The Australia Indonesia Awards were initiated by AIA NSW in 2014.
The aim of the awards is to recognise and honour those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the greater understanding and friendship between Australians and Indonesians.
This award program is open to Australians and Indonesians. The awards are made in 3 categories which are varied each year. Finalists each year have come from all over Australia and Indonesia. They have ranged from people with a lifetime involvement, to those who are much younger but have been an inspiration to others.
Nominations for the Awards are made online. An independent Selection Panel reviews the nominations received and selects 3 finalists in each category, and also selects the winner in each category.
The finalists are announced once the selection process has been finalised, and the winners announced at the Awards Presentation.
Short videos are made of each of the finalists and their achievements, and these are shown at the Awards presentations held in Sydney.
Proceeds from the Award Presentations events are donated to designated charities.
In the first year the proceeds were donated to the Nusa Tenggara Association (NTA) providing self help projects in eastern Indonesia.
Since then, donations have been made to the Papuan Health Initiative for health projects in Papua and West Papua, and to the Qantas Helping Hands Community.
The Nusa Tenggara Association (NTA) has again been selected as the charity for 2021.
For details on the Awards program, including nominations and past award recipients,
go to australia-indonesia-awards.com by clicking the button below.
Zoom Online Sessions
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we reached out to our members via Zoom online sessions, held on a fortnightly basis with guest speakers on a range of interesting topics.
The sessions are very social, not webinars. Topics and speakers during 2021and 2022 and upcoming sessions for 2023 are shown below.
Make a Booking
Please click the session you are interested in below to make a booking
20/8/23
TBA
2/9/23
Jane Lyndon
Macassans -Australian histories
Macassans -Australian histories
7/10/23
TBA
4/11/23
TBA
2022
26/3/22Filomena Reissi
Baduy Tribe
2/4/22
Gerda Kassing
Developments at the National Museum, Jakarta
16/4/22
Shaun Wellbourne-Wood
Indonesian student market to Australia and opportunities for Australian HEd
7/5/22
Nick Hughes
Mountain climbing in Indonesia
21/5/22
Denise Finney
Current Trends in English Language Teaching in Indonesia
4/6/22
David Reeve
The history of
18/6/22
Ian Burnet
Archipelago – a journey across Indonesia
2/7/22
Bill Sullivan
Mining in Indonesia
16/7/22
Annee Lawrence
Indonesians in Australia
6/8/22
Miriam Tulevski
Indonesian Tourism update
20/8/22
Justin Roocke
Australian military in Indonesia
3/9/2022
Russell Darnley
Indonesia – Living, learning, working, and writing
17/9/22
Russell Darnley
Living, learning, working and writing in Indonesia.
1/10/22
Max Richter
Riding the Megatropis - Life, Music and Work as a Jakarta Volunteer
15/10/2022
Natali Indonesia’s
ship salvaging policies
5/11/2022
Tjandra Kerton
talk on the art work of her late father, Sudjana Kerton, one of Indonesia's master painters. She will also describe the current art scene in Indonesia, as well as touch upon the fake painting market
19/11/22
John McBeth
Journalism and Indonesia John is an author and journalist spending many years in South East Asia including being the Far Eastern Economic Review bureau chief in Jakarta in the 1990's .
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2021
6/2/21
Ian Burnet
Duyfken
20/2/21
Robbie Gaspar
Sport, diplomacy & business
6/3/21
Chris Barnes
Surabaya
20/3/21
Campbell Bridge
Culture and Photography in Indonesia
3/4/21
David Reeve
"The diasporic imagination in recent Indonesian films and novels set overseas"
17/4/21
Miriam Tulevski
Travel and Tourism
1/5/21
Jeffrey Mellefont
Sea Stories from the Archipelago
5/6/21
Herald van der Linde
Jakarta Misunderstood
19/6/21
Kevin Evans
The evolution of Indonesia's democratic system
13/7/21
Marilyn Ardipraja
ANZA and C4 - for foreign women married to Indonesians
17/7/21
Scott Merrillees
FACES OF INDONESIA: 500 Postcards 1900-1945
24/7/21
Dr Pandu Riono
Update on the covid situation in Indonesia
7/8/21
Ron Witton
My 60 years of Indonesia: Its land, its language and its history
21/8/21
Willi Toisuta
The Salatiga Language program
4/9/21
Adrian Vickers
Australia in the Indonesian Press, 1945–1964
19/9/21Kelli Swazey
Indonesian tourism and religious/cultural identity
2/10/21
Sven Verbeek Wolthuys - "Jakarta: Menteng's metamorphosis (part 2)"
16/10/21
Ian Burnet
speaking on his new book - Joseph Conrad's Eastern Voyages. Tales of Singapore and an East Kalimantan River.
6/11/21
Indra Rudiansyah
Indonesian PhD student speaking on his involvement in research and development of the Astra Zeneca vaccine
20/11/21
Paul Thomas-
Lost Sacrifice: An Indonesian in Australia’s War
4/12/21
Margaret Kartomi
Performing and visual arts of Indonesia's province of Lampung
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Education
The AIA has been very involved in promoting and supporting the teaching of Bahasa Indonesia in NSW schools for many years. Below is a summary of AIA activities in the 21st century.
Over the years, the AIA has supported several education-related activities. AIA members welcome Indonesian post-graduate students and offer them subsidised participation at AIA functions and events
The Australia Indonesia Association (AIA) believes Australia needs to develop more young people with a knowledge and interest in Indonesia and sees a knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia as key. The best place to start with this is in schools.
The AIA has been actively promoting the study of Bahasa Indonesia since the 1960s.
Seymour Shaw Fund
Edward Seymour Shaw was President of the Australia-Indonesia Association during the early 1960s.
He was a successful businessman and was active within Rotary and in the Sutherland Shire Council, of which he was President for several years.
The Seymour Shaw Park in Miranda, home to the Sutherland Sharks Soccer Club, was named after him.
He had a passion for Indonesia, and on his death in 1968, he bequeathed a small fund to the AIA to promote Indonesian studies in NSW. This fund has become known as the “Seymour Shaw Fund”.
The Australia Indonesia Association (AIA) believes Australia needs to develop more young people with a knowledge and interest in Indonesia and sees a knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia as key. The best place to start with this is in schools.
The AIA has been actively promoting the study of Bahasa Indonesia since the 1960s.
He was a successful businessman and was active within Rotary and in the Sutherland Shire Council, of which he was President for several years.
The Seymour Shaw Park in Miranda, home to the Sutherland Sharks Soccer Club, was named after him.
He had a passion for Indonesia, and on his death in 1968, he bequeathed a small fund to the AIA to promote Indonesian studies in NSW. This fund has become known as the “Seymour Shaw Fund”.
Kompetisi Siswa
This is a Bahasa Indonesia-focused competition for school children from Kindergarten to Year 10 in 5 divisions.
Students submit drawings, brief compositions or audiovisual presentations Bahasa Indonesia on defined topics. The organisation was by the ILTA, MLTA and DET. For many years, the AIA funded prizes as well as participated in judging.
Generally, there were over 100 entries from about 16 different schools. This competition has been widely praised by teachers. It was run from 2002 to 2017, when it stopped due to cuts in DET staffing.
Jogja Immersion Scholarship
The AIANSW is a joint partner, with AIAV, in Indoaustay, a Victoria-based organization which for many years, arranged a 2-week immersion program for high school students in Jogja during the January holidays.
This program involved a homestay with Indonesian families, classroom tuition, and field exercises. Over a period of 5 years from 2014, the AIA provided scholarships to 12 students, managing the promotion, selection and orientation process. The scholarships were funded initially by the Commonwealth Bank and then Blackmores..
Lottie Maramis Awards
Lottie Maramis's prizes were initiated in 2013. Since 2015 they have been awarded to the students who top each of the Bahasa Indonesia courses at the HSC. Wherever possible, the awards are made at school assemblies in order to maximise exposure to younger students.
The Consul General of Indonesia and staff have been very supportive in attending these school assemblies. During the covid period, the KJRI has organized functions at which these awards are made. The KJRI has also extended the impact of these awards by recognizing all top place-getters. In 2023 the AIA attended assemblies at Macarthur Anglican School, Camden Haven HS and Glenwood HS.
The NSW School of Languages
The School of Languages, part of the NSW Education Department, provides correspondence courses for students who cannot study Bahasa Indonesia at the school which they attend daily.
In 2019 the AIA assisted the School of Languages with the fit-out of the Indonesian classroom at the new Petersham campus, by providing several items of furniture and traditional clothing.
School Visits
Whenever the opportunity arises, such as the delivery of donations or award of prizes, school visits are organized, generally involving a native speaker of Indonesian. An AIA member accompanied the DET-funded visits made by the artist/performer Jumaadi to 6 schools in the Cowra district.
When these visits are made, there is generally an opportunity to join Indonesian classes and to speak to the Principal about the value of studying Indonesian. In 2021, despite covid, visits were made to Glenwood HS, Illawarra Sports HS, Gunnedah HA and Ashford Central School. In 2022, visits were made to 5 schools on the North Coast of NSW: Camden Haven HS, St Andrews Christian School Grafton, Evans River Community School, Mullumbimby HS and Southern Cross School of Distance Education in Ballina.
From 2023 to date, the AIA has participated in classroom sessions at Macarthur Anglican School and Camden Haven HS.
Becak
Ten becaks were imported from Indonesia in 1996 for promotional purposes at a festival in Deniliquin. Recognising the value of these becaks in creating interest amongst school students, the AIA delivered those in good condition to the following schools in 2002: Bomaderry HS, North Nowra Primary, Mt Terry Primary, Parramatta HS (since transferred to Macarthur Anglican), Woolooware HS and Burwood GHS. Of these, only the becak at Macarthur Anglican has survived in place, while that from Bomaderry has been rehabilitated.
Recently a Jogja becak in pristine condition was donated to the AIA. These becaks will be part of the parade at the International Festival in Cowra in March 2023. Indonesia is the country of focus for this festival. Our plan is to lend these becaks to schools in order to stimulate interest in Indonesia,
Support for the NSW School of Languages, Indonesian department
The NSW School of Languages is part of the Department of Education. The school provides tuition in the Indonesian language by correspondence to students whose school does not teach Indonesian. In 2019 the AIA organised several items for the fit-out of the Indonesian classroom at the new site of the NSW School; of Languages at Petersham. The AIA continues to support the School of Languages.
Donations to schools
The AIA sources items of Indonesian realia from donors in Australia and buys items in Indonesia. These include wayang puppets and batik maps. These items are delivered to schools teaching Indonesian.
In 2021, wayang golek were donated to Illawarra Sports HS and Gunnedah HS, and wayang kulit to Ashford Central School.
For example, in 2022, AIA donated items to schools on the North Coast of NSW, particularly those affected by floods. In addition, in March 2023, the AIA distributed 50 copies of donated Indonesian/English dictionaries to schools.
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Social Functions
The Australia Indonesia Association (AIA) plays a crucial role in promoting greater understanding and stronger ties between our two great nations. AIA’s social events are a testament to the importance of cultural exchange, and they provide invaluable opportunities for members to network, share their experiences, and learn from one another. From casual dinner to formal cultural performances and fundraising dinners for charitable causes, such as gala night Australia Indonesia Award. AIA’s events cater to a wide range of interests, and they help build bridges between Australian and Indonesian communities. Through events such as the annual Indonesia Festival and language exchange meetups, AIA furthers its mission to enhance cultural ties between our two nations and foster a greater sense of understanding and appreciation between our people.
