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The Chinese New Year Long Weekend was the time that Kevin undertook his first trip for KGI 2009. Kang Guru
participated in the 2009 Australian Film Festival which was held at the BlitzMegaplex in Jakarta. The theme
was Dreaming Stories, the Australian Indigenous Cultural Festival. Kevin also met with the Socceroos
footabll team from Australia, Mr. Luke O’Neill, Head of the Education Unit at AusAID Jakarta, Pak Rohman
who works at Istana Cipinas, two young Australian journalists working at the Australian Embassy, Pak Ficar
from Expedisi, and the manager of the Balgo Indigenous Art Cooperative from central Australia.
My first flight for 2009 with Kang Guru took me to Jakarta on Thursday evening, Jan 23rd. It was just a matter
of booking into my hotel and actually starting to write some articles for the March 2009 KGI magazine.
On Friday morning I met with Luke O’Neill, Counsellor Education at AusAID in Jakarta for a chat about
KGI in general. Luke has been with AusAID in Jakarta for quite a while but this was the first time we had
a chance to chat over a coffee. After the meeting I returned to the hotel and continued working on my parts
of the March magazine. In the late afternoon I headed for BlitzMegaplex in Grand Indonesia Jakarta to do a
few interviews for the March magazine.
I met with Marcus and Simon, two young journalism students from Australia. They, along with 31 other journalists,
are here in Indonesia for three weeks doing internships at a variety of media offices around the city. Marcus
and Simon are based at the Australian Embassy while others are working in organizations such as Tempo, MetroTV,
RRI, Radio 68H, Jakarta Globe and The Jakarta Post. (Read more about this program in the March 2009 magazine.)
On Friday night, I attended the official opening of the 2009 Australian Film Festival. Celebrated Indonesian
film-maker and Australian alumni Mira Lesmana and Australian Embassy Charge d’Affaires Louise Hand
launched Dreaming Stories, the
Australian Indigenous Cultural Festival. Opening with the acclaimed Ten Canoes directed
by prominent Australian director Rolf De Heer, the festival includes Rabbit Proof Fence; The
Tracker; and Australian Rules, a film about Australia’s own football code. All these
films were subtitled into Indonesian.
BALGO presents a range of stories and ceremonies of the mythic Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) that Balgo artists
paint in a new and vital art form that blends the ancient with the contemporary; the abstract with representations
of landscape; the spiritual with the political.
On Saturday I went to Cipinas to meet with Pak Rohman, an Endeavour Award alumni from 2008. He works at the
museum in the Cipanas Palace and went to Australia last year to study museum techniques such as storage and
preservation of artifacts. He worked together with staff at the Australian Museum in Sydney along with 5
other palace staff members. Pak Rohman (far right with Indonesian President) loved Australia and
you can read more about his visit in the March 2009 KGI magazine – the ‘Life Down Under’ edition.
The trip to Cipinas was a long one with so many other cars on the road as Jakartans headed for Puncak for
the long weekend. It took a total of 7 hours to complete the journey. The Endeavour Awards are the Australian
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ internationally competitive, merit-based
scholarship program providing opportunities for leading Indonesian researchers and professionals to undertake
short or long term study, research and professional development in a broad range of disciplines.
In the afternoon, I joined KGI Champion Ririn (see below with her three daughters) at Blitz Megaplex
for the screening of an Aussie football movie. We promoted KGI and met with English language learners who
had come along to the free screening. Chris Bandy (cover
June 2008 magazine) was there with 30 of his young Indonesia footballers and the coach of the Jakarta
Bintang football team.
On Sunday I met with Pak Ficar and members of his team from Ekspedisi
MDGs, a very interesting activity being planned for 2009. A phinisi ship especially built for the purpose
will leave Jakarta for a 6 month journey through the islands of Indonesia. It will call at 100 islands on
the journey taking information and people to far flung poor coastal regions while providing the catalyst for
on-sore development activities such as water supply and sanitation and education. The President of Indonesia
will set the ship on its journey in late April. KGI hopes to be involved in the promotion for the activity
so be sure to read the March 2009 KGI magazine for more news.
The BlitzMegaplex was abuzz with excitement on Monday afternoon when members of the Australian Socceroos football
team arrived for the official drawing of prizes for the Qantas tickets to Australia by Ms. Louise Hand, Deputy
Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy.
Read all about the Socceroos, the film festival and the journalists in the March 2009 KGI magazine.
 
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