Australia's new generation: Think globally, act neighborly

By Dewi Anggraeni

MELBOURNE (JP): It is no secret that the majority of adults in Australia are still more conversant in cultures originating in Britain and continental Europe than in Asia or other parts of the world. But this situation is changing fast.

If in your next visit to Australia you happen to be invited to a family barbecue, it is likely that a primary school-aged child, prompted by its proud mother or father, will greet you in Indonesian. You may not hear complicated discourse, but coming from the mouth of a seven year-old, the utterance of "Selamat sore Bu. Apa kabar?" is a pleasant surprise indeed.

Next generation Australians are going to be Indonesia- literate, in more ways than one.

Bahasa Indonesia became part of university studies in 1956, beginning in the University of Melbourne. Since then, it has not only expanded at the tertiary level, it has taken roots in the secondary school level, followed by expansion at the primary level as well.

Not only have the studies of Indonesia increased in leaps and bounds in terms of volumes and diversity, the motivation behind establishing and promoting them has also evolved a long way from the original one.

Errol Hodge in his 1995 book about Radio Australia, Radio Wars, described Australia of the 1950s as being significantly influenced by the McCarthyism of the United States at the time. Part of the fear of the threat of communism was the suspicion of Indonesia's expansionist aspirations.

So in this context it is very likely that the studies of Indonesia, including its language, in 1956, was at first intended to be a shield (if not a weapon) -- it is useful to know the movement of the "enemy".

However the studies developed and evolved into its own being, independently of the wishes of its "maker". The teachings of Indonesian language and culture in primary and secondary schools could not have been maintained without the community's support.

This was very much proven by the drop in the numbers of students, subsequently of schools, teaching Indonesian in the late 1970s, in the wake of Indonesia's controversial inclusion of East Timor as its 27th province. Despite this unfortunate drawback, Indonesian gradually became a major subject again in Australian schools.

While the relationship between Indonesia and Australia is not exactly warm and meaningful at present, it is useful to remember that Indonesian studies in Australia had evolved into a multi- faceted program long before the relationship deteriorated into the state it is now.

Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating's well-known enthusiasm about Australia's more substantial engagement in the region played an important role in pushing the growth of the studies of Asia in general, and of Indonesia in particular.

While the enthusiasm has not been shared by the present Coalition government, the present prime minister, John Howard, and his foreign minister, Alexander Downer, nonetheless concedes that meaningful engagement with Asia is politically and economically advantageous to Australia.

The funding for the programs managed by Asia Education Foundation (founded in 1992) is still generously continued, and government support, financial as well as moral and official, for other organizations which foster links with Indonesia, is maintained if not increased.

Throughout Australia, the Asia Education Foundation has been incredibly active in promoting studies of Asia, in which studies of Indonesia are prominent. Its work is particularly important because while the studies of languages are always accompanied by the studies of culture, these have been more or less exclusive.

AEF has enriched the program by developing projects which enable the teachings of Asia to be implemented across the curriculum. It works with schools, government and non-government education agencies, universities, philanthropic foundations and the corporate sector. Its national programs encompass curriculum development, school development, and partnerships and professional development.

In its Access Asia school programs, with current participants numbering 1,543 schools, AEF has helped the creation of networks and has sponsored the training of network leaders. This has strengthened the focus on the programs.

One example of the success of the programs is the project conducted by Parkdale Secondary College in Mordialloc, an outer suburb of Melbourne, which won last year's AEF and Asialink's Award for Excellence.

The students learn Indonesian cultural history and social anthropology through archaeology. The school had two pits dug in its grounds. With the guidance of their teacher, Effie Kass, the students who had been preparing furniture and artifacts, constructed a Balinese home.

It consisted of four rooms: a temple, a kitchen, a dining area and a general work area. They even included a Balinese chicken dish complete with cooked rice in the house. Among the soft furniture were batik cloths that the students had made in their art classes. When the work was completed, they had both pits recovered and the ground relevelled.

In the intervening 15 weeks students from different forms who were not involved in the construction works learned and researched Indonesian culture and history, as well as archaeological methods and techniques.

At the end of 15 weeks they excavated the site and unearthed the items one by one, and like archaeologists they used their laptop computers to log what they found, labeled them and placed the items individually in plastic bags.

They then analyzed their find from the Balinese home to develop theories about the culture of the people who used those items, such as their religion, musical instruments, diet and customs. Other skills were also mobilized. Mathematics students had to carry out measurements of the sites, while English students interviewed those who were working on the excavations, then wrote mock newspaper articles about the archaeological project.

If this project is multiplied by the number of schools involved and the number of regions as well as social aspects in Indonesia, it is easy to see how much more aware and Indonesia- literate the next generation of Australians are going to be.

It may not be a great deal, considering that the starting point was low. However it is an increasingly irreversible flow.

And if this effort is reciprocated by Indonesia, any future tension undermining the relationship, born of suspicions and misunderstandings on both parts, may hopefully be tempered, and stemmed before it grows into a sore.

After all, how can we think globally, when we cannot even act neighborly?

The writer is a journalist based in Melbourne.