Center links Australia and Asia
By Dewi Anggraeni
MELBOURNE, Australia (JP): Most busy people, for the sake of convenience, like to think of the world as divided into two halves: the East and the West. The East is full of mysteries, opacities and exotica, while the West is technologically tidy, transparent and straightforward. It is curious how widespread and persistent this concept is, even in our ever-shrinking world, in a manner of speaking.
For those who feel they belong to the western world, the concept naturally brings fascination about cultures regarded as belonging to the East. Conversely, for those who feel they belong to the East, the West tends to represent modernity, advanced technology and certainty.
As long as these two halves remain closed off from each other, mutual understanding will be limited. And often these limitations lead to mutual suspicions that easily can be fanned out of proportion.
Alison Broinowski, in her book The Yellow Lady, looks exhaustively at Australian images of Asia. She concludes that some of the perceptions based on these images, no matter how irrational or archaic, continue to underlie the political and economic decisions Australians make about the Asia-Pacific region.
Awareness among some Australians of these distorted images has been behind the drive that has taken place over the last two decades to project more accurate pictures of the Asia-Pacific region.
Apart from books and other publications, organizations have been founded which variously promote better understanding, forge closer links or just extend friendship to the various non- Caucasian communities who live in this country. Some of these organizations were founded in Australia, others are branches or chapters of organizations already existing overseas.
The Asia Society, established some 50 years ago by John D. Rockefeller III in New York with the objective of broadening understanding between Asians and Americans, opened its AustralAsia Centre in Melbourne in 1997.
Hugh Morgan AO, chief executive officer of Western Mining Limited, was behind the decision to open the Centre in Australia, and Richard Woolcott AC, a former ambassador to Indonesia, was appointed founding director.
Being a nonprofit and non-governmental organization, the AustralAsia Centre has been fortunate in having high-profile names on its Advisory Board, among its founding members, as corporate benefactors and corporate patrons, as well as ordinary members.
Organizing events
Staffed by five professionals, the Centre organizes meetings, inviting speakers from different countries in the region. The topics covered range from business, politics and current affairs, to culture and the arts.
Last year, one of the events the Centre held was Rebuilding Bridges to Indonesia. Among the people invited to speak at the event were senior journalists Fikri Jufri and Bambang Harymurti, economist Djisman Simandjuntak and political observer Jusuf Wanandi.
In the Centre's efforts to embrace different aspects of life, the realm of the gourmand has not been neglected. Late last year, the Centre collaborated with the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival to hold a panel discussion titled Asian Cuisine in Australia: Have We Got it Right? The panelists included noted chefs and well-known restaurateurs.
Cultural events are high on the Centre's agenda. Prue Holstein, the Centre's executive director, said the Centre was currently developing an Indonesian modernist art exhibition designed to show the development of Indonesian nationalism over the last 50 or 60 years.
"We intend to open the exhibition in Melbourne in late 2002, then tour it to regional galleries in Victoria, Canberra and New South Wales, and finish in Sydney," she said.
Works for the exhibition will come from public and private collections in Australia, as well as from Indonesian collections.
"Public programming will be developed around the exhibition to educate and inform the Australian public about contemporary society in Indonesia," Holstein said.
The principal curators for this exhibition are Dr. Astri Wright, a Southeast Asian art critic and expert from Victoria University in Canada, and Jim Supangkat, an art critic and former journalist.
While the AustralAsia Centre makes use of its connections with its centers in the United States to benefit its programs in Australia, sometimes obtaining ideas and suggestions for speakers, this does not mean it has an American slant.
"The bulk of the AustralAsia Centre's programming, however, is designed with Australian market and policy needs in mind," Holstein said.
And in this era or networking, the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre cooperates with others similarly minded organizations to build professional programs that blend education, information and fun.