STREET PERFORMERS
Rakhmawaty La’lang, Republika

A middle-aged woman in kebaya (a traditional long-sleeved blouse) adeptly plucks the strings of siter (zither) placed on her lap while singing a Javanese traditional song. Then, from one table to another, she patiently approaches diners in a hope for some rupiah as a token of appreciation.

This is what Sawitri (62) does to run her day as a street siter player/singer. Sawitri is not the only artist who earns a living by doing a street performance especially in Jakarta area. Some other forms of street performance such as kuda lumping (horsemen dance), ondel-ondel (large puppet), kecapi (Sundanese zither) instrument, angklungan (a musical instrument made of bamboo) and others have contributed to decorating the social atmosphere of the capital. Despite being equipped with a limited education and skill, they are capable of turning local art traditions into street performance shows while struggling for a better living standard.

Before becoming street performers, these artists made their ends meet by farming, trading, and depending on invitations to perform in events like celebrations, post harvest parties, wedding parties and other kinds of parties. However, as time goes by, dangdut music and solo keyboard shows have appeared to steal the people’s heart, lowering the demand for those artists to perform.

Eventually, this condition forces them to take to the street to perform in order to able to live their life that has become more and more challenging. “If there is a party, I perform. And whenever there is no party, I go to Jakarta to earn a living,” says Sarmin (30), one of the kuda lumping street performers. Because of this dynamics of life and economic needs, the art performances have been turned from a sacred ritual to profaneness.

Aware of the cultural value they try to bring to the people, they already show the identity of Indonesia’s arts. These cultural-based artists come with a mission to change a negative stigma, that says that the street performers are only disturbers, by improving their image through a better quality performance.

In addition to life survival, they also show the public the richness of arts in our homeland. By turning the street into their own stage, these performers are narrating their hope to the government so that it eventually facilitates the arts of Nusantara, or the Indonesian archipelago.