Indonesia In Aust Pop Culture 2

Indonesia in Australian Popular Culture, 1999-2009 George Quinn ASILE Conference St. Catherine’s School, Waverley, Sydney July 15, 2009

What is “Popular Culture”?
It is mass culture, consumed by, and meaningful to, a genuinely broad audience
It is driven by commerce and the quest for profit
It is created by, and propagated through, modern technology

“I’ve been to Bali too…” (1984)
Qantas flight 20, Denpasar,
Meals and accom', rent-a-car I've been to Bali, I've been to Bali too Took a two week course at a suntan clinic So lying round legian and I wouldn't look anaemic And you can't impress me, 'cause I've been to Bali too Got a ride out to Kuta in the back of a truck Cost me twenty dollars and it wasn't worth a buck Hustled to a losman down Poppies Lane By a Javanese guy in the tropical rain Lock up your daughters, I've been to Bali too Life is tragic hanging out at Kuta If you haven't got a car, a bike or a scooter Show me the bike shop, I've been to Bali too Got myself a Honda, had to get away No brakes, bald tyres, five thousand rupes a day I've been to Bali too.

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver in “a love caught in the fire of revolution.” Directed by Peter Weir. Based on Chris Koch’s novel The Year of Living Dangerously (1978). Jakarta scenes filmed partly in Glebe Point Road, Sydney.

Why has Indonesia moved “centre-stage” in Australian popular culture?
Indonesia is more open and accessible to the Australian mass media
Better communications technology and cheaper, more reliable travel
Dramatic events in Indonesia involving Australians

Headline-grabbing events involving Australians in Indonesia
1999 Militia mayhem in East Timor
2002 The (first) Bali bombings
2004 Australian Embassy in Jakarta bombed
2004 The tsunami in Aceh
2005 Schapelle Corby sentenced to 20 years
2005 Second Bali bombing
2005 The “Bali Nine” arrested
2006 Earthquake in Jogjakarta
2007 Garuda crash in Jogkakarta

Answered by Fire (2006) ABC two-part mini-series starring David Wenham

Heroic Aussies face Indonesian bullets in Timor ( Answered by Fire )

Tomorrow, When the War Began (1994)
Around 3 million copies sold
Reprinted 48 times
Translated into five languages
Followed by six sequels
Widely used in secondary school courses

The Smiling Assassin Bali bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim Executed November 7, 2008

The meaning of a smile

From Amrozi’s smiles to Schapelle’s tears Arrested 8 October, 2004 in Bali. Charged with illegally importing cannabis Sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, 27 May, 2005

Schapelle Corby’s Website www.freeschapelle.net

The iconography of celebrity Susan Boyle doesn’t look like a “celebrity”… … but Schapelle does.

Schapelle Corby, an Aussie “damsel in distress” behind bars in Indonesia

Rescuing Wawa Six year-old Wawa as he appeared on Channel 9’s 60 Minutes and Channel 7’s Today Tonight May, 2006

“ Tribal expert” Paul Raffaele with “current affairs” host Naomi Robson

Little Wawa about to be eaten… … by Australian television

How 60 Minutes introduced the Wawa story…
Liz Hayes : This really is an adventure into the unknown. We're going back to the Stone Age on the trail of a long lost tribe, the last of the cannibals. And the amazing thing is this isn't ancient history. The tribe really does exist and not all that far from us — our next-door neighbours, really.
Nevertheless, it'll take a major expedition to find them. They're called the Korowai and they live just as they did 10,000 years ago, deep in the jungles of West Papua. Our reporter Ben Fordham set out in search of the Korowai — these primitive warriors who have never seen a white man still believe in witchcraft and still eat human flesh.

How 60 Minutes reported the Wawa story from the field…
Reporter Ben Fordham : West Papua — just a few hundred kilometres north of Australia. But it could be a different planet. Snow-capped mountain ranges rich in gold and copper and, for its Indonesian rulers, the greatest prize of all — timber. Down there is the largest expanse of rainforest outside the Amazon and that's where we're going. We've arrived at the edge of Korowai territory, the start of a 10-day round trip into the jungle. We've hired 15 Korowai porters to help carry our equipment. […] And so begins a gruelling trek into the thickest, wettest, muddiest jungle on the planet.

Luke Slattery in The Australian Emphasis should be on European languages that have an “affinity with English”. The push for a mass Asian language program comes from an “Australia-is-an-Asian-nation cabal”. A mass Asian language program would be “lunacy”. The Australian , 17 June 2009, p.33 German, French, Spanish and Italian are “relatively easy to learn.”

The pop misconceptions that are Slattery’s beginning points
Australia is a “Western” nation
Australians can rely on global English
Asian languages are uniquely “difficult”

Our real enemies
Behind the façade of immediate problems we face as Indonesian teachers, our deeper, more intractable challenges are…
… the juggernaut of global English, and
… the power and inertia of Australian popular culture

Indonesia In Aust Pop Culture 2

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