Indonesia Council Digest - April 2023
Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri! Ramadan will just be finishing by the time this newsletter comes out, so we would like to take the opportunity to wish all who celebrate a very happy Idul Fitri.
One of my priorities as President has been to move Indonesia Council toward incorporation, bringing us into line with most of the sub-regional associations under the Asian Studies Association of Australia. I’m pleased to share that we’ve now submitted the necessary paperwork to allow us to begin that process. I’d like to thank my colleagues Jeremy Kingsley (IC Deputy President) and Dan Trevanion, who prepared a draft constitution for the purposes of incorporation and who have been providing advice along the way. Once the paperwork is accepted, we will be undertaking consultation with various stakeholders, including reaching out to all of you in due course to find out what you want from us. More to come throughout the year.
Earlier this month we were delighted to co-host a webinar with the Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre, ACICICs and BRIN on Conducting Research in Indonesia: Updates from BRIN and Academia. You can find a link to the video here. It’s on Vimeo so if you’re in Indonesia you won’t be able to watch it, maaf… but we do plan to get a version on to YouTube—along with Tri Sundari’s slides, a sample Letter of Agreement courtesy Nick Long, and instructions on how to get a research permit courtesy Joanna Vogeley—on the IC website. Big thanks to all involved, especially our excellent speakers for sharing their time and expertise. If you missed the first webinar we did with BRIN late last year, you can find it on our website.
Until next month,
Natali
iclistdata@gmail.com
What's happening...
It seems to be update time!
If you’re interested in regional security and the implications of the AUKUS announcement for the Australia-Indonesia relationship, you might be interested in this Lowy Institute event in Canberra on 26 April: Australia and Indonesia: diverging neighbours in the Indo-Pacific? This panel discussion will feature Dr Evan A. Laksmana, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, in conversation with Richard Maude of the Asia Society Policy Institute, and Susannah Patton, Southeast Asia Program Director at the Lowy Institute. The event will be moderated by Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. Register here (tickets include wine and cheese – fancy!).
Meanwhile, the ANU Southeast Asia Institute has put together a great lineup of experts for its inaugural Regional Geopolitical Update on Monday 1 May (in-person in Canberra, and online). Its focus is Southeast Asia but there are plenty of Indonesia experts including Dr Rizal Sukma, Centre for Strategic and International Studies Jakarta and Vice Admiral TNI Dr Amarulla Octavian, Indonesian Defence University. More info and register here.
The next day (Tuesday 2 May), the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre’s annual Politics in Action event will feature an update on Indonesia presented by Bivitri Susanti (Indonesia Jentera School of Law) on Tuesday 2 May. This event is online only and you can register here.
Other cool stuff
Check out this new podcast, Data Dialogues, which features a limited (six episodes) series on the promises and frustrations of Indonesia’s OneMap policy. It’s the latest storytelling project by anthropologist and writer Madhuri Karak, and is produced by Open Environmental Data Project. This season will be of interest to land defenders, scholars of forests and livelihoods, and data transparency advocates. Guest speakers include Dr Rini Astuti and Dr Sophie Chao (both of whom have also featured on SSEAC Stories here and here), alongside many other researchers working in Indonesia, as well as journalists, community advocates, data technologists, and indigenous elders. You can also check out the website – each episode comes with a transcript and interactive show notes for easy listening and reference.
The newsletter has a bit of a musical theme going on this month (see below!) so we thought it a good time to share this reflective piece by scholar Adam King, lecturer at the Australian College of the Arts in Melbourne, on musical identity, Balinese gamelan and the kendang.
If you’re based in Sydney, there is a new exhibition at 16albermarle project space in Newtown, until 20 May. Ghosts from the Past: Ipeh Nur & Enka Komariah is a joint exhibition by Ipeh Nur (b 1993) and Enka Komariah (b 1993). On this occasion, the Yogyakarta artist couple exhibit artworks rooted in research-based projects concerned with historical narratives and memories. The centrepiece is Rumah yang Yahud (A Cool House), a collaborative installation including drawings, paintings and building scaffolding measuring 300 x 400 x 400 cm. The installation reflects the process of rethinking and rebuilding Indonesia as a national identity, in the context of the post-Pacific War and the country’s independence. The artists explore the persistence of violent histories through speculative narratives, as responses to their absence in the official historiography.
Monumen Pembebasan (Freedom Monument)
2022 oil on paper, 107 x 79 cm
The Australian National University (Canberra) will host a 10-day Training Course: Reading Dutch for Historical Research in January 2024, taught by Professor Robert Cribb.
Time: 8-19 January 2024; 9:30am - 4:30pm weekdays daily
Location: Seminar Room 3, Hedley Bull Building, ANU
Format: In-person
Cost: No course fees required
Bookings: places are limited. Contact eva.nisa@anu.edu.au
Indonesia Council Open Conference
Registrations are open for the Indonesia Council Open Conference, to be held in Sydney in September. The deadline for speaker registration is 31 May. If you’ve got any questions about panels, hybrid presentations, paper formats, letters of acceptance, or anything at all, please get in touch with the conference organisers: icoc2023.conference@sydney.edu.au
Publications
In keeping with the arts and culture vibe, we’re delighted to see the Indonesia issue of Artlink out this month. Contemporary art practice, curatorial trends and art writing take centre stage in this issue with material from the Indonesian centres of Jakarta and Yogyakarta, alongside artists and writers in Bali, Banda Aceh, Makassar, Sulawesi and Australia. Editorial advisors and leading specialists on Indonesian art, Wulan Dirgantoro, Elly Kent and Aaron Seeto have worked with writers at all stages of their practice who investigate topics from socially engaged collectives to art in the diaspora, feminist art histories, cultural festivals, national collecting policies and the evolving cross-cultural relationship between our two neighbouring nations.
Yunie Rahmat and Jeff Neilson have just published a new article in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography about Indonesia’s fisheries sector: The ebb and flow of capital in Indonesian coastal production systems. Using national datasets complemented by insights from a two-month period of fieldwork in South Sulawesi, the paper presents ‘the process of capital intensification underpinning national fisheries growth and how it is transforming small-scale production systems. Despite increasing market integration, we found that smallholders have persisted across coastal production systems to an even stronger degree than land-based agriculture. We suggest some reasons why this is so. However, we also observed evidence of internal class differentiation within coastal communities. Such differentiation, combined with resource degradation and depletion, exposes the poorest in the community to enhanced livelihood vulnerability.’
Jobs and funding
There’s a new Research Centre in town, and it’s in need of a Director! Apply here by 5 May 2023 if you have what it takes to lead the new Indo Pacific Research Centre at Murdoch University.
The University of Sydney has a generous scholarship ($8,500 per annum for up to 4 years) for undergraduate students interested in Southeast Asian Studies. Applications for the Gabrielle Ewington scholarship in Southeast Asian Studies close 3 May – please share with your students!