Indonesia Council Digest - April 2024
A belated but heartfelt happy Idul Fitri to all who celebrate. May the year ahead be a blessed one for you and your families.
It’s a short newsletter this month, partly because I am travelling – but also please send us your publications! please send us your news! Nevertheless, there are plenty of events in the calendar for May and beyond to look forward to.
I hope you enjoy learning about our first official member, Colin Brown and consider taking out an IC membership yourself. On that note, a particularly warm welcome to all the new Indonesian Studies high school and undergraduate students – you are THE FUTURE! And the teachers / lecturers who forwarded you the membership information are legends (you can tell them I said so)!
If you’ve just started receiving our newsletters and would like to look at some of the past editions, you can do so on our website.
Until next month,
Natali
What’s happening
ANU has a whole bunch of great Indonesia events coming up in May (can you feel the new energy from the two new Indonesian Studies lecturers or what??).
First up is the Annual Tony and Yohanni Johns Lecture, with the esteemed author Leila Chudori, on 2 May. Leila is an Indonesian journalist and writer. In 2020 Chudori was awarded the Southeast Asian Writers Award, and in 2023, together with her daughter Rain Chudori, founded Peron House publishing company. She is the author of Pulang and Laut Bercerita, which has been a best seller for some seven years.
Next up is the launch of George Quinn’s book, She wanted to be a beauty queen, on 8 May. This is the first-ever anthology of modern Javanese fiction in English translation. The stories range over issues of ethnic identity, male-female relationships, religious faith, status and face, making money, and how ‘Java’ sees the domineering reality of ‘Indonesia.’ Behind them lies a recognisably Javanese worldview deep-rooted in the island’s villages and small towns.
On 14 May, there is a concert by energetic hip-hop artist Presiden Tidore, from Maluku Utara (check his latest album out on Spotify). No registration details as yet but a quick google closer to the time should get you to where you need to be!
The fabulous Elly Kent has curated a stunning new exhibition, On Tradition: contemporary art from Indonesia, featuring 13 artists and collectives working with traditional art practices in contemporary contexts – both those with contemporary practices that draw on tradition, and those bringing traditional practices into the contemporary art world. The exhibition is running across two spaces—16albermarle Project Space in Newtown, and Delmar Galler in Auburn. Come along for artist floor talks (from 3pm) and the opening reception (4-6pm) on Saturday 4 May at 16albermarle Project Space. It's open until 9 June in Auburn, and 29 June in Newtown, so please drop in if you’re in Sydney in the next few months.
Simon Butt’s new book, Judicial Dysfunction in Indonesia, will be launched at the University of Sydney Law School on 15 July, with introductory remarks by Laode Syarif and Tim Lindsey. More details to come but save the date if you’re in Sydney.
Other cool stuff
Catch up on the Asialink webinar on Indonesia’s next President, available on YouTube.
Meanwhile, this wonderful story of “heartache, lost love, and splintered families” has also been in the news, shedding light on the connections between Australia’s remote north coast and Makassar. Such stories are well known to many of us, in a general sense, but this story provides a remarkable level of detail about the individuals around which so many of these “Australia-Indonesia” connection stories are based. Definitely worth a read! Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that the link connects to a story containing images of people who have died.
IC Membership
All the cool folks are signing up to become members of Indonesia Council – and you can too! Paid membership allows us to cover our modest operating costs and to support keynote speakers at the biennial ASAA conferences. It also provides added benefits for you, including eligibility for:
• Biennial Indonesia Council Early Career Book Prize
• Dedicated postgraduate events and workshops
• Special members-only newsletters
• Other events, activities and subsidies as suggested by you
Feature image: Hersy ardianty a, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons