Beyond Heritage: Traditional Arts as Intercultural Communication Strategies Among Indonesian Diaspora Artists in the Netherlands

Abstract

This study reconceptualizes traditional arts not merely as heritage expressions but as deliberate intercultural communication strategies employed by Indonesian diaspora artists in the Netherlands. We investigate how these artists act as cultural mediators who transform static artistic forms into dynamic communicative actions that bridge Indonesian and Dutch cultural worlds. A transcendental phenomenological approach was adopted, involving in-depth interviews, performance observations, and fieldnotes with fourteen participants across multiple Dutch cities. Their artistic backgrounds spanned classical dance, contemporary hybrid performance, gamelan, angklung, and community-based arts. Through phenomenological reduction procedures, we identified five principal communicative strategies. First, cultural framing involved providing contextual explanations before performances to reduce cultural distance. Second, affective bridged through tempo, expression, and narrative pacing generated shared emotional states. Third, embodied translation communicated Indonesian values such as patience and harmony via controlled aesthetic nuance. Fourth, post-performance dialogues fostered mutual learning and shaped future communicative adjustments. However, persistent challenges emerged, including oversimplification of complex cultural ideas, pressure to balance authenticity with audience comprehension, and time constraints in performance settings. Our findings therefore demonstrate that diaspora artists consciously curate cultural narratives, evoke shared affective experiences, and translate Indonesian worldviews through embodied performance practices. This research contributes to intercultural communication scholarship by foregrounding the performative and embodied dimensions of communication, highlighting the role of diaspora artists as everyday cultural mediators in European public spaces. The significance lies in demonstrating how traditional arts function as active communicative tools for fostering understanding and emotional connection across cultural boundaries.