Akar
Bhagavad Sambadha, Tirto.id – Jakarta

“Sometimes your roots are dug so deep that even if you want to leave, it doesn’t let you.”
– Amaranthine Poetry, Ami Sanghvi (2018)

Around the early 90s, a group of youth living in Jakarta started to embrace a subculture, it was signified by a statement of identity awareness as a working class, the spirit of solidarity, and a distinctive appearance that includes shaved head, work boots, jeans, and slim-fitting shirts. They identified themselves as part of the skinhead movement.

Danan Hermawan (42) is part of that generation. He attached the skinhead identity to himself and has kept at it for the last 20 years. He fronts a traditional ska band named Bois Stompin and wears Dr. Martens boots with jeans wherever he goes. He almost always watches all Persija Jakarta football games at the stadium.

Started in England in the 60s, the early generation of skinhead came from the suburban middle class that married the dandy mod dressing with the culture of Jamaican immigrants, and their love for reggae, ska, rocksteady and the genres alike. The 70s was the time when the skinhead movement spread to other countries around the world. The era was marked by the merging of punk rock elements into the skinhead subculture and the spread of racism following the wave of immigrants that were predicted to take away job opportunities from the white communities. 

Although at first the skinheads often regarded themselves as apolitical, the racial sentiment actually became the start of what was to become the most significant movements of skinhead subculture known as SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice). The movement was meant as a call and resistance to bring back skinhead into its original spirit of inclusivity and egalitarianism, united by the pride and solidarity as the working class. However, in Indonesia the skinheads are often stigmatized for their military-like look, tattoos, or worse still – seen as socially dysfunctional based on their look that is often mistaken as punks.

Danan swears by skinhead as a guidebook for his daily life: work hard, be egalitarian, and enjoy life with decent clothes – so he says. Although the skinheads from his generation has left the lifestyle – some has shifted their focus to their new roles as parents or take on a more religious identity – Danan and few existing skins still keep up their look and live by the values from the community. He believes that skinhead is like a root where he grows on and comes home to, a place where a tree depends on when the storm comes.