Indonesia Council Digest - July 2024
Thanks to everyone who joined us in Perth, whether online or in-person, as part of the recent Asian Studies Association of Australia conference at Curtin University. We enjoyed a fantastic keynote presentation by Dr Aditia Gunawan on the heritage of Indonesia’s manuscripts, and the challenges and opportunities associated with these sources. Aditia’s keynote was followed by our Annual General Meeting – more info below – and a very convivial and well-attended dinner. Congratulations to the organisers for such a successful and well-run conference!
Indonesia Council Exec Committee
Following a call for nominations earlier in the year, we are pleased to announce our new Exec Committee, all of whom were elected unopposed:
President: Natali Pearson, University of Sydney
Vice President: Jeremy Kingsley, Western Sydney University
Secretary: Elisabeth Kramer, UNSW Sydney
Treasurer: Elly Kent, Australian National University
Grants and Prizes Officer: Monika Winarnita, University of Melbourne
Postgraduate Representative: Tamara Megaw, University of Sydney
The Digital Engagement Editor position remains vacant, and we welcome expressions of interest in the role. In the interim, Simon Holding continues to provide excellent support, including distributing the monthly newsletter and maintaining the website.
AGM Resolutions
At the AGM, members endorsed the following proposals:
That IC run a biennial conference and that, to the extent possible, it remains free to participants.
That IC develop a policy and, if required, establish a committee for academic prizes and awards.
That IC continue servicing all activities we have been undertaking to date (such as website maintenance, ad hoc costs, supplementary financial support for IC keynotes at ASAA conferences).
What’s happening
The Australia-Indonesia in Conversation Conference will be held on 25 July at the University of Melbourne in partnership with Universitas Gadjah Mada. This hybrid event is the fourth in the Australia-Indonesia in Conversation (AIC) series, and this year will focus on 'New Governments in Indonesia and Australia: Domestic Challenges, Global Regime Changes & Geopolitical Tensions'. More information here.
Other cool stuff
The international media couldn’t get enough of the all-women metal band Voice of Baceprot, who played at Glastonbury in a world-first for an Indonesian band. I love this quote from lead singer Firdda Marsya Kurnia who, when asked how they felt when they first found out they had been invited, said “confused… because we didn’t know how exciting [the festival] is… We didn’t know what to do next.” By all accounts they knocked it out of the park, with a performance described by reviewers as “fantastically powerful, and often genuinely moving, set of passionate old school metal.”
Also making news is this exciting research about the world’s oldest narrative cave art – art that tells a story, in this case of human-like figures interacting with a pig – in a limestone karst cave in Maros-Pangkep, Sulawesi. Through the use of novel dating techniques, researchers have now determined the art is at least 51,200 years old, making it the world’s oldest. By comparison, the famous Lascaux caves of France are believed to be just 17,000 years old. This, friends, is why we need more people studying Southeast Asian archaeology!
Indonesia Council Open Conference, 7-10 July 2025
As previously announced, the University of Melbourne will host the next Indonesia Council Open Conference. The Convenors have now shared the following key dates, so please mark them in your calendar!
Venue: Melbourne Connect, The University of Melbourne, Parkville
***
CFP opens mid-September 2024
CFP closes early November 2024
Paper selection November-December 2024
Notification of acceptance mid-January 2025
Registration end February 2025
Postgraduate Day: 7 July 2025
Conference: 8-10 July 2025
Call for papers
Human Rights Archives and the Problems of Provenance, The University of Sydney, 25-27 June 2025
Records documenting human rights abuse raise a host of critical challenges for archivists, scholars, activists, survivors, and source communities. Who owns such records? Which stakeholders have the legal and/or ethical authority to make decisions about their stewardship and access? How should conflicting claims to ownership and authority be resolved? When should community-based collections, personal records, oral histories or artistic expressions comment on, respond to, or fill in the gaps left by official state documentation? Who is best situated to undertake such efforts? What are the competing priorities and differing approaches of state archives and community archives?
While this CFP is not specifically focused on Indonesia, the symposium is being run by the Indonesia Trauma Testimony Project (established in 2018 with the aim of compiling and preserving eyewitness materials related to the 1965-1966 mass violence in Indonesia) and will have a lot of Indonesia in it. Abstract submissions of no more than 250 words for paper presentations and no more than 500 words for panels should be submitted to ittp.symposium@sydney.edu.au by Monday, 25 November 2024. Click here for more details and cfp information.
Podcasts
Historians Cindy McReery and Robert Aldrich have just launched a new history podcast, “Monarchy in Peril”, which includes this episode, Lost imperial crowns: Monarchy and decolonisation, about the Sultan of Yogyakarta. In this podcast, they interview Indonesian academic Dr Bayu Dardias Kurniadi (UGM) about the history, as well as current and future situation, of the Sultanate.
Meanwhile, Jacqui Baker recorded this terrific podcast, Democracy, Human Rights and the Miracle of Indonesia: A conversation with Dr Jacqui Baker, in which she discusses her path to Indonesian studies and introduces the KONEKSI climate change project with which she is involved, along the way sharing insights into her research practice and ethics whilst also managing to sound both articulate and approachable. Nice one Jacqui!
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