In some parts of the world, city dwellers are turning away from the artificial constructs of the urban life. They are rediscovering the advantages of a simpler, more self-sufficient life that blends old traditions with the advantages of modern knowledge. By Liana Guegan.

Kandangan, Indonesia. April 2020. At dusk, wisps of colour lighten the deep of night skies. Evening clouds darken Gunung Sumbing, a dormant stratovolcano. A breeze meanders by, pulling exotic plant life into dance around a garden, while architecturally designed bamboo structures throw amber shadows, adding to the enchantment. This is Omah Yudi, a homestay in the Central Javanese village of Kandangan in Temanggung, close to the Pasar Papringan natural market.

Set in a shaded bamboo conservation compound, Pasar Papringan is a highly popular local attraction. The market bans plastic of any kind and sells traditional Javanese foods and naturally-crafted wares amongst other things. Amazingly, it attracts thousands of Javanese looking for the flavours of their childhood and memories of days gone by. When surveyed for reasons for attending the markets, many visitors placed nostalgia and reminiscence at the top of their list, all mentioning the spicy enticements and locally produced wares they can find there. And nearby is the ground-breaking workshop started by Singgih Kartono, a city-educated designer who decided to go back to his people’s roots and re-connect with nature and his culture.

“My parents were disappointed in me when I decided to work in Kandangan when I graduated from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). They thought their son would strive to make it in the big city,” he said in an interview with the Jakarta Post.

Singgih’s Spedagi workshop is a stylish red brick workshop crafting sought-after bamboo bikes and other crafts that provide local employment to young people who ordinarily would have left village life for city ‘opportunity’. Watching the drain of young village people into city hardship, he became convinced of the principle of village revitalisation; the reversal of the loss to the village of people in their prime. So he established Spedagi so that young locals could bypass the city struggle and live more closely to their full human potential. As a result, Kandangan village began to keep its young.

When Singgih approached the people of nearby Ngadiprono village with his vision, the local people jumped on it. Together with the village, project manager Fransisca Callista, began with the task of turning the village dump, a bamboo wasteland, into a cobblestoned bamboo garden.

This was not by chance; Singgih wanted to honour bamboo. He hadn’t lost faith in its durability and its sustainability, and anyway he needed it for his bike manufacturing. But Indonesia, in its zeal to modernise was well on the way to leaving bamboo behind in favour of cement. Nadiprono’s trashed and rubbish filled groves were symbolic of the plant’s lost value. But today, the transformation of the dump into a conservation project is visually stunning. The new garden has also become the venue for Pasar Papapringan (Bamboo Market) further reinforcing the value of local produce and production.

“In villages, people can make ends meet independently. In (one) village in East Nusa Tenggara, people fulfill all their needs from nearby sources. They do not use [factory-made] products from outside the village at all,” said Singgih.

And Spedagi and Pasar Papapringan are just a couple of many sustainable social enterprises popping up like mushrooms across Indonesia. In West Java’s capital, Bandung, Ukke Kosasih established Circa Handmade - an expanding homemade doll maker using traditional designs from her mountain village. Oozing charisma and personality, Ukke’s dolls have captured a growing local and international market, and changed the life of village girls.

Previously, schooling for many girls in Ukke’s home village was limited by tight family finances; many girls left education by the age of 14 with marriage, motherhood and disillusionment often following. With a focus on empowerment for women, however, Circa Handmade has pushed that age up to 20 and given village girls the rewards of crafting sought-after products and learning business management   

And on the southern fringes of bustling Yogyakarta another inspiring story of vitalisation is unfolding. Like Spedagi, Sekolah Pagesangan aims to reduce the migration of villagers to the city. Sekolah Pagesangan, the brainchild of Diah Widuretno, acts locally to conserve regenerative and natural local farming heritage. And it is working. In otherwise barren, rocky soils Sekolah Pagesangan is growing food – bountifully – with a range of products coming from that. Diah’s programs are uniquely democratic and participant centred, resulting in mutual prosperity for both people and the land that underpins everything. 

Diah Widuretno said that in the beginning, they did not expect their products to be in demand. “In fact, we only had an idea for the beginning of fasting. Previously I received orders for parcels of food based on local materials. But the response was quite good, using an Instagram account," she said.

Similarly, in the highland village of Taiftob in South Central Timor Dicky Senda co founded Lakoat Kujawas, a social enterprise grounded in collaborative community empowerment, revitalisation and identity building.  The initiative brought eco-tourism and produce processing into the village; this in turn financed an archive, an arts library, cultural art spaces and Apinat Aklahat, an resident artist program. The latter invites musicians, artists, dancers, performers, film makers, architects, writers, food activists and farmers to visit anywhere from a week to a month at a time.

For Taiftob locals, the profits from Lakoat Kujawas have stimulated a revival in weaving and farming, especially for young women, and have brought creative writing classes for children too. Each month during the harvest season Taiftob celebrates this wealth in a pilgrimage of the Mnahat Fe’u (meaning new food) Heritage Trail in shared acknowledgement of what has come about since the formation of Lakoat Kujawas

At a time when a rampant virus sweeps the planet, the global community is being jogged into reality about the vulnerabilities of globalisation. In this situation, the wisdoms of our Indonesian neighbours seem urgently pertinent. Is extractive, globalised development really working? Would turning inwards to our villages, to our towns, our suburbs and our streets be an alternative? David Holmgren, author of RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide would argue getting to know our neighbours and exploring our local human potential has much to offer. The design philosophy of permaculture: People Care, Fair Share and Earth Care could be a viable solution to our global challenges. 

Australian activists Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman have been putting these ethics into practice for many years. They are evidence that ‘belonging communities’ and ‘neopeasant economies’ can be rich living spaces that enable full human potential to flourish. Sourcing all their needs on bicycles, growing their own food, providing tours of their permaculture home in Daylesford, Victoria for income and living is telling evidence that we too can live enriched local lives in a developed country.

Maybe it’s time to go back to the country, to our villages.

Spedagi’s next International Conference of Village Revitalisation (ICVR#4) is to be held in Enspijk, Rotterdam, Holland, April 2021 www.spedagi.com