Performing Indonesia Abroad 1950-65
Jennifer Lindsay, Visiting Scholar, Southeast Asia Center, ANU

During the first decade and a half of Indonesia's nationhood following international recognition of sovereignty in December 1949, cultural diplomacy was a vital part of the nation's statement of international identity. The government sent abroad numerous official cultural missions that consisted of large groups of dancers and musicians from all over Indonesia and which toured for months at a time. The missions became increasingly frequent over the late 1950s and early 1960s. Artists toured communist and non-communist countries, including the USSR and Eastern Europe, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Cambodia, North Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaya, the Netherlands and the United States. These official missions were just one aspect of Indonesia's cultural internationalism of this period.

The speaker will discuss the missions in the context of Indonesia's cultural history of the 1950s and early 60s, and will show excerpts of her documentary entitled Menggelar Indonesia (Presenting Indonesia) made in 2009-10 interviewing many of the artists who toured on these missions.

Jennifer Lindsay has worked as a diplomat, arts administrator and foundation program officer and academic. She has lived over 20 years in Indonesia, which is her area of scholarly specialization, but writes on cultural policy and performance in Southeast Asia; language, media and performance in Indonesia; translation, and interrelationships between all of these. She is a regular translator from Indonesian into English for Tempo magazine. Currently she is Visiting Fellow at the Southeast Asia Centre ANU, and co-heading an international collaborative research project about Indonesian cultural history from 1950-65.

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