Tell us about yourself!
I’m Kirrilee (Kik for short) and I work across research and professional practice in international education. Currently I work as a consultant and I’ve previously held leadership and strategy roles for global education organisations as well as sessional teaching and research positions at Australian universities. My PhD in is Asian Studies from ANU and my doctoral research focused on Australia’s ‘Asia literacy’ agenda. I also studied Indonesian as an undergraduate at ANU and I’m an ACICIS and AFS alumni. I currently live in Singapore with my husband and our little boy.
What is the nature of your engagement with Indonesia – are you an academic, a professional, an alumnus…
I’m an ‘everything’… and I really love the work I currently do in international education at the intersection of research and professional practice, where I often draw on my alumni experience as a high school and university student in Indonesia. Currently I consult to international education clients out of Singapore and, over my career, I’ve frequently travelled to Indonesia for work. I’ve previously managed AIYEP, I’m a current member of ACICIS’ National Reference Group and I’m also working on project exploring Australia-Asia youth engagement.
How do you think organisations like Indonesia Council can improve Australia-Indonesia relations?
Bilateral people-to-people connections are so important and the Indonesia Council provides important networking and knowledge sharing opportunities for researchers in both countries. Often, it is the academic work of Indonesia Council members that provides an evidence based for other areas of the bilateral relationship.
What are some of the challenges and opportunities in the Indonesia-Australia relationship?
I think one of the biggest challenges of the bilateral relationship stems from the way Australians and Indonesian engage with each other. The majority of Australians experience Indonesia as tourists, and for Indonesians, Australia is the top destination country for university and vocational education students wishing to study abroad. The challenge is to broaden this engagement to other areas such as school relations, business, community and cultural connections. There are so many opportunities for Australians and Indonesians to learn about each other outside of tourism and tertiary education.
Tell us about your favourite Indonesian food experience
Obviously there’s so much good food across Indonesia… but my favourite experience is probably the mountain of Indo Mie packets and Indo Café 3-in-1 sachets I consumed late at night with my kos mates as an ACICIS student. Sometimes we’d splash out and get really fancy by adding an egg to make our version of ‘mie rebus’. Noodles, coffee and ‘ngobrol’ are an excellent combo.
Do you speak Indonesian and where did you start learning it?
Yes, I do (as well as some Javanese, but my Indonesian is definitely more fluent). I started learning it in Year 7 at my high school in Sydney, ended up on a year-long AFS exchange program in Yogyakarta in Year 10 and also studied Indonesian at ANU and my ACICIS program including the field work study option in Malang). Throughout my career, I’ve managed teams in Indonesia and have had many opportunities to maintain my language skills. A big shout-out to Amrih Widodo who taught me Indonesian and Javanese at ANU and is an exceptionally gifted language teacher.
What’s your favourite Indonesian music/song/writer?
As a high school student in Indonesia in the 1990s, I used to ‘learn vocab’ from Indonesian pop songs 😉. There’s a special place in my heart for KLA’s ‘Yogyakarta’; Nugie’s ‘Burung Gereja’, Slank’s ‘Tonk Kosong’, Base Jam’s ‘Bermimpi’ and Jamrud’s ‘Putri’ (haha and if you know these songs, enjoy the daggy video clips!).
[Last month’s PAY IT FORWARD question]: If you didn’t work on Indonesia, what would your profession be and why?
I’ve always had an interest in language acquisition… so maybe a Speech Pathologist? Though I probably would have gone down a research path with that too!
