In championing the timeless allure of Batik, Oniatta Effendi discovers an inexhaustible wellspring of joy

This story is one of nine on The Peak Singapore’s Power List. The list is an annual recognition that celebrates and acknowledges individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, influence, and impact within their respective fields and the broader community. 

Our theme for this year is Joy, honouring business leaders who have contributed to spreading happiness, enhancing well-being, and uplifting the spirits of those around them. This theme responds to recent global challenges, highlighting the need for resilience, compassion, and, most importantly, joy in our lives to navigate uncertainties with grace and efficiency.

Stepping into the hushed silence of Galeri Tokokita, located in a conservation shophouse within Kampong Glam, is such a balm for the soul. Beyond a retail shopfront for handmade batik wear label Baju by Oniatta, this serene sanctuary decorated with the evocative art of Nusantara (a historic term for the Malay archipelago) is the brainchild of Oniatta Effendi, who established it as a community-centric space for the appreciation of this historic art form.

In her loft-style office overlooking North Bridge Road, Oniatta spent the next hour detailing the fascinating journey she took to grow her clothing brand into a flourishing cultural enterprise — from a weekend hobby founded in 2016 with its first collection of 12 pairs of pants to a brick-and-mortar business that has proudly flown the Singapore flag in places as far away as London and Paris.

“I wasn’t entirely sure what I was in for,” admits Oniatta, who took the brave step of giving up her 21-year career in tertiary education in 2019 to take the plunge as a full-time entrepreneur. And yet, despite the multiple challenges thrown at her, whether in her capacity as a mother of five, a caregiver to elderly parents, or a start-up founder battling the Covid-19 slump, she thrived. 

Sustaining Oniatta, a Singaporean with Javanese ancestry, is a strong purpose tied to her identity: “I consider myself a child of Nusantara and grew up with batik all around me. As I got older, I wanted to not only bring it closer to me but also be able to ask questions about where it was from. Through that, I delved deeper into the history of the cloth, the people, the space, and the process.”

After all these years, Oniatta is still a one-woman show, albeit with some ad hoc help from her older children and a communications agency. She designs and commissions batik pieces from multi-generational family workshops in Indonesia and Malaysia, transforms these “canvases” into wearable art, and finds time to participate in exhibitions and hold discovery workshops for the public. 

She’s not just a retailer but a champion of heritage. She wants to be at the beginning and end of the life cycle of batik. “I like the idea of being able to celebrate it with others, to inspire curiosity. We are an ecosystem — from the designer, maker, seller, and finally, the wearer.” 

Making connections

Clearly, Oniatta relishes her second career as a creative, and her cheerfulness is infectious. She bubbles with enthusiasm as she shows me a rebranding presentation she prepared for a funding programme by the National Heritage Board and beams with pride when she unrolls a prayer mat she designed for Masjid Sultan’s 200th anniversary this year. Part of its proceeds will go to the mosque.

She bustles about unfurling stacked-up pieces of batik she ordered, explaining the symbolism of the motifs and the differences between hand-painted and hand-stamped batik. She even gets misty-eyed occasionally, recounting the various obstacles she faced.

What feeds her passion is the very feeling I had when I entered her gallery and swooned over her stunning dragon-motif batik. “If you were to ask me to describe the joy I feel, it is a sense of wonderment,” adds Oniatta. “It's something that doesn't necessarily have a conscious kind of reasoning.”

Yet, Oniatta articulates perfectly the many facets of her life now that bring her sheer happiness. Gesturing to her cosy office, she says, “To be able to break away from that mould (of her past life as a senior applied theatre lecturer); to work in a space that I have put together; and to be able to come home to the cloth that you connect with.”

There’s also the rapport with her vendors and customers. “It also thrills me to learn from the batik makers and to be able to commission works that tell a story. I think it's the continuation of a narrative that may have come from something I'm inspired by, and then my ability to communicate it to a maker, who produces a piece of cloth that comes back to me.”

While batik is familiar to many, how many know that not all batik is made equal, and the whole process of making her pieces takes six to nine months? Indeed, her work is a labour of love, and there is no greater joy than sharing it and keeping such dear traditions alive.

To give is to receive

As Oniatta demonstrates, bliss is only within reach when you seek it ardently. And it takes real courage to break free from monotony, expectations and stereotypes. “When you have a full-time job in Singapore, you're expected to commit 120 per cent to that and nothing else. And particularly with women, we’re seen as distracted or juggling too many things, even when I wasn't complaining.”

To her, what’s stopping people from experiencing pure joy is this “very difficult world we live in right now”. She explains, “We are often blinded by distractions and heavy responsibilities. Time has become a luxury, and relationships have become, more often than not, transactional.”

Pause and count your blessings, advises Oniatta. “What is a good thing that happened today? It may not be about business, but friendship, the children, or caregiving.”

From the look of things, she is unstoppable. On the personal front, she plans to start a blog on the ABCs of caregiving for elderly parents. Work-wise, her rebranding campaign launched last month; she’s just introduced a bespoke design and tailoring service; she’s expanding her product range with bags and pouches made from off-cuts towards a zero-waste vision, and she intends to apply for a grant to publish a book on batik art.

Perhaps what’s unbeknownst to her is how much joy she’s spreading. I am sure her walk-in tourist customers from France and Australia were absolutely chuffed to be wearing exotic batik. The same goes for a former student of hers who spent a huge chunk of her first paycheck on a Baju by Oniatta piece.

That Yogyakarta social enterprise that makes the tote bags, adorned with off-cuts, displayed on her shelves? They probably could not be more grateful.
And what about the managers at London restaurant Singapulah, for whom she recently designed batik uniforms? It wouldn’t be a stretch to guess that they cannot be prouder to wear her heart on their sleeve.

For more stories on The Peak Power List, visit here.