Trading Cultures: A documentary

Trading Cultures explores the themes of identity, trade and cultural exchange through artistic practice, giving voice to the traders and trades that were flourishing before the 21st century, and, most likely, long before 1700.

Documenting resilience amid disaster

Watching journalists piece together the first snippets of information about the earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, we had an instinct that we should go. Images of grieving families and villages reduced to wreckage were harrowingly familiar. We had recently finished a documentary exploring how the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami transformed the worst affected region of […]

Now or later: when should children learn English?

The use of English in everyday life is on the rise in Indonesia. We can hear people speak English in offices, banks, schools, tourist destinations and various public spaces. Some people even do it with a bit of a twist. International schools with English curriculum have become a new favorite for parents. In these schools, […]

Celebrating Everyday Life in Australia-Indonesia Neighbourhood

How can we improve relations between Australia and Indonesia? Researchers on the “Celebrating Everyday Life in Indonesia-Australia Neighbourhood” project seem to think the answer might lie in a cup of coffee. In late 2017 a team of researchers from Monash University, Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Queensland University of Technology jointly set out to […]

Countering the rise of radicalism in private Islamic schools in Indonesia

A series of terrorist acts has rocked Indonesia in the past week. Starting from a clash in a detention centre at the Police Mobile Brigade headquarters in Depok, West Java, last week, attackers then bombed three churches in Surabaya, East Java, last Sunday, followed by another terrorist bombing at Surabaya Police Headquarters. Dozens were killed […]