WikiRempah Betawi Building Leadership from Batavia to Moloku Kie Raha

Jakarta has long been a meeting point, from the era of Sunda Kelapa to Batavia. For centuries, the city served as a port where cultures from across the Indonesian archipelago came together.

Together with Hzu Hzu, Affandy Murad, Bangrapip, Kume Gucci, and Li Ersha, the Wikimedia Jakarta Community began the WikiRempah program initiated by Ana Ainina, Supardi Sahabu, and Sofi Solihah. 

Oceanmuse | CC-BY SA 4.0

WikiRempah is an initiative funded through the Wikimedia Foundation‘s Rapid Funds program and carried out in collaboration with communities supported by Wikimedia Indonesia.

Working alongside local communities across Indonesia, the initiative consists of field documentation, article development, dictionary entries, and recordings of local dialects, all of which will be made openly accessible through Wikimedia projects.

Far from Maluku, Yet Its Flavors Can Still Be Found in Jakarta

The presence of Maluku restaurants in Jakarta gave us an opportunity to introduce the richness of Maluku’s spices to more people without geographical barriers.

Behind every dish lies the story of spices that connected Maluku with the rest of the world. From Batavia, these journeys were documented through expeditions to Eastern Indonesia beginning in the sixteenth century.

Those expeditions trace their roots to Moloku Kie Raha, meaning the Four Mountains of Maluku, a name referring to the four historic sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Jailolo, and Bacan.

How to Eat Papeda, a Traditional Maluku-Papua Dish | Affandy Murad, CC-BY-SA-4.0

From these islands, cloves and nutmeg linked the Indonesian archipelago with Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, shaping political, economic, and cultural relationships that extended far beyond the islands themselves.

During the meetup, contributors began writing Betawi Wikipedia articles about historical sites in Eastern Indonesia, documenting spice-related vocabulary in the Betawi Wiktionary, and compiling traditional recipes from the Spice Islands for Betawi Wikibooks.

Building Leadership Through Shared Trust

One aspect I truly appreciated throughout this project was the trust entrusted to me by the project lead, Ana Ainina. I was given the freedom to explore ideas, develop new approaches, and received full support that allowed the community meetup to exceed its original goals.

That trust also gave me the opportunity to look at the project from a broader perspective. Preparing for the expedition was not simply about organizing activities, it became a process of ensuring that every effort remained aligned with WikiRempah’s broader mission.

Once that foundation was established, responsibility for organizing the meetup was delegated to the local coordinator, who managed participant coordination, venue selection, and on-site implementation.

This distribution of responsibilities reflects how the Wikimedia Jakarta Community works. The community does not rely on a single individual; instead, each member is trusted to take ownership of their respective role.

Some coordinated participants, others prepared learning materials, documented the activities, or compiled lists of articles and documentation to be developed. Delegating responsibilities created opportunities for every contributor to help keep the entire process moving forward.

One thing became immediately clear during the preparation in Jakarta: everything moved quickly. Within less than a day, participants had been gathered, shared commitments were established, and both the venue and schedule had been agreed upon.

This strong teamwork became especially important while other contributors were already working in Maluku. From Jakarta, the community continued supporting the expedition by processing documentation, improving Wikimedia articles, and publishing updates about the project.

Looking back, the journey did not begin when the flight departed for Ternate. It began much earlier, when the team started working together in Jakarta, the city’s role was not merely as a departure point, but as the place where collaboration first took shape.

In this way, every member of the WikiRempah team and the Wikimedia Jakarta Community became part of the same mission: building open knowledge about the cultural heritage of Eastern Indonesia through community collaboration.