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Recent Posts
- Annual General Meeting of The Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS), 10 May 2013
- Dr. Hsiao-chun Hung returns to the Mariana Islands
- Vote buying prevalent in Indonesia and the Pacific
- The end of the Pacific? Sea-level change and Pacific Island livelihoods
- Politics, development and security in Oceania
- Kago, Kastom and Kalja: The Study of Indigenous Movements in Melanesia Today (Cahiers du Credo) (Volume 2)
- In conversation with Sir Mekere Morauta
- Engendering objects: Dynamics of Barkcloth and Gender among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea by
- Another Port Moresby community bulldozed
- Reflections on the PNG Budget Forum: Can devolved funding be effectively utilised
- European Investment Bank backs remote aviation investment in the South Pacific
- Lifting skills in the Pacific: using infrastructure procurement for skills transfer
- Fiji constitutional referendum? Unlikely
- CDI Policy Paper: Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands
- SSGM’s ‘State of the Pacific’ Conference (25-26 June 2013)
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Tag Archives: Indonesia
Vote buying prevalent in Indonesia and the Pacific
Read a summary piece on Ed Aspinall and Jon Fraenkel’s latest CDI report Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, which was launched by the ANU’s Centre for Democratic Institutions earlier this month.
Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia
Dedi Supriadi Adhuri’s new book, Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia (Asia Pacific Environment Monograph number 8), is now available through ANU Epress in
PDF
View Online
ePub
mobile and print copy formats.
“… this book discusses the social, political, economic and legal attributes that are attached to the practice of traditional (communal) marine tenure… [It] pushes the discourse beyond the conventional approach which looks at marine tenure only as a means of resource management” to offer a more comprehensive definition of marine tenure. For those working in the areas of marine resource management and fisheries, this book is a critical and complementary reading to the conventional discourse on the issue.”
Posted in ANU PI only, Publications
Tagged Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, PNG, West Papua
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Pacific Buzz (Feb. 27): ‘Dili consensus’ | PNG sorcery and violence | Pacific Plan attacked | More
A fortnightly roundup of policy news in the Pacific by the Pacific Institute of Public Policy and the Development Policy Centre.
Posted in (aggregator), ANU PI only, Devpolicy, News
Tagged Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu
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Gender Responsive Budgeting: Timor-Leste, Philippines and Indonesia (video)
This new video from UN Women “video focuses on the use of Gender Responsive Budgeting in Timor-Leste, the Philippines and Indonesia as a tool to promote development and women’s rights. Testimonies from government officials and other advocates underline the role they can play promoting development…” [view the video]. See also the abstract for a related paper on Timor-Leste by Monica Costa presented to IPSA-AISP Conference earlier this year.
Keating’s Timor and Carr’s Papua
In this new post to Eureka Street, Fr Frank Brennan SJ cautions that “A bilateral relationship [between Australia and Indonesia] posited on a self-imposed ban on human rights discussion would be a very perverted relationship for a robust democracy like Australia boasting adherence to the rule of law and best international practice in human rights protection” [read more].
Living without a state: People in rural Papua are more interested in basic services than grand political struggles
In this new post to Inside Indonesia, Bobby Anderson explores development challenges that don’t get much attention in media (or other) accounts of daily life in West Papua.
New field manual for documenting the social impacts of conservation interventions
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an integral component of local, national, and international strategies for biodiversity conservation, but their contribution to sustainable development remains contested. To provide conservation practitioners and policymakers with robust evidence on the social and ecological impacts of MPAs, World Wildlife Fund-US launched a collaboration with the State University of Papua (UNIPA), WWF-Indonesia, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy to monitor the social impacts of MPA establishment and document the underlying attributes of MPA governance likely to shape these social impacts, in the Bird’s Head Seascape of Papua, Indonesia. As part of this ongoing initiative, WWF and UNIPA recently released a field manual which describes methods developed in the Bird’s Head Seascape, for monitoring the social impacts of conservation interventions [read more].
Deploying the Village Base Station in Papua
An innovative new mobile phone technology (for GSM networks) is being trialled with a primary school in the central highlands of West Papua, Indonesia. Read more on the blog of the Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER) group at UC Berkeley.
Launch of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute (23 October 2012)
The ANU’s Southeast Asia Institute was launched last Tuesday: “The primary scope of the Institute covers Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam, as well as ASEAN as the major regional organization, with ANU researchers also engaged with Southeast Asia’s connections with its neighbours by land and by sea and with the wider world…” [read more].
Posted in ANU PI only, Events
Tagged Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, West Papua
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CDI’s recent Pacific-related activities
The ANU’s Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) has recently added a number of pages to its website, including a variety of reports on CDI’s Pacific-related activities:
- Speaker’s Retreat (PNG) | 22-24 September 2012
- CDI Supports Young Political Leaders Forum Phase II | 17-21 September 2012 | Bali
- IPPCC Party Training Strategy Workshop | Alotau PNG | 4-8 September 2012
- Parliamentary Induction for New and Returning MPs | Port Moresby | August 2012
- Changing Face of Parliament? Three Women Elected in PNG | August 2012
- Women Candidates Training – 2012 Elections | Port Vila | 6-10 August 2012
- Parliamentary Development in the Solomon Islands
- PNG | Observing the PNG 2012 National Elections | July 2012
- Launch of the NRI Parliamentary Democracy Program | Port Moresby | 6 July 2012
- Provincial Assemblies in SI – New Rules to Encourage Stronger Performance
- Increasing the Impact of Parliamentary Committees, SI | Honiara | 14 June 2012
Posted in ANU PI only, News
Tagged Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
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Fifty years on, Australia’s Papua policy is still failing
Richard Chauvel’s latest post to Inside Story suggests that the Australian government is missing an important strategic opportunity to help Indonesian President Yudhoyono develop a long-term solution to the Papua ‘problem’ [For more context, see Filep Karma and the fight for Papua’s future, Chauvel's earlier post on Papua to Inside Story].
Governing New Guinea: An oral history of Papuan administrators, 1950-1990 (by Leontine Visser)
[Text taken from the KITLV website.]
This is the first time that indigenous Papuan administrators share with an international public their experiences governing their country. These administrators were the brokers of development. After graduating from the School for Indigenous Administrators (OSIBA) they served in the Dutch administration until 1962. The period 1962-1969 stands out as turbulent and dangerous, and for many curtailed their professional careers. These administrators’ having been in active service until their retirement in the early 1990s allows for a complete recounting of political and administrative transformations under the Indonesian governance of Irian Jaya/Papua.
This book brings together 17 oral histories of the everyday life of Papuan civil servants, including their relationships with superiors and colleagues, the murder of a Dutch administrator, their translation of ‘development’ to the Papuan people, the organization of their first democratic institutions, and the actual political and economic conditions leading up to the so-called Act of Free Choice. Finally, they share their experiences in the UNTEA and Indonesian government organization.
Leontine Visser is Professor of Rural Development Studies at Wageningen University. Her research focuses on governance and NRM in eastern Indonesia.
[NB: This book is a translation of Bakti pamong praja Papua di era transisi kekuasaan Belanda ke Indonesia (2008) although it contains a new introduction supplementary text and footnotes. It is also a companion volume to the 1996 KITLV publication Besturen in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, an account by 17 Dutch civil servants who served in Netherlands New Guinea from 1945 until 1962.]
Australia accused of link to human rights abuses in West Papua
On 27 and 28 August, ABC’s 7:30 ran a news feature which raised grave concerns that Australian government support for counter-terrorism in Indonesia is linked to torture and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. Read a follow-up opinion piece on Australia’s West Papua bind by Prof. Damien Kingsbury in ABC’s The Drum.
[You may read more about the recent Dynamics of Violence in West Papua in a new International Crisis Group report. Alternative perspectives on recent incidents in the territory may be found elsewhere on the web (e.g. West Papua Action Network, US)].
Drawn from Paradise: The Discovery, Art and Natural History of the Birds of Paradise
Drawn from Paradise is David Attenborough’s journey through the cultural history of the birds of paradise, one of the most exquisite and extravagant, colourful and intriguing families of birds.
From the moment they were introduced to the European mind in the early sixteenth century, their unique beauty was recognised and commemorated in the first name that they were given – birds so beautiful must be birds from paradise. (more…)
2012 ARC Laureates, Future Fellows… and Pacific research
The Pacific Institute at the ANU would like to recognise the significant effort of all academic and support staff who participated in ARC rounds in 2012 and congratulate all recipients of these awards. This post lists 2012 ARC Laureates and Future Fellows with research of relevance to Pacific Island nations [text adapted from the ARC website. Information on ANU's 2012 ARC Laureates and ANU's 2012 ARC Future Fellows is available elsewhere.]:
ARC Laureates (17 awards from 108 applications – 6 relevant to the Pacific)
Prof. Sue O’Connor (ANU): Sue is the 2012 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow. This Fellowship will help her focus on the earliest colonisation of Island Southeast Asia and investigate modern human dispersal, adaptations and behaviour along the maritime route to Australia… [It] recognises her role in humanities, arts and social sciences and provides her with additional funding to help her mentor women in science.
Prof Eelco Rohling (ANU): The Fellowship will help Eelco improve the understanding of climate and sea-level change on timescales relevant to longer-term planning, by characterising the relationship between past sea-level and ice-volume change and other key climate factors such as temperature and greenhouse gases, and by quantifying how rapidly sea level may adjust to climate change.
Prof. Alexandra Aikhenvald (JCU): Alexandra’s Australian Laureate Fellowship will help her further and expand her work in the area of correlations between languages and cultures, and analysing endangered languages in tropical areas (especially Papua New Guinea). It will also be instrumental in strengthening real linguistics within JCU, Australia and worldwide, and creating a multidisciplinary team of researchers working on gender, with a focus on previously undescribed languages.
Prof. Terence Hughes (JCU): Terry’s project aims to undertake a novel, multi-disciplinary program of research on coral reefs to better understand and avoid dangerous ecological tipping points. This research will cement Australia’s leading contribution to reef science, and will guide the management and sustainable use of ecosystems around the world [including the Coral Triangle].
Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (UQ): Ove’s Australian Laureate Fellowship will allow him to focus on a series of key questions that lie at the heart of understanding how tropical marine ecosystems are likely to change with climate change and ocean acidification.
Prof. Malcolm McCulloch (UWA): Malcolm’s Australian Laureate Fellowship will help him investigate the future of coral reefs and marine calcifiers in response to rising carbon dioxide and ocean acidification. This will enable best-practice adaptive management at local and regional-scales for marine-dependent industries, and provide new hope for some of our greatest natural assets—coral reefs.
ARC Future Fellowships (209 awards from 603 applications – 3 relevant to the Pacific)
Dr Stuart Bedford (ANU): The archaeology of ritual architecture on the islands of Malakula, Vanuatu. This project will define the historical trajectory, function and role of ritual architecture across Malakula, Vanuatu, furnishing crucial comparative data and contributing to debates on the dynamics and manifestations of long-term social change across the Pacific. Contemporary issues such as population growth, land and food security will be addressed.
Prof Jonathon R Barnett (UMelb): The influence of conflict and migration on adaptation. This project will develop and test theories about the ways in which violent conflict and migration influence the capacity to adapt to climate change using case studies from Fiji, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.
Assoc. Prof. Michelle T. Ford (USyd): Trade unionism and trade union aid in Indonesia, Malaysia and Timor-Leste. This project will trace flows of trade union aid to Indonesia, Malaysia and Timor Leste and analyses its impact on local labour movements. It will provide valuable information about the trade unions and industrial relations systems of each country, and new insights into the international politics and practice of the international labour movement.
Posted in ANU PI only, Funds and Jobs, News
Tagged East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pacific Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
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Big plans for Papua (Indonesia)
Down To Earth (DTE) special feature, May 2012 [read more].
The Coral Triangle Day (9 June 2012)
The CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat, together with the CTI National Coordinating Committees and partner organizations, is set to launch the first annual celebration of the Coral Triangle Day on June 9, 2012, in conjunction with World Oceans Day [read more...]
Posted in Events
Tagged East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste
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Coral Triangle Fishers Forum II (18-20 June)
The Coral Triangle Fishers Forum (CTFF) II, will be held in Suva Fiji and will allow participants to gain perspective from fishers around the region, learn more about the issues that affect them, and gain a common ground in achieving sustainable and equitable fisheries. (more…)
Posted in Events
Tagged East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste
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New tools in mapping for disasters and development
GFDRR Innovation Series: On May 3, 2012, around 200 mapping experts and development professionals from 70 organisations met (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
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ACIAR fisheries program project profiles 2012
The Fisheries Program, through research partnerships, assists collaborating agencies to build and sustain their capacity to manage capture fisheries and aquaculture industries for improved incomes and food security - see ACIAR fisheries program project profiles 2012.
Posted in (aggregator), ACIAR, Publications
Tagged Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
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Update on ADB projects in the Pacific (30 April 2012)
The Asian Development Bank has just released new fact sheets for the following Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu (other ADB country fact sheets).
Posted in News
Tagged Cook Islands, East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
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Congratulations, Dr Brett Baker!
by Prof. Robert Cribb, School of Culture, History & Language, ANU College of Asia and The Pacific.
In March this year, the ANU approved the award of a PhD to Brett Baker for his thesis, ‘Indigenous-driven mission: reconstructing religion change in sixteenth-century Maluku’.
The thesis is a bold attempt to reverse the conventional view that indigenous people in what is now eastern Indonesia adopted Christianity for essentially material, instrumentalist reasons (access to protection from the Portuguese, possibly also bribes in the form of rice, gold or other supplies). Whereas the conventional view has implied that indigenous people were largely insincere in their conversion, Brett’s thesis presents a strikingly different picture. Using religious writings of the time, he shows that the initiative for conversion more often than not came from local people, and that it followed a close examination of the theological principles of Christianity. Priests were waylaid and plied with questions about Christian doctrine. When their answers were judged satisfactory, the priests were commanded to follow conversion rituals and to perform masses.
Brett’s thesis also questions the myth that communities converted as a whole, generally following the lead of their rulers. Instead he paints a picture of considered individual conversion, undertaken by people who knew that adopting a new religion would have consequences for their social positions. Converts often held tenaciously to their new beliefs, despite threats from supporters of the old religions or from Muslims, whose influence was expanding at the time time and evidently in much the same way.
Reaching these conclusions required Brett to master sixteenth-century Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Latin, not to mention the Dutch of the scholars who first wrote about this period.
It is a fascinating thesis and a major contribution to our knowledge of the conversion process on the western rim of the Pacific.
[Ed: Brett completed an MA in Southeast Asian studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison (in history and Indonesian language/literature) before commencing his PhD at ANU. He is now working as editorial assistant to The Journal of Pacific History (JPH). He hopes to publish a monograph based on his thesis and will also make his thesis available online through the ANU in the near future. He is, as rumoured, learning Samoan and aims to be conversing in it by the end of the year.]
AusAID: new country profiles and documents online
AusAID has developed a staged approach to increasing the transparency of its activities. Central to this initiative is a new web platform able to support dynamic data. New country profile pages are now available for these island nations of the Pacific: East Timor, Indonesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Philippines. See the timeline for this initiative at (http://www.ausaid.gov.au/about/transparency.cfm).
Posted in (aggregator), AusAID, Publications
Tagged Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu
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ACIAR Project FIS/2002/074 summary: Capacity development to monitor, analyse and report on Indonesian tuna fisheries
Climate Change in the Pacific: Scientific Assessment and New Research
These publications are now available at:
www.cawcr.gov.au/projects/PCCSP/publications.html
Climate Change in the Pacific is a rigorously researched, peer-reviewed scientific assessment of the climate of the western Pacific region. Building on the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change… [read more...]
Posted in Publications
Tagged Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Pacific Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
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Australia and Indonesia working together – education for all
Australia and Indonesia today highlighted their shared commitment to education and helping millions of children to go to school.
ACIAR’s forestry research in Indonesia
Indonesia has a population of 230 million people, about half of whom live in rural areas with some dependence on forests. Indonesia has around 95 million hectares of forest, which includes some of the world's most diverse tropical forests and about 44 million hectares of primary forest. It is expanding its plantation estate, which now stands at about 3.5 million hectares of which 1.6 million hectares is Acacia mangium. The Indonesian forest industries are large, annually producing about 13 million tonnes of pulp and paper products and about 5 million cubic metres of wood panels each year [read more...]