Podcasts about vannessa hearman

Vannessa Hearman - East Timor's Great Famine, 1977-1979 Following Indonesia's annexation of East Timor in December 1975, the forced displacement and mass starvation of its people resulted in what is known as the Great East Timor Famine, 1977-1979. As Indonesian forces moved into the province thousands of people were forced to flee their villages and farms into the mountains and bush, where food sources were scarce. It is estimated that over fifty percent of East Timor's population of 600,000 was displaced. A report complied by the East Timor Truth, Reception and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR) concluded that at least 84,000 people, but possibly up to 180,000, died in the famine. As such this tragedy touched one in two East Timorese. Indonesia's restrictions on the media and its own propaganda, meant that there was little open reporting on the tragedy as it unfolded. More than two decades since East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia the truth and associated trauma of this conflict-induced famine remains little known. What was the context in which this famine took place? How did it unfold and what was the scale of the suffering of the East Timorese? What media reporting, if any, was there at the time, and what was the international community's response? And how is the famine remembered in East Timor today and what is being done to bring justice for its victims? In this week's episode Jemma chats with Dr Vannessa Hearman, a senior lecturer in history at Curtin University in Western Australia. Her award-winning monograph, Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia, is a study of the 1965-66 mass violence in Indonesia. Her research deals with the history and politics of Indonesia and Timor-Leste and Australia's engagements with both countries. She is researching the history of East Timorese migration to Australia and how Australian cultural institutions reflect this history in their collections. Her recent publications on East Timor's famine include, ‘Australian News Photography and Contested Images of Indonesian-Occupied East Timor', Australian Historical Studies, (2003) 54:3; and ‘Challenges in the pursuit of justice for East Timor's Great Famine (1977-1979), Third World Quarterly (2024), 45:2. Also see Pat Walsh's writings on the famine and the fate of the CAVR report Chega!. In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT. Image: A Peter Rodgers photograph denoting forced displacement, surrender and famine on display at the CNC as part of an exhibition on the history of Timor-Leste's independence struggle. Source: Raimundo Fraga, CNC.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Indonesia was estimated to have between 55,000 and 100,000 political prisoners as a result of the Army-led anti-communist violence of the mid-1960s. Some of these prisoners maintained long-lasting epistolary friendships with supporters and human rights activists overseas. Who initiated these friendships and how did they evolve over time? What kind of broader support networks for political prisoners emerged out of this letter writing? And what legacy did this activism leave for contemporary human rights campaigners? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, we take a closer look at one of these epistolary friendships. Joining host Dirk Tomsa is historian Dr Vannessa Hearman, a Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, and the author of 'Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia', which was recently awarded the 2020 Early Career Book Prize by the Asian Studies Association of Australia. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo courtesy of Vannessa Hearman

Over one million Australians visit Indonesia each year, but misconceptions about one of our closest neighbours abound. Indonesia has over 600 recognised ethnicities across 17,000 islands – it’s bigger than just Bali! James Carleton and the God Forbid panel explore Indonesia’s diverse cultural and religious landscape.  

Over one million Australians visit Indonesia each year, but misconceptions about one of our closest neighbours abound. Indonesia has over 600 recognised ethnicities across 17,000 islands – it’s bigger than just Bali! James Carleton and the God Forbid panel explore Indonesia’s diverse cultural and religious landscape.  

This is the first time that Indonesia will go to the polls to elect members for four levels of legislative bodies (national and regional) and the president. The simultaneous elections seem to have already led to greater interest in the presidential contest. The contest is a re-run in some ways of the presidential elections in 2014 – same candidates, the incumbent Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”) and former Army Special Forces Commander, Prabowo Subianto (former son-in-law of ex-President Suharto). But this time around voters have seen Jokowi in action as a president. He has prioritised infrastructure development, such as toll roads and a new mass transit system recently opened in Jakarta. It is likely Jokowi will win, and this is confirmed by many polls. Part of the reason for his winning a second term will be that he has been careful not to attack elite interests in Indonesia, including by refusing to tackle grave human rights abuses from the authoritarian Suharto era. Instead, Jokowi has appointed as minister for politics and security the former armed forces commander, Wiranto, who was indicted by the United Nations in 2003 for human rights abuses in East Timor, now Timor Leste. His rival, Prabowo Subianto, was stood down from the Army Special Forces after being implicated in the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists in 1997-98, some of whom have never been found. What is new in these elections, though, is a climate of hostility to Indonesia’s minorities, such as non-Muslims and LGBT people, with both candidates courting the Muslim vote.

Mel chats with Carla Yeung, Community Engagement Officer, Northern Territory Library. Creative in Residence – Exhibition and Zine Launch: 6 March – 7 April 19 · Cj Fraser-Bell is finishing up her residency with us at the Library. · Cj is a multi-disciplinary NT artist who hosted zine-making workshops last year and created an installation located on the main level of the Library displaying zines and her poetry. She encourages patrons to leave messages using her typewriter which can be added to the installation. · Over the weekend (23 Feb) Cj held performances in the Library where she invited people on an intimate tour exploring the Library as a physical space. · To wrap off Cj’s residency, she will launch her two zines and exhibit a collection of her original illustrations, paintings, poems and collages which she created using the Library’s collection. Schultze and Hoare: the Collector and the Illustrator: 5 February – 24 March 19 · 2019 marks 150 years since Goyder and his team of 138 men first arrived in Darwin to survey the land and establish a capital city in the tropics. · Frederich Schultze was the official botanist and naturalist on the expedition. He spent many months collecting 995 plant specimens, over 600 bird skins and countless shells, fish, corals and small vetebrates. These were all carefully labelled and sent back to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and Museum. · Schultze knew the natural colours of the specimens he collected would not survive the preservation process. As a result he enlisted the help of the expedition’s assistant surgeon and amateur artist William Webster Hoare, commissioning him to paint watercolours and draw illustrations of the specimens. · Images of Schultze’s plant specimens and Hoare’s watercolour paintings are on display until Sunday 24 March. Book talk - Living with the legacy of violence: Indonesia’s 1965-66 mass violence and its impact today: 13 March 19 · Join ABC Darwin’s Matt Garrick in conversation with CDU lecturer, historian and author Dr. Vannessa Hearman to discuss the anti-communist violence in Indonesia during 1965-66. · Born in Indonesia during the height of the army-led New Order regime, Dr. Hearman migrated to Melbourne with her mum at a young age. · Her research work focuses on south-east Asian history and politics, particularly human rights and transnational activism in Indonesia and East Timor. · Dr Hearman recently published her book Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia. Delivering a better understanding of Indonesia’s past, this body of work looks into the human cost and impact of violence in Indonesia on people from both sides of the political divide. Exhibitions and events are free but bookings recommended. You can visit our Northern Territory Library website on ntl.nt.gov.au to book or check out what’s coming up on our ‘What’s On’ page.

This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia.  Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works. All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence.  Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence.  While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented. Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018), continues this effort.  By focusing on East Java, Hearman looks at the violence from another angle, allowing us to compare how different regions descended into violence.  Reading her book together with Melvin’s offers us a fuller understanding of the relationship between high-level actors and local officials and between center and periphery.  In particular, her analysis of the relationship between the army and non-state actors was eye-opening. But Hearman offers much more than this.  The book, largely based on extensive interviews Hearman conducted over the course of years, recounts the violence on an individual level.  Hearman helps us understand how those who were targeted with murder tried to escape.  She documents the networks of safe houses, couriers and information sources that emerged within days of the violence.  She demonstrates how the Communist Party in East Java tried to understand and respond to the violence, reminding us that, in Indonesia, violence was a process, not an event.  And she shows how the army eventually destroyed the Party’s attempt to create a safe space, using violence that affected not only the communists, but other citizens who lived in the region.  It’s a richly textured, thoroughly researched and ultimately moving portrayal of people trying to understand how their world was falling apart. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia.  Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works. All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence.  Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence.  While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented. Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018), continues this effort.  By focusing on East Java, Hearman looks at the violence from another angle, allowing us to compare how different regions descended into violence.  Reading her book together with Melvin’s offers us a fuller understanding of the relationship between high-level actors and local officials and between center and periphery.  In particular, her analysis of the relationship between the army and non-state actors was eye-opening. But Hearman offers much more than this.  The book, largely based on extensive interviews Hearman conducted over the course of years, recounts the violence on an individual level.  Hearman helps us understand how those who were targeted with murder tried to escape.  She documents the networks of safe houses, couriers and information sources that emerged within days of the violence.  She demonstrates how the Communist Party in East Java tried to understand and respond to the violence, reminding us that, in Indonesia, violence was a process, not an event.  And she shows how the army eventually destroyed the Party’s attempt to create a safe space, using violence that affected not only the communists, but other citizens who lived in the region.  It’s a richly textured, thoroughly researched and ultimately moving portrayal of people trying to understand how their world was falling apart. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia.  Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works. All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence.  Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence.  While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented. Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018), continues this effort.  By focusing on East Java, Hearman looks at the violence from another angle, allowing us to compare how different regions descended into violence.  Reading her book together with Melvin’s offers us a fuller understanding of the relationship between high-level actors and local officials and between center and periphery.  In particular, her analysis of the relationship between the army and non-state actors was eye-opening. But Hearman offers much more than this.  The book, largely based on extensive interviews Hearman conducted over the course of years, recounts the violence on an individual level.  Hearman helps us understand how those who were targeted with murder tried to escape.  She documents the networks of safe houses, couriers and information sources that emerged within days of the violence.  She demonstrates how the Communist Party in East Java tried to understand and respond to the violence, reminding us that, in Indonesia, violence was a process, not an event.  And she shows how the army eventually destroyed the Party’s attempt to create a safe space, using violence that affected not only the communists, but other citizens who lived in the region.  It’s a richly textured, thoroughly researched and ultimately moving portrayal of people trying to understand how their world was falling apart. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is the fourth and and final interview in a short series of podcasts about the mass violence in Indonesia.  Earlier this year I talked with Geoff Robinson, Jess Melvin and Kate McGregor and Annie Pohlman about their works. All of them have written thoughtful, carefully researched and richly detailed analyses of the violence.  Each of them shared a similar interest in the causes and nature of the violence.  While their approaches varied, each attempted to shed new light on events which have been hidden or misrepresented. Vannessa Hearman, in her new book Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018), continues this effort.  By focusing on East Java, Hearman looks at the violence from another angle, allowing us to compare how different regions descended into violence.  Reading her book together with Melvin’s offers us a fuller understanding of the relationship between high-level actors and local officials and between center and periphery.  In particular, her analysis of the relationship between the army and non-state actors was eye-opening. But Hearman offers much more than this.  The book, largely based on extensive interviews Hearman conducted over the course of years, recounts the violence on an individual level.  Hearman helps us understand how those who were targeted with murder tried to escape.  She documents the networks of safe houses, couriers and information sources that emerged within days of the violence.  She demonstrates how the Communist Party in East Java tried to understand and respond to the violence, reminding us that, in Indonesia, violence was a process, not an event.  And she shows how the army eventually destroyed the Party’s attempt to create a safe space, using violence that affected not only the communists, but other citizens who lived in the region.  It’s a richly textured, thoroughly researched and ultimately moving portrayal of people trying to understand how their world was falling apart. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh. Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials  have argued about the motivations for the killing.  With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance.  The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance. Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these questions to rest.  It seems clear from her work that, at least in the regions covered by her research, that the Army was looking for an occasion to eliminate the Communist Party.  And that it saw the clumsily executed kidnappings and killings of 1 October as a golden opportunity to put this plan into action.  Finally, while she lacks direct evidence for other regions in Indonesia, her efforts to apply her own insights to the rest of the country seem measured and logical. Melvin’s research is careful and thorough.  The book reminds me of Christopher Browning’s The Origins of the Final Solution–it feels like a detective working through every bit of evidence in an attempt to be fair and impartial.  Anyone studying the violence in Indonesia will have to reckon with Melvin’s book. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia.  Recently I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season and Kate MacGregor, Annie Pohlman and  Jess Melvin about their edited volume The Indonesian Genocide of 1965:  Causes, Dynamics and Legacies.  I’ll conclude the series soon with an interview with Vannessa Hearman about her book Unmarked Graves. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh. Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials  have argued about the motivations for the killing.  With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance.  The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance. Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these questions to rest.  It seems clear from her work that, at least in the regions covered by her research, that the Army was looking for an occasion to eliminate the Communist Party.  And that it saw the clumsily executed kidnappings and killings of 1 October as a golden opportunity to put this plan into action.  Finally, while she lacks direct evidence for other regions in Indonesia, her efforts to apply her own insights to the rest of the country seem measured and logical. Melvin’s research is careful and thorough.  The book reminds me of Christopher Browning’s The Origins of the Final Solution–it feels like a detective working through every bit of evidence in an attempt to be fair and impartial.  Anyone studying the violence in Indonesia will have to reckon with Melvin’s book. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia.  Recently I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season and Kate MacGregor, Annie Pohlman and  Jess Melvin about their edited volume The Indonesian Genocide of 1965:  Causes, Dynamics and Legacies.  I’ll conclude the series soon with an interview with Vannessa Hearman about her book Unmarked Graves. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh. Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials  have argued about the motivations for the killing.  With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance.  The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance. Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these questions to rest.  It seems clear from her work that, at least in the regions covered by her research, that the Army was looking for an occasion to eliminate the Communist Party.  And that it saw the clumsily executed kidnappings and killings of 1 October as a golden opportunity to put this plan into action.  Finally, while she lacks direct evidence for other regions in Indonesia, her efforts to apply her own insights to the rest of the country seem measured and logical. Melvin’s research is careful and thorough.  The book reminds me of Christopher Browning’s The Origins of the Final Solution–it feels like a detective working through every bit of evidence in an attempt to be fair and impartial.  Anyone studying the violence in Indonesia will have to reckon with Melvin’s book. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia.  Recently I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season and Kate MacGregor, Annie Pohlman and  Jess Melvin about their edited volume The Indonesian Genocide of 1965:  Causes, Dynamics and Legacies.  I’ll conclude the series soon with an interview with Vannessa Hearman about her book Unmarked Graves. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not often that you run across a smoking gun. Jess Melvin did, at an archive in Banda Aceh. Since the massacres in Indonesia in 1965-66, academics, journalists, politicians and military officials  have argued about the motivations for the killing.  With little documentation to draw from, these debates relied on careful analysis of context and circumstance.  The result was widespread disagreement about how centralized the killing was and whether the killing was planned in advance. Melvin, in her new book The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018), puts some of these questions to rest.  It seems clear from her work that, at least in the regions covered by her research, that the Army was looking for an occasion to eliminate the Communist Party.  And that it saw the clumsily executed kidnappings and killings of 1 October as a golden opportunity to put this plan into action.  Finally, while she lacks direct evidence for other regions in Indonesia, her efforts to apply her own insights to the rest of the country seem measured and logical. Melvin’s research is careful and thorough.  The book reminds me of Christopher Browning’s The Origins of the Final Solution–it feels like a detective working through every bit of evidence in an attempt to be fair and impartial.  Anyone studying the violence in Indonesia will have to reckon with Melvin’s book. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia.  Recently I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season and Kate MacGregor, Annie Pohlman and  Jess Melvin about their edited volume The Indonesian Genocide of 1965:  Causes, Dynamics and Legacies.  I’ll conclude the series soon with an interview with Vannessa Hearman about her book Unmarked Graves. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art.  But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly.  The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers. I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention.  Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individuals and communities to reflections on the failures of the Indonesian state to acknowledge its complicity. Each individual essay informs and challenges. I have a new appreciation of the nature of the Genocide Convention and  the ways it can be interpreted after reading. Annie Pohlman and Jess Melvin’s essay on the logic for calling the killings genocide  And the pieces on efforts by visual artists (by Kate McGregor) and puppeteers (by Marianna Lis) left me running to google to learn more. As I said in the interview, I learned an enormous amount from the book. But collectively the essays are also a call to action. As you’ll hear in the interview, the editors are clear-eyed about the long-term consequences of the violence and the failures of Indonesians to address this. Fifty years on, the struggle to understand the genocide and address its consequences continues. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia. Last month, I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season. In the months to come, I’ll be speaking with Jess Melvin and Vannessa Hearman about their research on killings. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art.  But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly.  The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers. I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention.  Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individuals and communities to reflections on the failures of the Indonesian state to acknowledge its complicity. Each individual essay informs and challenges. I have a new appreciation of the nature of the Genocide Convention and  the ways it can be interpreted after reading. Annie Pohlman and Jess Melvin’s essay on the logic for calling the killings genocide  And the pieces on efforts by visual artists (by Kate McGregor) and puppeteers (by Marianna Lis) left me running to google to learn more. As I said in the interview, I learned an enormous amount from the book. But collectively the essays are also a call to action. As you’ll hear in the interview, the editors are clear-eyed about the long-term consequences of the violence and the failures of Indonesians to address this. Fifty years on, the struggle to understand the genocide and address its consequences continues. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia. Last month, I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season. In the months to come, I’ll be speaking with Jess Melvin and Vannessa Hearman about their research on killings. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art.  But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly.  The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers. I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention.  Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individuals and communities to reflections on the failures of the Indonesian state to acknowledge its complicity. Each individual essay informs and challenges. I have a new appreciation of the nature of the Genocide Convention and  the ways it can be interpreted after reading. Annie Pohlman and Jess Melvin’s essay on the logic for calling the killings genocide  And the pieces on efforts by visual artists (by Kate McGregor) and puppeteers (by Marianna Lis) left me running to google to learn more. As I said in the interview, I learned an enormous amount from the book. But collectively the essays are also a call to action. As you’ll hear in the interview, the editors are clear-eyed about the long-term consequences of the violence and the failures of Indonesians to address this. Fifty years on, the struggle to understand the genocide and address its consequences continues. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia. Last month, I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season. In the months to come, I’ll be speaking with Jess Melvin and Vannessa Hearman about their research on killings. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t often start these blog posts with comments about the cover art.  But the reproduction of Alit Ambara’s “After 1965,” featured on the cover of the new set of essays The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), fits the subject perfectly.  The piece compels your gaze, while resisting easy interpretations and answers. I found the book much the same. The essays, edited by Katharine McGregor, Jess Melvin, Annie Pohlman, demand attention.  Roughly divided into two sections, they range from military/political analyses to contemplations about the way the genocide left its mark on individuals and communities to reflections on the failures of the Indonesian state to acknowledge its complicity. Each individual essay informs and challenges. I have a new appreciation of the nature of the Genocide Convention and  the ways it can be interpreted after reading. Annie Pohlman and Jess Melvin’s essay on the logic for calling the killings genocide  And the pieces on efforts by visual artists (by Kate McGregor) and puppeteers (by Marianna Lis) left me running to google to learn more. As I said in the interview, I learned an enormous amount from the book. But collectively the essays are also a call to action. As you’ll hear in the interview, the editors are clear-eyed about the long-term consequences of the violence and the failures of Indonesians to address this. Fifty years on, the struggle to understand the genocide and address its consequences continues. This podcast is part of a short series on the mass atrocities in Indonesia. Last month, I talked with Geoff Robinson about his book The Killing Season. In the months to come, I’ll be speaking with Jess Melvin and Vannessa Hearman about their research on killings. Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a relationship is in crisis, but it’s impossible to break up? Australia and Indonesia are neighbouring countries with different histories, ways of thinking and levels of development. How can we better co-exist with our neighbour and why might we want to? What does Indonesia have to offer Australians beyond the purchase of live cattle or a cheap holiday in Bali? This talk sheds light on the stumbling blocks between the two countries and provides an insight into the links occurring between the two countries that can help put the crisis into perspective.