Melbourne, Australia - During the month of August, Indonesian communities in metropolitan Melbourne have had almost non-stop celebrations. They had hardly recovered from Independence Day festivities when Festival Indonesia beckoned them to the city yet again.
The year 2008 is Visit Indonesia Year, so after welcoming words from Ambassador Teuku Hamzah Thayeb, Consul General Budiarman Bahar and Festival Indonesia President Cely Goeltom, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik personally opened the 4th Festival Indonesia in Melbourne on Aug. 29.
The minister reminded the invited guests that Australia and Indonesia were neighbors until the end of time, so it would be sensible, as well as desirable, if people from the two countries visit each other in order to get to know one another better.
His speech drew enthusiastic responses from John Soh, Melbourne`s Lord Mayor, and from the representative of Victorian state government, reflecting a warming of relationship since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently renewed the friendship between the two countries.
Festival Indonesia -- managed by Festival Indonesia, Inc. -- has always been held in cooperation with the Indonesian Consulate General of Victoria, the major sponsor being ANZ Bank.
Gold sponsors included Commonwealth Bank, Brady Property Group, Universities of Victoria and Bank Indonesia; it has been supported every year by the City of Melbourne, Victorian Multicultural Corporation, and has had a number of silver sponsors and bronze sponsors. All of them had stands in the exhibition area of the festival.
Each day, from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31, the festival was well attended, despite the cold and often wet weather of Melbourne`s winter.
This may have a lot to do with the fact that it was housed in a beautiful 19th century building with excellent space and acoustics.
People streamed in, bought Indonesian food from the various stalls, then sat down to eat it in several designated areas, where a lot of business and personal networking took place. They also purchased merchandise, displayed alluringly in each stand.
When they tired of walking around, they would sit down at the performance area to be entertained by various groups, some from Indonesia while others were local.
Prominent in the performance realm this year is the troupe from West Java, as the region is indeed the focus theme of the festival this year.
Apart from staging dances in the opening ceremony, the troupe also starred in the Friday night event, the West Javanese Cultural Night, in MCCC building, in the heart of Melbourne, to a full house.
Organized by Paguyuban Pasundan, or the West Java Cultural Association of Victoria, the West Javanese Cultural Night combined the traditional and the modern.
The troupe delivered a wholesome performance, satisfying the nostalgia of the part of the audience from Melbourne`s Indonesian community, the aesthetic curiosity of those who came encouraged by friends and folks with various Indonesian connections.
In her welcoming speech, Nani Pollard, the association`s president, emphasized the importance of culture in fostering friendships between two peoples.
On a stage equipped with multimedia instruments and displays, complemented with a real-live percussion group from West Java, the audience was entertained with West Javanese rural images, complete with flirtatious scenes between the women and the men working on the fields.
The dances left no doubts in the audience` minds that they were presented by professional performers.
Accompanied by live drums, those presented by the women dancers in their colorful costumes especially, were electric with an undercurrent of the erotic.
The Cirebon mask dances were so faultlessly delivered they mystified everyone and prompted some children to start emulating them at the back of the audience.
As done in previous years, the festival also organized business-matching sessions.
Though there were still some misgivings expressed by some Indonesian participants that the matching had not been well-managed, many also commented that the sessions were better organized than those last year.
Hopefully by next year, all the teething problems will have been overcome, and business between the two countries will go smoothly, because trade is another component necessary in cementing the relationship. Dewi Anggraeni
Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com (September 09, 2008)
