FAITH IN INDONESIA

FAITH IN INDONESIA
The shape of the world a generation from now will be influenced far more by how we communicate the values of our society to others than by military or diplomatic superiority. William Fulbright, 1964
Showing posts with label Anton Lucas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anton Lucas. Show all posts

Saturday, December 17, 2022

REVEALING AND RESPECTING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

 The darling buds of Bali        




 

Bali is so unlike the rest of Indonesia it seems unmoored from the archipelago.

 

Before the island was scarred by terrorism and corrupted by commerce it lured foreign adventurers enchanted by the rich spirituality, creating a mystic aura and a pestilence of clichés.  Paradise, abode of peace, island of the gods …

 

Dutch colonial era artist pioneers included Hollander Rudolf Bonnet (1895-1978) and German Walter Spies (1895 - 1942). Later came Australians like Donald Friend (1950-89) who spent the last two decades of his life painting on the island.  

 

The work of these creators has been recognised in biographies and art collections. 

Now comes John Darling, an Australian filmmaker in Bali (Monash University Publishing).

 

This tribute to Bali’s auteur and poet is a 21-essay festschrift edited by Australasian academics, Graeme MacRae and Anton Lucas. An Indonesian translation is expected next year.  It’s enhanced with photos and poems:

 

the eyes

create the paths 

before us

we travel slowly

taking by-ways

pursuing images …

evening visions of red-eyed infinity

return reversed in dawn’s embrace.

 

Darling was born in Melbourne in 1946, the only son of an establishment family. His father, later Sir James Darling and ABC chair, was head of Geelong Grammar School.

 

The lad’s road seemed set as a historian, but after graduating his compass failed.  It was suggested he try Indonesia, a land few Australians knew and fewer understood. Darling wandered across Java to Bali. On a dawn stroll he met I Gusti Nyoman Lempad.

 

One was a respected and prolific Balinese sculptor and artist, then aged 108. The other a 24-year old drifter from faraway, “seeking a place in which to develop my obscure talents.” They couldn’t share language, yet they connected.

 

The lost and disgruntled still head to Bali for something they can’t identify, but the Darling days are gone.  Expectations are no longer coloured by ethnographic research but by fantasy romance in Eat, Pray, Love.

 

So this book is about a place that was, and a time when nomads were curiosities, not ATMs.  Although focusing on one man, it also tells of Bali’s transition from a hippie hideout to a luxury location fit for the G20 suits.

 

In and around the 60s and early 70s Bali drew surfers to the beaches, intellectuals to the hills and both to magic mushrooms. Ubud became a ‘crossroads of culture’.

 

At that intersection stood a searcher with no clear plan or purpose, recalls writer Bruce Carpenter, author of a most insightful chapter.  Both men were “refugees of the international youth movement that had filled our generation with naive dreams of blazing new paths and paradigms.”

 

When Lempad died in 1978 Darling, now fluent in Balinese and close to the family, produced and co-directed with the late British filmmaker Lorne Blair the old man’s spectacular cremation.

 

 Lempad of Bali won the Documentary Award at the Asian Film Festival. It remains a masterpiece and founded Darling’s reputation.  Watch on YouTube.

For the next 17, years he was known as a filmmaker, poet and lecturer. But a hereditary blood disease forced him to Australia for treatment; he died in 2014, aged 68.

 

At the funeral Ubud royal Tjokorda Gde Mahatma Putra Kerthyasa said the only outsiders who could live locally were those who loved the island for what it was – not for what they could get out of it.

 

“John was a man who lived his truth and spoke it.  He didn’t choose an easy life in Bali, he chose a Balinese life. He is remembered … as one of the few foreign custodians of Balinese culture who didn’t take – but shared.”

 

Darling’s films include Bali Hash, Slow Boat from Surabaya, Master of the Shadow and Bali Triptych.

 

Veteran Australian broadcaster Phillip Adams (not in the book, but should have been) described Triptych as “one of the most elegant, scholarly and beautifully made documentary series … when you see Darling's loving, luscious, literate films, you'll understand why.”

Darling’s first wife Diana writes: “His films made his poetry visible.” 

Despite applause and acceptance, Darling said that at times he felt like “a bit of a maverick … isolated and an outsider.’ One friend remembers a ‘somewhat other-worldly fellow.”

The late Made Wijaya writes about a “giant ego” and narcissist “in a nice, not a nasty way”, whatever that means. This chapter adds little.

We all see others differently; individuals are complex and facts morph into myths, but disparate recalls confuse. They should have been clarified or cut.

Similarly, pointless anecdotes and lists of names like a club register.  These tarnish finer offerings, such as a pensive analysis by anthropologist E Douglas Lewis.

Fortunately, editor MacRae’s clear writing steers readers back on the road to ponder his subject’s physical and cerebral journey. 

 

Darling was sick and in Canberra in 2002 when Jemaah Islamiyah fundamentalists bombed a Bali night club killing 202 including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians.  

 

Despite his illness, within ten days he was back on the island with his wife Sara as co-producer. Crews from mainstream TV channels focused on the terrorists. The couple’s self-funded Healing of Bali lets victims tell their stories alongside reflections of faith leaders.

 

Sara addresses her late husband as “an amazing dreamer and wonderful storyteller … through your films, poetry, art, and love of life.”

 

His accessible interpretations of our northern neighbour’s values make them clearer, hopefully helping those Australians who think differences are threats.  This book should help keep Darling’s legacy alive, help outsiders better appreciate Indonesia and marvel at the work of its creative citizens.

 

 Disclosure:  The author is one of the contributors.

First published in Antara 15 December 2022: https://en.antaranews.com/news/265675/the-darling-buds-of-bali

 

 










 

 

Monday, November 13, 2017

GURU INSPIRASI



Getting to know you – through a pendopo   
   
             
Dr Anton Lucas has spent much of his rich life trying to improve Indonesian-Australian relationships.  He’s studied and taught in Yogyakarta and Makassar, run an Asian Studies Centre in Australia, written well and widely, and inspired seekers of truths about Indonesia.
He’s earnest enough to look like an austere academic but sufficiently inquiring to prove a student’s life goes beyond 70.  Though powered by faith he doesn’t proselytize.  Schooled as a Protestant, Lucas now calls himself a Christian-Buddhist.    
His rare collection of documents from the post-proclamation period has been given to Flinders University library and will eventually go on line.  The papers were gathered during interviews with 324 survivors of the 1945 ‘Revolution within the Revolution’ around Pekalongan in north Central Java.
 Peristiwa Tiga Daerah (The Three Regions Affair) tells of the violent clash between ruling elites and farmers during the chaos following collapse of the Japanese occupation.
 Lucas regards his book, published in Australia as One Soul, One Struggle and likely to be re-released, as a significant accomplishment.  But his master stroke has been donating a hut.
Though not any old humpy.  This is a pendopo – a splendid four-post Javanese pavilion on the Flinders University campus in Adelaide.
The cube of Indonesian culture was built to create a sense of calm and unity despite gulfs of difference in lifestyles, world views and local customs. It’s a communal place for visitors and locals to find common cause and set signposts for others.
The pendopo has a Sekar Laris gamelan from Central Java used by students, teachers and the Indonesian diaspora.  The glass walls fold back in summer so the metallic music from a lush land drifts among the eucalyptus roots clawing arid soils.
 “It was the best thing I ever did,” Lucas said firmly before heading to Yogyakarta where he and his Indonesian wife Kadar have an extended family. The couple’s $150,000 philanthropy was revealed only after Lucas retired in 2010.
“Indonesians can feel at home here while Australians can encounter their neighbours,” Lucas added.  “It’s not just a tangible symbol for coming together; it also has an emotional dimension and a unique ambience.”
Lucas had a privileged education.  Though never gentry his Greek heritage family had property and sent their gifted son to the Anglican Geelong Grammar, famed for nurturing achievers and leaders.  
“Yet I always thought of myself as a square peg in a round hole,” he said. Set for a career as an agricultural economist or broadacre farmer he won a scholarship to the East West Centre in Hawaii.
The education and research organization opened in 1960 to ‘strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the US’.
Astonishingly his Asia Pacific origin meant he was exempted from studying a regional tongue after passing an English test.  Like most Australians he’d seen his country as a European outpost.
Another revelation came on meeting members of the Peace Corps, a US government volunteer aid program. They seemed at ease with difference, spoke Asian languages and were driven to better the world. Said Lucas: “They were not ugly Americans.”
Instead of becoming an apoplectic conservative ranting against reason the Australian turned left towards history, social justice and human rights.
He dropped ag-ec and picked up Indonesian. Through a series of curious happenings – including an encounter over a lost camera – he was steered by Australian Herb Feith.
Through this world-renowned scholar Lucas researched the Pekalongan revolusi sosial also labelled ‘struggle’ and ‘movement’, which “had never been clearly and coherently depicted”.  Some saw it as a communist revival.
The survivors’ stories opened Lucas to Indonesia’s complex past and expanded his empathies.  The square peg found the right hole, or as he said:  “Indonesia fitted me like a glove.”  
Yet much was discomforting. In a Yogyakarta jail he saw political activists broken by a brutal system during Soeharto’s Red Paranoia era.  “With a Catholic priest I tried to help a boy reconcile with his long jailed father,” Lucas said.  “We failed. This had a huge effect on me.”
At Flinders as an associate professor Lucas was also in demand as a consultant.  He worked on the documentary series Riding the Tiger about authoritarian rule in Indonesia, and with Australian funded projects on land use, social capital and local government.
He taught Indonesian culture and society, religion and social change and identities.  He also privately funded this magazine when it was staggering as a print journal. He remains treasurer.
Adding a Catholic nunnery in Java to Inside Indonesia’s subscriptions seemed a good idea.  It wasn’t. The nuns were then accused of spreading Marxism.
Despite fumbles and stumbles, relationships improved. In 1992 Prime Minister Paul Keating, who was close to Soeharto, declared Australia part of Asia. Enrolments at Flinders rose enough to support four full-time academic positions. (Now the jobs are shared and limited.)
Five years after the pendopo’s gamelan gongs first stirred the bush, Lucas and his colleagues organized a seminar on Australian-Indonesian relations. The show was packed. A book followed – Half a Century of Indonesian-Australian Interaction. 
Australians were developing a positive interest in the people next door. The feeling was mutual. The folks were getting matey and wiser.
Recalled Lucas:  “It was the pinnacle of the golden era.”  
Then the glitter dimmed.  Factors in the fade included the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, turmoil following the 1998 fall of Soeharto, and high tension during the 1999 East Timor independence referendum.
The 2002 Bali bombs killed 202, including 88 Australians.  The government shouted travel warnings. Educational visits stopped.  University administrators found computing and communications more profitable than Asian Studies.
“To turn this around we all need to do more – and that includes Indonesians studying Australia and hosting seminars,” Lucas said. “If we lose a generation of scholars we won’t get them back. The goodwill is not so strong.
“There was no background given on why Australians reject the death penalty. (Ambassadors were withdrawn in 2015 when Indonesia snubbed pleas to save drug couriers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan from execution.)
“The failure to explain the media response to the release this year of ganja queen Schapelle Corby was an opportunity missed. “We need to tell our story about our history, multiculturalism and values, such as diversity and equality.  As in the pendopo we should listen to each other and reflect on the relationship we want.
“Otherwise I despair for the future.”
## 
(First published in Inside Indonesia 13 Nov 2017.  See:   http://www.insideindonesia.org/essay-getting-to-know-you-through-a-pendopo
An Indonesian language version has been published by Surya.  See here: http://surabaya.tribunnews.com/2017/12/19/memahami-anton-lucas-diplomasi-pendopo-dan-gamelan-sekar-laras  Our thanks to editor Trihatma Ningsih.