Let’s Safeguard Jamu Tradition! has been my rallying call since a month ago.
It started with Jom Jamah Jamu! that emerged in 2024 and became firmed with a performance art by my daughter, Kamelia, later that year.
By May 2025, our involvement in the Singapore Heritage Festival inspired the creation of a series – Jom Jamah Jamu!, Jom Racik Jamu! and Jom Gendong Jamu!. For SHF 2025, we offered The Heritage of Javanese Jamu Wellness and Birthing Traditions.
In June 2025, a jamu segment, The Heritage and Future of Jamu, was added to the 6th Global Javanese Diaspora Congress and it firmed up my framework for safeguarding Living Heritage – Heritage-Practice-Prospects. This framework was formally introduced in my extended paper on Making Jamu Exciting Again at the History of Medicine Southeast Asia Conference held in Yogyakarta. Coincidentally, Kamelia’s residency at Studio Plesungan involved her preliminary fieldwork on jamu.
The success of the jamu segment led to the idea for Jom Jelajah Jamu!, a tour designed to introduce participants to the heritage, practice and prospects of jamu.
A request to propose a half day programme on jamu led to the consolidation of all these into Jom Lestarikan Jamu!.
Jom Lestarikan Jamu! or Let’s Safeguard Jamu (Heritage)! is a culmination of my work on jamu since 2006.
It took one year, from July 2024 when I discontinued my PhD candidature with James Cook University Singapore, to Jul 2025, to firm up my work on jamu since 2006.
Now, with a series, it becomes easier to sustain the work.
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