Kang GURU Travels to Jakarta, January 2008

Kevin flew to Jakarta for the first trip for Kang Guru staff for 2008. He went their to interview two young Indonesian designers for the March 2008 magazine. Sally Koeswanto and Alvin T are both alumni of Australia and their careers are exploding here in Indonesia. Kevin also attended the Australian Embassy function at the Ambassador's residence for the Endeavour Awards 2008.

Kevin caught a taxi to the Darmawangsa area of Jakarta from the airport to meet with Sally Koeswanto. Sally is originally from Surabaya but now runs her fashion design business in Jakarta. Sally and her daughter Rachel were very kind and gave Kevin about an hour of laughs, information and opinions about fashion. Sally admits that she was quite a rebellious teenager. She would take her clothes and cut them, change them and usually to shock people – she is certainly a provocative designer. Her trademarks include mixing materials that don’t usually go together – such as chiffon and leather. She loves to use shiny surfaces/materials in her outfits along with feathers and as already stated, lots of leather. A pair of boots Kevin saw in the shop were a prime example of that type of exotic and daring combination – feathers and leather.

Sally studied in Australia for almost 4 years before returning to Indonesia to start her own business. Design is something that comes from within, according to Sally. She knew from a young age that she wanted to create great, if not daring clothes, for women to wear. Sally learnt how to make clothes herself – sewing and cutting her ideas into outfits. Now she has a team of people helping her but the creative genius of her business comes from Sally herself. There is always something to plan for, design for and to make. Read more about Sally, and see some of her designs, in the March 2008 magazine.

In the evening of that day, January 9th, Kevin attended a function at the residence of Bill and Elaine Farmer, the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, and his wife. The function was to honour the recipients of the latest round of Endeavour Awards from the Australian government. Twenty seven recipients have been awarded these scholarships. Indonesian recipients will travel to Australia to study and learn more about their particular field of intellectual endeavour. Australian recipients will visit Indonesia to study and experience what Indonesia has to offer in the particular skill area.

Kevin interviewed one of the Indonesian awardees, Pak Rohman, who works at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. He is a curator and takes care of the national treasures on Indonesia. In Australia he will further his knowledge of this art and return to Indonesia to use what he has learnt to improve the care and restoration of pieces of history here.

Kevin also interviewed Pak Gert from Australia who has been awarded an Endeavour Award to study the effects of democracy here in Indonesia. He is so excited about the opportunity given to him as he says Indonesia is such a fascinating country especially now as it heads into democracy. No other country that he can recall has done this transition so well as Indonesia and he really wants to find out a lot more about it.

On Thursday morning Kevin met with John Pederson from the Sampoerna Foundation to discuss the work of Kang Guru. John was interested in Kang Guru teacher workshops and the radio program. Let's wait and see what eventuates from that meeting although a teacher workshop, in conjunction with Sampoerna, is already being planned in Malang on January 25th. See the Kang Guru Travel and Activity Calendar NOW!