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On October 2nd of this year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has officially recognized the batik as an Indonesian cultural treasure. In order to celebrate this recognition, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked Indonesians to wear a batik on this day.
This was a huge win for the Indonesians because there were some people in Malaysia that were arguing the batiks were from their country. This started up a firestorm between the Indonesians and Malaysians.
But UNESCO at a conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with representatives from 114 countries, officially gave the recognition to Indonesia. This is importance because it is the whole international community that has given its support to Indonesia.
As Indonesians keep up their cultural heritage, it will allow future generations to learn important things about their culture, as well as give them a sense of pride for their country.
We wanted our kids to honor this special moment by following on President Yudhoyono’s declaration that Friday, October 2nd people should wear their batiks. They wore theirs to school. It was great connecting our kids to one of Indonesian’s cultural treasures.