Talking Indonesia

Independent publishing might seem like a small element of Indonesia’s cultural landscape: limited print runs, niche books, and audiences that rarely extend into the mainstream. Yet these spaces can matter precisely...

The problem of Australian knowing and engaging Indonesia, as our closest neighbour, has vexed successive Australia governments ever since Keating called for Asian literacy in the 1980s. Toward that end, we have seen...

Indonesia is home to some of the largest stretches of tropical rainforest left on Earth — and to a growing community of people willing to put themselves on the line to defend it. But across the archipelago...

What does it mean to believe in ghosts? It turns out that's exactly the wrong question. In this special episode of Talking Indonesia, co-hosts Tito Ambyo and Jamie Edmonds sit down together not as interviewer and guest...

Airlangga Julio - The People versus Fadli Zon Last month marked the 28th anniversary of the mass rioting, that shook Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, and other major cities for several days in mid-May 1998. There was...

Every year on the 8th of June, World Ocean Day calls us to reflect on the vital role our seas and waterways play in sustaining life on Earth. Yet for most of us, the ocean remains something we observe from a distance...

When we talk about improving education in remote or indigenous communities, we usually start with the wrong questions. We ask: what's missing? What needs to be fixed? But what if the problem isn't a lack of education...

If you studied Indonesian history in school in the 1990s, you learned to divide the archipelago's past into neat chapters: Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, then Islamic sultanates, with a brief “transitional period” somewhere...

Rassela Malinda – Papua, development and politics from below In his inauguration speech in October 2024 President Prabowo Subianto reiterated his campaign pledge to “achieve food security in the shortest possible time”...

Rural Java has changed enormously over the past half-century. Girls now finish school, women hold community leadership positions, and dual incomes have become the norm rather than the exception. And yet, many Javanese...

Timor Leste became independent from Indonesia in 2002, after 24 painful years of Indonesian occupation built on centuries of Portuguese colonisation. Both regimes were deeply violent and extractive, and as my guest...

On January 2nd, 2026, Indonesia entered what officials are calling a "new era" of criminal justice. The country implemented a completely new Criminal code – KUHP - and a new Criminal Procedure Code—known as KUHAP—that...

As Indonesia grapples with increasingly frequent climate disasters—from the devastating floods in Sumatra and Aceh to prolonged droughts affecting food security—a new book is rejecting the usual solutions. No carbon...

After the floods – Alfira O’Sullivan and Murtala In late November last year, heavy rainfall brought by Cyclone Senyar saw massive floods and landslides hit large parts of West and North Sumatra and Aceh Province. The...

Jakarta is said to be in a water crisis. This is a familiar claim that has been repeated for years as parts of the city sink, groundwater is over-extracted, and access to clean water remains uneven. Yet what, precisely...