Scholarship in honor of Feith

Scholarship in honor of Feith

JAKARTA: The Australia Indonesia Institute (AII) announced on
Friday that it had established a scholarship in honor of Herb
Feith, one of Australia's greatest Indonesia scholars, who died
in Melbourne on Nov. 15.

The Herb Feith Scholarship will enable students to join the
new Masters Program in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at
Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

The institute has committed funding to the project for three
students over the next four years.

The scholarship is aimed at recognizing that Feith personified
much of what is best in the relationship between Indonesia and
Australia and the strength of that relationship, through its many
challenges.

Born in 1930 in Vienna, Feith was educated in Australia and
became the first volunteer in a program he helped found that
developed into Australia Volunteers International. Between 1951
and 1956 he worked in Indonesian government ministries as the
first volunteer in this scheme, on a local salary and under local
conditions.

He died in a tragic accident just days after returning from
the opening of an exhibition in Jakarta featuring photographs of
the Australian volunteers who had followed in his footsteps over
the past 50 years. -- JP