Reflecting on 2024: ANU Indonesia Institute

Dear friends and colleagues,

As 2024 comes to a close, let’s take a moment to reflect on all that we have achieved together.

This year, ANU Indonesia Institute events attracted more that 750 attendees from across and beyond campus! Not only does this reflect the range of high quality speakers featured at our events, it also speaks to the impact of our wonderful Program Officer, Arumdriya Putri. In 2024, Arum helped expand our reach to new audiences. We now have a social media presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, allowing us to build our community across multiple platforms. Huge thanks to Arum!

This year had a big focus on students, culture and language, and of course the Indonesian elections. Let’s look back at the various events we held in 2024.

Student Engagement

We kicked off the year with our annual Indonesia Student Social. Each year this event gets bigger and bigger. In 2024, 70 students and staff joined us to network, and to learn about all the opportunities at ANU to engage in Indonesian language and Indonesian studies programmes, and to learn about the Indonesia-related activities and communities around campus.

Another year, another ANU Indonesia Institute Postgraduate Research Workshop! We had a huge response this year, with over 70 applications. We welcomed 30 participants from universities across Australia, covering a wide range of topics from religion, to health, to geography. During this workshop, we also launched the Indonesian Network of Doctoral and Early-Career Researchers in Australia (INDERA), further establishing the Institute as a central hub for Indonesia-related activities at ANU.

The Institute collaborated with a range of student organisations this year. Our experts supported the Australia-Indonesia Youth Association for their panel event on Indonesia's new capital city. We had a packed house of 90 attendees. Our Deputy Director, Dr Elly Kent, led the discussion at the screening of Eksil, hosted by the ACT Indonesian Student Association (PPIA-ACT) and organised with several key partners, including The ANU Indonesian Students' Association (ANUISA), Australia-Indonesia Youth Association (AIYA) ACT, the Education and Cultural Attaché Office of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Canberra, ANU Indonesia Project, ANU Indonesia Institute, and Balai Bahasa Indonesia. Almost 100 people attended to watch the film and enjoy an interactive discussion with the documentary director, Lola Amaria and producer Sari Mochtan.

This year the Institute also hosted two delegates from the Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program. Wira Muhammad Rafli and Dhiaulhaq Aumane Paningkava spent three weeks at the ANU meeting our academics, helping out with programs such as the 2024 Southeast Asia Institute Student Research Symposium and enjoying campus life.

AIYA-ANU Indonesia Institute event on Indonesia's New Capital

Finally, and also for our students, we’re very excited to announce that the new Indonesian language major, on offer from 2025, includes a range of advanced offerings as well as our traditional strengths at the beginner level; accomplished language students will even have the opportunity to study Indonesian politics and security courses in Indonesian language with world-leading experts, through our language based versions of Indonesian Foreign and Security Policy (L) and Indonesia: Politics, Society and Development (L).

Society, Language and Culture

ANU Indonesia Institute is working hard to expand our focus on Indonesia-Australia cultural exchange. So this year, we were also privileged to host rapper, Presiden Tidore, known as Bams Conoras from Tidore Island, and dancer Gilang Husain, from the intriguing Ternate Island in North Maluku. Their performances celebrate regional identity, the pivotal role of Ternate and Ternate in regional and global histories, and advocate for greater recognition of Indonesia’s rich diversity beyond Java and Bali. Big thank you to Deputy Director Dr Elly Kent for being the force behind this wonderful initiative.

Left to right: Gilang Husain, Deputy Director Elly Kent and Presiden Tidore A.K.A Bams Conoras

May marked the return of one of our flagship programme - the Tony and Yohanni Johns Lecture. This year, Leila Chudori, acclaimed Indonesian novelist, presented ‘The Question of Truth,’ exploring problems of popular trust and truth-making in Indonesian history. The event was a tremendous success, with a packed house of over 100 attendees from all around Canberra. We thank Professor Anthony Reid and the Johns family for their ongoing support for this important event, and H.E. Siswo Purnomo.

Left to right: CAP Dean Professor Helen Sullivan, Director Eve Warburton, Leila Chudori

The lecture series honours the legacy of Ibu Yohanni Bey Johns, who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) earlier this year in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to tertiary education. A pioneering figure in Indonesian language instruction in Australia, Ibu Yohanni's work—including her foundational textbooks—has shaped generations of Indonesianists across Australia and around the world.