By Paul Dudley. Continued from last week...
For Australian author Anne Summers patriarchy is a question of structural power.
‘There are three speakers here from Islamic cultures but the principles apply
to all of us. It’s a question of economic determination. We need a good
education for this, control over our fertility and to be free from violence.
All women should work towards this … we need to be global in our aspirations.
In Australia we have just been through a traumatic period. Women don’t
understand what went wrong. Why were we so unable to deal with a woman as
leader? There were issues to do with the way she [Julia Gillard] came to power
... being judged as stabbing in the back. This is OK for men but not for women.
[There was] an extraordinary amount of sexual vilification. Why did it happen?
In the French Parliament the other day a women was sexually harassed and all
women walked out.’
Haiden Moghissi, Professor of Sociology at York University Toronto, said
the ‘hijab is an emblem of Islam. It is an area where we should have control
over our own bodies’. Indonesian poet Debra Yatim said ‘At least allow a discussion for women to choose, “Why do you
dare to leave the house without a head dress?” My rights are exercised before
God, not you. It’s not compulsory; if I wear it, it is my choosing. We want
each woman to have the freedom to wear the hijab if they want, and why not,
it’s a hot country. I’m a product of the new order system; I can open boxes or
close them.’
Australian journalist Jennifer Byrne concluded this session by quoting
Gillard’s misogyny speech: ‘ “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny
by this man” ’ [Abbott], and then said reluctantly ‘And now we have him.’ She
asked Anne Summers about the term feminism. ‘I don’t like the term,’ Summer’s
replied, rejecting it as a label. ‘The definition changes all the time. I would prefer to focus on equal pay.’
At another event titled ‘Voices of South-East Asia’, panellists
discussed the implications of writing when ASEAN creates a single regional
common market by 2015. (Australia is not a member state.) Member states
traditionally don’t share their literature. There is the problem with
censorship boards and few people cross borders so it’s difficult for people to
understand each other’s culture and language is sensitive to religion and race.
Soon each country will need to be able to translate their literary texts into
other languages.
And the translation of literary texts in Indonesia is looming as a huge
issue. Why? Because Indonesia is the guest of honour at the 2015 Frankfurt Book
Fair. Normally a country at the fair is afforded 40 to 60 square metres of
floorspace for its literature. At Frankfurt 2015, Indonesia will have 6000
square metres to fill, and German curators are worried. At a session with the
portentously misnamed title of ‘Translasi’ (it should have been copy edited to
‘Penterjemahan’) the panel and audience discussed the reasons that hinder the
proper translation, publishing and retailing of Indonesian literary texts.
Christel Mahnke, head of the Goethe Institut in Jakarta, began: ‘The
literary achievement of a country is important … it’s important to know that
Indonesia is not only a country for goods but also culture … and to experience
this culture we need to be able to read their literary text’. This comment was
echoed by John McGlynn, translator and director the Lontar Foundation, who
urged ‘We want an historical record of Indonesia texts translated into English
for teaching in universities all over the world. But Indonesia is not taking
the translation of its literary texts seriously.’ Unlike many countries, the
Indonesian government does not subsidise the translation of literary texts. And
Indonesia needs translators and editors. At the moment, John said, ‘there are
probably only 5 competent translators in Indonesia [he may have been referring
to translation from Indonesian to German for the book fair] and it takes about
one year to translate a novel’, so the pressure is on to meet the 2015
deadline. Otherwise ‘Germany will have to translate from English rather than
directly from Indonesian to German,’ Christel concluded.
At a forum to discuss the consequences of Bali reliance on tourism,
Indonesian writer and actor Ketut Yuliarsa decried the overdevelopment: ‘No
building should be bigger than the palm trees.’ J Stephen Lansing, Professor of
Anthropology at the University of Arizona, concurred: ‘Bali is in danger of
being loved to death and we’re all responsible.’
Until last year UNESCO had turned down four applications by Bali for
world heritage listing. Finally, in May 2012, Bali’s vital wet rice lands – the
genesis of Balinese civilisation – were at last recognised as a World Heritage
Cultural Landscape. But Indonesian poet and novelist Oka Rusmini says it’s too
late. ‘I’m born from highest caste and observed the changes of how Balinese
relate to the land. My family owned tracts of land as rice fields that were
also used for rituals. We have rituals to do with granaries that are gone. My
child born in 1990 has no idea of the rituals to do with rice and land. The
issue has a lot to do with tourism ... our people have become brokers for
developers’.
Rio Helmi, an Asian photographer, disagreed ‘Tourism and money is not
the cause; it is selfishness and greed. What happened is the responsibility of
the Balinese; they opened the door … Classic syndrome … loyalty lines ... first
it’s your family, then clan, then caste lines, greed and corruption. They are
not concerned for the island but themselves.’ Ketut: ‘What do they [Balinese]
want? They want to have cars, be rich.’
But if you want to get to know a country, go to its literature festival. You
not only become immersed in a discussion about the literary works that underpin
a culture, but also the authors’ and other people’s current interpretation of
these works, and the writing, thoughts and ideas they inspire. What I liked most about Ubud was the beautiful surroundings and quiet
reflective distance it had from the West. In Australia we live our daily lives
so bombarded by a 24-hour media marketing cycle. In Ubud, for the four days the
festival was on, the outside world and all that noise seemed shut out to us and
we could actually give ourselves a moment to think about other things – ‘some
space’ as they say.
I don’t share Richard Flannigan’s caution to the curators to ‘make this
an Indonesian festival rather than an expat festival’.
There will always be lots of Indonesian content because, as we all know,
Indonesians love to talk about their culture and engage with others about
theirs. So continuing to bring a whole herd of Westerners to the festival to
get a more nuanced perspective about Indonesia from knowledgeable Indonesians,
as was originally intended, is a good thing. And what better way is there for us to express
our South-East Asianness than to immerse ourselves in the literary culture of
our closest neighbour?
Paul Dudley is the editor of the Australian Indonesian news in Victoria, he is currently undertaking postgraduate journalism studies.
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