount of rattan he had brought was less than the amount he had promised. The missing rattan was found lying on the side of Jl. Raya Plered, in what is now Kampung Penjalin, a rattan crafts center in Cirebon. Penjalin is the local name for rattan.
“When the prince handed over the missing rattan, the proposal was still rejected as the size of the rattan was thought to be different than that promised. The dowry was then returned to Prince Kejaksan,” Tegalwangi community leader H Sumartja said.
Despite the rejection, Prince Kejaksan requested that the rattan not be returned. He prayed that the rattan would be useful for future generations of the village.
Hundreds of years later, the prince’s prayer has been answered. According to the Cirebon Industry and Trade Agency, the regency currently has 1,382 rattan businesses that employs 59,763 locals. Apart from in Weru district, rattan craftspeople can also be found in Plumbon district.
Despite the raw materials being sourced from Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Cirebon is famous as one of the country’s rattan downstream industry centers. Cirebon rattan craftspeople have exported their products to Europe, Australia and the Americas since the 1980s. However, the local industry is not full of happy news. The industry experienced a slump from 2005 to 2011. After the government allowed raw rattan to be exported, local craftspeople found difficulty in obtaining raw materials.
“The impact was tremendous. Many craftspeople lost their jobs. Many others were hundreds of millions and even billions of rupiah in debt,” Sumartja said.
The slump is still palpable today. Indonesian Furniture and Craft Association (HIMKI) data show that national furniture exports, including that made of rattan, in 2015 was only US$1.93 billion. In 2016, the export value slumped further to US$1.6 billion.
Minimal regulatory support, difficulty in obtaining raw materials, a complicated process in securing export licenses and high loan interest rates were the reasons behind the rattan industry’s slump.
Trying to rise again
Nevertheless, amid the ongoing storm, local craftspeople remain persistent. They believe that they can promote Indonesian rattan through their creative products.
Five kilometers from Galmantro, in Karangsari village, Weru district, the perseverance in innovation is apparent from the sweat on the face of Marzuki, 24, a rattan craftsman and member of the Rattan Designer Cirebon (Radec) community. The community was established in 2014.
A hijab hanger designed by Marzuki, for instance, was the result of his creativity. So far, Marzuki has received 250 orders. “What’s important is that we continue to design,” said Marzuki, who used to work at a motorbike repair shop.
Radec initiator Sarif Gunawan said the hijab hanger was one of 10 Radec designs in the past three years. “In the Indonesia Furniture Design Award 2016, we excelled not only in rattan. In community design, we secured second and fourth places,” he said.
The perseverance of Cirebon craftspeople to rise again reminds us all of the generosity of Prince Kejaksan, who refused to be disheartened when his marriage proposal was rejected. Behind every sorrow there is always a silver lining.
