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AUSTRALIA-INDONESIA The Australia-Indonesia Arts and Community Program was established in 2000 as a partnership between Asialink and the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council. The program has attracted funding from both government and non-government sources including the Australia Council, the Australia-Indonesia Institute, the Myer Foundation, the NSW Ministry for the Arts, Arts Victoria's Artists in Schools Program, the Wettenhall Foundation and the Mullum Trust. The
Background The program was also inspired by the fact that Indonesia has extremely strong creative practices outside of formal 'arts' locations (eg. performing arts centres and state run museums), while Australia has a strong community cultural development infrastructure and experience. The Australia-Indonesia Arts and Community Program aims to bring the richness of practices in both countries to new dynamic outcomes. In developing the program, Asialink undertook extensive research and consultation. This process included the documentation of the past 10 years (1990-2000) of exchange between Australian and Indonesian artists and a forum on Arts and Community held in Melbourne in July 2000. In 2000 and again in 2002 Asialink has called for expressions of interest for the program. Five projects have been supported and have involved artists and communities in locations as diverse as Fremantle, Torquay, Padang, Sydney, Yogyakarta, Lombok, Jakarta, Melville Island, Komodo Island, Makassar, Bali, Christmas Island and Bathurst Island. See below for more information about the projects supported under the program. The Australia-Indonesia Arts and Community Program strengthens links between communities in both countries at a time when mutual understanding is most needed, and in a context in which the arts can make a critical difference to building more tolerant societies in both countries.
Girt
By Sea Girt by Sea was a performance-installation project by Sydney based artist Deborah Pollard and was staged on Sydney's Manly Beach in late March 2002. The project aimed to celebrate and reflect cultural difference between Australia and Indonesia through the 'lens' of community relationships with the sea. Girt by Sea is the second stage of a project which started with a performance called Badai Pasir (Sand Storm), presented on Baron Beach on the south coast of Central Java, Indonesia in 1997, when Pollard was an Asialink Artist in Residence in Yogyakarta. Badai Pasir involved fishing communities from the Baron Beach region and drew imagery from Javanese myths about the sea. Girt by Sea used a similar performance style to explore Australian communities' relationships with the sea and draw on our extensive mythologies and iconographies of beach culture. The project was auspiced Urban Theatre Projects. It involved Indonesian artists Regina Bimadonna and Hedi Hariyanto, along with Australian collaborators PK Khut (sound artist), Peter Panoa (video artist), Arif Hidayat (community liaison), Monica Wulff (performer) and Simon Wise. In addition artists from various community groups including the Indonesian community in Sydney, were involved in the project. Girt by Sea was funded by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council, the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australia-Indonesia Institute. Susan Barlow-Clifton : Green Turtle Dreaming The Green Turtle Dreaming project, initiated by Victorian artist Susan Barlow-Clifton, explores the little known migration patterns of the green turtle between Australia and Indonesia through documenting communitiesí relationships with these important and endangered creatures. The project is multi-layered and cross-disciplinary, involving community cultural development, education and conservation. It addresses the pressing concerns of bio-diversity, indigenous rights, traditional relationships with endangered species and the relationship between Australia and Indonesia. Green turtles migrate between Australia and Indonesia, spending long periods at sea and only returning to their place of birth after twenty years. They are a protected species but are hunted more regularly than other species of marine turtle. They have lived in the oceans for over 100 million years and are an integral part of the traditional culture of many coastal peoples throughout our part of the world. The Green Turtle Dreaming project involves communities and artists in Pemuteran (Bali), Gili Air (Lombok), Komodo Island, Christmas Island, Darnley Island in the Torres Straits and Bathurst Island. The communities chosen reflect the great diversity that exists in both countries and their ancient patterns of migration and trade. The project was launched on World Environment Day in June 2002 and will result in the production of a giant scroll - recording communities' relationships with the green turtle ‚ which will be toured to venues in both countries in 2004-2006. The Green Turtle Dreaming project has been supported by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council, the Myer Foundation, the Wettenhall Foundation, the Mullum Trust and Arts Victoria's Artists in Schools program. Beyond the Factory Walls : collaboration between Teater Buruh Indonesia (Indonesian Workers Theatre) and Actively Radical Television Beyond the Factory Walls is a digital video production and multimedia theatre collaboration between an Australian community television group, Actively Radical Television (ARTV) from Sydney and a Jakarta based Factory Workers' theatre company, Teater Buruh Indonesia (TBI - Indonesian Workers Theatre). The project will involve a number of theatre workers from TBI and a small crew from ARTV collaborating on the production of workers' stories for video, and then collaborating on the integration of this video material into a live TBI theatre performance. The project will also result in an edited feature documentary which will include the workers' edited video segments, segments of the live theatre performance as well as documentary footage of the rehearsal process. The project will take place in February 2004, with the documentary being released in 2005. Beyond the Factory Walls is supported by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council. Textile project involving Australian artist Megan Kirwan-Ward and a community of women textile artists in Padang, West Sumatra Australian artist Megan Kirwan-Ward has been working in the textiles industry for fifteen years. In 2000 she undertook an Asialink residency in Padang, West Sumatra where she established a small studio with six local women artists who work in traditional West Sumatran textiles. Together they have been producing a range of work that is inspired by both Australian and Indonesian traditions. The Australia-Indonesia Arts and Community Program has supported the next stage of this partnership, which has been the creation of a specific body of work that reflects the plant and marine growth of the environments of West Sumatra and Western Australia. This body of work represents the rich influences that both the West Sumatran women and Megan Kirwan-Ward draw from their natural environments. Textiles created at the studio have been exhibited in Malaysia, Jakarta, West Sumatra and Japan, and will be shown in Australia at the Fremantle Arts Centre from 17 April 2004. The exhibition speaks about a dynamic cross-cultural partnership that has evolved at the grass roots level and continues to enrich the practice of all involved. This project is supported by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council. Julie Janson - development of the play The Crocodile Hotel Sydney based playwright Julie Janson will be working with members of dynamic young theatre company Teater Kita Makassar in South Sulawesi, to further develop her play The Crocodile Hotel. The project builds on links established and work undertaken by Janson during a three month Asialink Literature Residency in Indonesia in 2001. The Crocodile Hotel deals with the relationships between Indonesia, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia through the experiences of a young teacher living in the Northern Territory in the 1970s. It is a chronicle of the complex threads of race, trade, culture that intertwine on the edges of the continent. The Crocodile Hotel will draw on the layering of rich language, physical performance, various Indonesian theatre traditions and live music. This first stage of this project was completed in October 2003 and work is now being undertaken to develop a full production of The Crocodile Hotel. Members of Teater Kita Makassar will be invited to Sydney to collaborate with Australian artists on this production. The performances are scheduled for the Sydney Opera House Studio in July 2004. This project is supported by the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council. Contact Details For further information about the Australia-Indonesia Arts and Community program, contact: Ms Alison Carroll tel: 03 8344 4800 |