This report presents a detailed analysis and overview of the livelihoods, skills, education and aspirations of rural young people in the Maros district of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Attitudes
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.
Education and extremism in Indonesia: Building a more tolerant future through schools
“It’s really about getting down to the roots of why certain people are segregating themselves from society.” While Indonesia has a history of religious acceptance, intolerance linked to conservative Islam appears to be on the rise. Educational institutions play a crucial role in advocating for social cohesion and harmony over radicalism among young people, and […]
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 […]
Study links rising Islamic conservatism to urban youth’s socio-economic frustrations
A survey of 600 ‘anti-Ahok’ marchers has captured rare insights into Indonesia’s growing Islamic conservatism and how social inequality is viewed through a moral lens. A new study funded by the Australia-Indonesia Centre and conducted by top Australian and Indonesian university researchers has revealed that stalling levels of job security and social mobility might explain […]
Australian Foreign Affairs panel discussion: Indonesia and Australia – Can we be friends?
For those who care about the relationship between Indonesia and Australia, it is a perennial question: can the two nations, who are so physically close, be true friends? Can they find a way to get past the differences which seem to keep them apart and learn to work together in a more constructive and mutually […]
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 […]