Indonesia Council Digest - April 2025
The Indonesia Council Executive team is absolutely delighted to announce the two winners of our inaugural postgraduate bursary award, designed to support IC postgraduate members to attend the Indonesia Council Open Conference (ICOC) 2025.
We were really pleased with the quality of the applications, and are delighted to award the bursaries to the following two postgraduate IC members:
Restu Mufanti from the University of Technology Sydney, for her abstract on University Teachers’ Responses to a Decade of Curriculum Reform in Indonesia
Ayu Siantoro from the University of Sydney, for her abstract on Decolonising Indonesian anti-sexual-violence legislation: Analisis post-struktural Undang-Undang Tindak Pidana Kekerasan Seksual
We wish you both the very best for successful conference presentations, and we also extend our warm encouragement to those who applied but were not successful in this instance. We look forward to continuing to return benefits to our members through these and other initiatives.
Restu and Ayu will be publicly acknowledged at the IC members’ event on 8 July at ICOC 2025. And I would like to say a personal thank you to the IC Exec team, especially Monika and Tamara, who led this initiative so smoothly.
More broadly, it has been really pleasing to see our membership continuing to grow. Thank you to all who have taken that extra step to sign up as a member, we greatly appreciate your support. And if you enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to your friends, colleagues, students and others!
Even as we grow our membership offerings, the newsletter will remain free.
Wishing you all a wonderful month ahead,
Natali
What’s happening
Indonesia Council Public Speaking Workshop
The Indonesia Council is delighted to present our Public Speaking Workshop on 29 May from 12.30pm (delivered online).
This public speaking workshop will give you the encouragement and guidance you need to prepare for your next academic presentation, including how to:
identify the features of a great presentation
develop your opening ‘hook’
craft your narrative
deliver an engaging presentation, including managing nerves, preparing your slides and managing Q&A.
There will also be opportunity for targeted feedback on your opening statement. You must be a member of the Indonesia Council to be eligible to participate in this workshop; join here.
To register your interest please email us at iclistdata [at] gmail.com.
19th Indonesian Film Festival
The Indonesian Film Festival returns to Melbourne's ACMI on 2-4 May 2025 with the theme Cinema from the Heart of Nusantara, spotlighting stories grounded in Indonesia’s diverse cultural and social landscapes. The program will feature:
Kakak 7 Ponakan (2025) with guest star Yandy Laurens (Director) – 2 May, 2025
Lembayung (2024) with guest star Yasamin Jasem (Cast) – 3 May, 2025
Perayaan Mati Rasa (2025) with guest star Umay Shahab (Director, Cast) – 4 May, 2025
Event details
Date: 2 - 4 May 2025
Venue: ACMI, Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Register: https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/indonesian-film-festival-2025/
Other cool stuff
"We should be concerned that Australian researchers aren’t choosing to learn Indonesian"
This new research report (for us at least!) went under the radar when it was first released in December 2024, but it’s important so we’re drawing your attention to it now. Mapping Australia’s Indonesia Research Capability, funded through the KONEKSI collaboration between Australia and Indonesia and produced by the Australian Council of Learned Academies in partnership with the Australian Academy of the Humanities, shows outputs from Australia-Indonesia bilateral research relationships are at an all-time high — with benefits to global health, energy, trade, people and culture — with further opportunities to grow.
At the same time, the authors warn we risk taking this relationship for granted, with a decline in language capability causing concern. For example, co-authorship between Indonesian and Australian researchers has grown significantly, with 8,500 co-authored publications released in the past ten years, with 51% of those published within the past five years. But we risk squandering these opportunities due to a decline in language capability, which the authors identify as key to researchers’ ability to work with primary evidence, conduct fieldwork and undertake further collaboration. And, as the Executive Director of AAH pointed out, this is only one side of the story: “It begs a sequel report; an Indonesian perspective on Indonesia’s capacity to collaborate with Australia.”
Indonesia in 2035: Climate risks to security in the Indo-Pacific
Meanwhile, ASPI has released this sobering report on the climate crisis in Indonesia, which presents the findings of a narrative-driven scenario to stress-test Indonesia’s climate risks emerging by 2035. Its objective is to identify opportunities for Indonesia and its economic and strategic partners to prepare for and mitigate the risks. Indonesia warrants particular scrutiny in considering the existential risks posed by climate risks due to its high exposure to climate hazards, its very large population which is densely concentrated in vulnerable coastal areas and small islands, and its history of political unrest associated with disruptions to food and energy security. If you only look at one thing in this report, make it figure 1 on page 5, which presents a snapshot of Indonesia’s key climate risks and drivers in the 2035 ‘stress test’ scenario’.
Seminars / webinars coming up
The green deal and geoeconomics in Southeast Asia
Cahyani Widi Larasakti (University of Melbourne) and Arrizal Jaknanihan (ANU). 24 April, 3-4.30pm AEST (online, register here).The benefice as a key economic institution in ancient Java (700–1500 CE)
Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan (ANU). 30 April 2025 at 12:30-2:00pm AEST (online and in-person).Who benefits from gender electoral quotas? What women bear and men gain in Indonesia’s elections
Tanya Jakimow (ANU), Asima Yanty Siahaan (USU), Aida Harahap (USU) and Yumasdaleni (BRIN). 14 May 2025 at 12:30-2:00pm AEST (online and in-person)
Call for Papers: International Forum on Spice Route 2025
The 6th International Forum on Spice Route (IFSR) is now accepting abstract submissions! Held in Jakarta from 23–26 September 2025, this hybrid forum invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to reimagine the Spice Routes through themes of sustainability, heritage, and innovation.
Panel topics include phytogeography, migration, cultural expression, decolonisation, and maritime encounters. Selected papers will be published by BRIN.
Abstracts due: 15 May 2025
Announcement of Selected Abstracts: 30 May 2025
Full Paper/Artwork submissions: 15 August 2025
Presentation submissions: 5 September 2025
To submit your abstracts and for further information, click here: linktr.ee/negerirempah
Publications and Podcasts
Russian planes and American tariffs
Indonesia continues to feature in the global geo-political landscape, with recent developments only highlighting its geo-strategic importance to Australia and to the region.
As I write this, all the discussion is about the (alleged?) Russian request to base planes in West Papua, immediately and strenuously denied by Indonesia’s Defence Minister. Indonesia has historically been part, if not a leader, of the non-aligned movement, and it is also the newest member of the BRICS organisation – the first Southeast Asian nation to join.
With all this global uncertainty, it seems accurate to suggest, as Jeremy Kingsley did in his piece for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, that maybe Trump has done Australia a favour by reminding us of the importance of our region.
On a related note, this article for Inside Indonesia by soil scientist Budiman Minasny is an interesting read on how American tariffs in the 1930s helped to end forced labour in the Dutch East Indies – who knew!
Research on Indonesian coffee
Jeff Neilson from the University of Sydney has a new book coming out with Cornell University Press.
Fortress Farming: Agrarian Transitions, Livelihoods, and Coffee Value Chains in Indonesia identifies in Indonesia's rural coffee-growing regions an alternative livelihood strategy that is reshaping relationships with land and informing Indonesia's agrarian transition.
Congrats Jeff on this new publication!
The Perantau Podcast
Our Digital Engagement Editor, Billy Aditijanto, returns with a new episode with The Perantau Podcast, where he shares stories from Australia's Indonesian diaspora.
On his newest episode dropping tomorrow (23 April), RMIT graduate Sherlina Felicia Livianto reflects on her involvement in the RMIT Indonesia Strategy Project. As the project explored cross-border university partnerships, the experience sparked her interest in international education, revealing untapped opportunities in Indonesia’s higher education sector. Find it on YouTube and Spotify.
Art x War in Southeast Asia
Elly Kent and colleagues have just published their special issue (part one) on Art x War in Southeast Asia (with a close focus on Indonesia) in the National Gallery Singapore’s online magazine Perspectives. Check out the editorial foreword by Elly and Kathleen Ditzig here.
This collaborative research project brings together scholars from universities in Australia and Southeast Asia, and curators from National Gallery Singapore and the Australian War Memorial to provide new perspectives on modern and contemporary war art from Southeast Asia. This issue brings together the work of curator Elise Routledge from Australian War Memorial, Dr Elly Kent and art historians Dr Roger Nelson, Dr Wulan Dirgantoro and Dr. Margaret Hutchison, with the second part due out in September.
Australian Journal of Asian Law
The ever-reliable Australian Journal of Asian Law has published another issue featuring articles on Indonesia. Volume 26 no 1, 2025 is a Special Issue on Disability and the Law in Asia, and includes the following two articles related to Indonesia:
Ayah Wehbe and Dina Afrianty, ‘Disability and Law in Asia Special Issue: Introduction’
Dina Afrianty and Stewart Fenwick, ‘Disability, Religion and Citizenship in Indonesia’
Articles can be downloaded free-of charge here.
Straight Talk Southeast Asia
For your listening pleasure, tune in to this recent episode of Straight Talk Southeast Asia, where researcher Virdika Rizky Utama is in conversation with Zachary Abuza about current political developments in Indonesia, including a controversial revision to the 2004 Indonesian Military Law which has sparked discussion about the military’s expanded role in civilian affairs at the same time as concerns circulate regarding the Prabowo administration's populist economic agenda and the role of technocrats in steering the economy. As they point out, growing concerns about the erosion of democratic governance have been accompanied by widespread public protests and worrying attacks on the media (pigs heads and decapitated rates, anyone?).
Talking Indonesia
We also recommend this episode of Talking Indonesia, where Lis Kramer speaks to bio-archaeologist Melandri Vlok about how ancient diseases show up in bones and the world’s earliest known successful amputation. As they note in the discussion, Indonesia features prominently in early movements and migrations of humans and how they might have lived.
Back to Bangka: Searching for the Truth about a Wartime Massacre
A final recommendation (and full disclosure: I am the host of this episode) is this discussion for the New Books in Southeast Asia Studies podcast with Australian author Georgina Banks about her book Back to Bangka: Searching for the Truth about a Wartime Massacre. This book tells the story of Georgina's great aunt Bud, an Australian nurse evacuated from Singapore in February 1942 on the Vyner Brooke, and what happened when the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft and Bud and other shipwreck survivors washed up on the shores of Pulau Bangka. The episode contains discussions of violence, including sexual violence.