Senapati Nusantara Proposes National Keris Day On November 25

The opening of the Archipelago of Senapati Nusantara (MAS), the parent organization of Indonesian tourism lovers in Yogyakarta, (photo: doc. Antara)

SLEMAN- Musyawarah Agung Senapati Nusantara (MAS), the parent organization of Indonesian tourism lovers, which was held in Yogyakarta on September 16-18, 2022, proposed that on November 25 as National Keris Day. This proposal is to support the development of the national tourism world. Deputy Secretary General (Wasekjen) of the Archipelago, Nurjianto in Yogyakarta, Saturday, September 17, said the peak of the 2022 MAS event, would dissect the strategy to provide understanding to the government, especially the Ministry of Education and Culture to immediately designate November 25 as National Riris Day. "There is no need to discuss it complicated, if it is made a national day and requires all ASN, Polri and TNI to wear a keris for a day, meaning that there will be five million Keris sold a day," he said at a press conference at the opening of MAS 2020 in Yogyakarta, quoted by Antara. According to him, the election of November 25 as the National Ministry of Foreign Affairs Day was the day it was ratified by the keris as an intangible legacy by UNESCO. He hopes that the government will facilitate Keris craftsmen for local and foreign shipments, because they are commodities, craft arts, which must be marketed anywhere, including abroad. "So far, friends who trade in old keris, ancient artifacts can be replaced with currencies of today's capable works. With that, artifacts will remain in Indonesia, but the production of craft will be able to come out," he said. He said that Senapati Nusantara, the national keris organization that first started the preparation of the academic script for the Ris Day. In addition, the organization that escorts the Regent of Sumenep to establish Sumenep Regency as the City of Riris. Therefore, he said, the Sentati Nusantara invited the Sumenep Regency Government to draw up regional regulations (Perda) so that it would become a pilot project and as a reference for other regions.

"If this is successful, this is the beginning of the step and the first time in Indonesia, a cultural association is collaborating with the regional government to determine the Regional Regulation of the City of Keris. The only one started it," he said. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Senapati Nusantara Daily, Hidayat, said that the 2022 Archipelago with the slogan 'Kerris Nusantara for Indonesia Bangkit' accompanied by exhibitions and a Keris exchange on September 16-18 in Yogyakarta was attended by 73 associations of keris lovers from various regions. He said the perpetrators of the exchange of the keris came from all over the archipelago, such as East Java and Madura, Bali and Lombok, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, Solo, Yogyakarta, Semarang, and areas that have not joined members of the Senapati Nusantara. He said the enthusiasm of the cultural and spiritual actors of the Keris exchange was also the same as the enthusiasm of the collectors and the general public who were interested in the keris. A keris exchange booth reported sales worth Rp90 million, some even Rp. 150 million.