by Mathias Hariyadi

Jesuit priest illustrates on canvas the major changes that transformed his parish in a short period of time, turning farmers into underpaid blue-collar workers.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Drawing has been familiar to Fr Antonius Danang Bramasti since he was a child. For this Jesuit priest from Girisonta Parish Church in Karangjati, Ungaran, Central Java, drawing does not only express his inner feelings but also allows him to share his deep affection and compassion for others, primarily those who are the most neglected and marginalised.

This week in Tembi, Yogyakarta, Fr Bramasti exposed his personal “meditations” into canvas, his Asa di Reruntuhan, which roughly translates as ‘Little hope in the rumble’, in which he illustrates on canvas the rapid social and environmental changes that have occurred in Harjosari sub-district, home to one of the main Catholic communities living in Girisonta Parish.

In the early of 80s, Harjosari was rich farmland; all the residents had their own plot and lived off the land. There may not have been a lot of wealth to go around, but life was untroubled. Most people tilled their own piece of land and it took them just a few minutes to go home from work.

Now most of the land is gone, sold to businessmen following the 1998 monetary crisis, which hit farmers, hard. Rice fields were turned into factories; the farmland became an industrial zone.

“Everything has changed drastically,” Fr Bramasti said. “Local people have been forced to make a living working in low-paying jobs at the industrial plants.” The title “Little hope in the rumble” is meant to symbolise their current situation. “Life starts from zero” is how the clergyman describes on canvas life today.

His drawings show how people lost hope in the wake of the 1998 crisis, and eventually forced to change jobs, with women compelled to travel to the provincial capital of Semarang, 30 kilometres away, to work as domestic workers.

“I am personally concerned to what had happened in Harjosari,” the priest said, but he is not without hope for, in nearby Karangjati, there is a Jesuit novitiate compound.

• indonesia
• girisonta
• karangjati
• ungaran
• antonius
• danang
• bramasti
• drawing
• farmland
• harjosari
• low
• paid
• workers
• farmers