Ottawa. The Indonesian Embassy in Ottawa transformed its office into a fashion gallery and runway on Friday, bringing centuries of batik tradition to Canada in a celebration marking National Batik Day.

Around 150 guests, including Canadian lawmakers, businesspeople, ASEAN diplomats and representatives of other countries, attended the event, held 17 years after UNESCO inscribed Indonesian batik on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The sounds of Central Javanese gamelan and Sundanese angklung greeted guests, many of whom arrived wearing batik themselves.

“Let me put it simply: Batik is Indonesia,” Indonesian Ambassador to Canada Muhsin Syihab told the audience.

“Its name comes from the Javanese language, and its painstaking wax-resist and dyeing techniques have become a tradition across Indonesia, passed down from generation to generation for centuries.”

But Muhsin stressed that batik is not a museum relic.

For Indonesians, he said, batik accompanies life's milestones -- from births and weddings to farewells -- while remaining an everyday presence in schools, offices and government institutions.

The centuries-old craft also provides livelihoods for nearly 200,000 Indonesians working across tens of thousands of small workshops and family businesses, many of them women, according to the ambassador.

Muhsin described batik as one of Indonesia's most eloquent forms of diplomacy.

He recalled Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien wearing batik alongside other Asia-Pacific leaders at the 1994 APEC Summit in Bogor, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doing the same during the 2023 ASEAN Summit in Jakarta.

“Each time, batik said something no communiqué could: that friendship can be worn, not merely written,” Muhsin said.

A Cultural Doorway to Indonesia
Canadian Member of Parliament Sameer Zuberi, co-chair of the Canada-Indonesia Parliamentary Friendship Group and guest of honor at the celebration, said batik could help Canadians better understand Indonesia beyond its economic relationship with Canada.

“Batik, recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is a beautiful doorway to discovering Indonesia -- not only as an economic partner for Canada, but also as a nation with extraordinary cultural richness,” Zuberi said.

He also highlighted growing ties between the two countries, including the Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (ICA-CEPA), signed in Ottawa on Sept. 24, 2025.

Among the diplomatic guests was Helena Skarcic, wife of the Croatian ambassador to Canada and president of an association representing spouses of ambassadors in the country.

She said the exhibition had changed her understanding of batik.

“Previously, I didn't know how batik was made, and I was truly amazed,” Skarcic said.

“What surprised me was that something I initially thought was simply traditional clothing turned out to be extraordinary and special -- and something that can be worn for many different occasions.”

Twelve Textiles, Three Chapters
At the heart of the celebration was a batik fashion show titled “The Ageless Runway: Batik Across Generations,” accompanied by an exhibition of 12 heritage textiles telling the story of batik across three geographical and cultural chapters.

The first took visitors into the royal traditions of Yogyakarta and Surakarta through motifs including Udan Liris, Parang Rusak Klitik, Sidomukti and Peksi Kurung. Some belong to traditions whose use was historically regulated by the Javanese royal courts beginning in the late 18th century.

The exhibition then moved west to Banyumas through Jahean, Semen Sawat and Burung Hong, illustrating batik's encounters with European and Chinese cultural influences.

Its final chapter traveled along Indonesia's coastline and farther east. Visitors encountered Cirebon's distinctive Mega Mendung, Lunglungan from Lasem, Tar-poteh Kembang Cengkeh from the Gentongan tradition of Tanjung Bumi in Madura, and batik incorporating Asmat-inspired motifs from Papua.

Together, the runway and exhibition presented batik not simply as a centuries-old Indonesian tradition, but as a living art form that continues to travel across generations, regions and national borders.

Add as a preferred source on Google +