[Talk] Did the Spice Routes Connect Australia to Indonesia and Beyond?

via Global Encounters Network, a talk by Dr. Hilmar Farid, Director General for Culture, Indonesia on ancient connections between Indonesia and Australia on 22 April at 6.00 pm (Canberra time).

In the last five years the Directorate-General of Culture along with 200 district governments and civil society organizations has embarked on a journey to reconstruct and revitalize the ancient Spice Routes. It is about trade and exchange as much as it is about migration, spread of language and artistic expressions, and the formation of cultural identities. It involves interdisciplinary scholarly research, lectures and workshops, art festivals and other cultural events that serves to connect different hubs along the Spice Routes. Spice in this context is a symbol for all kinds of products that inspired long-distance trade and cultural encounters across the globe, including the trepang trade between Makassar and Australia. Trepang, sea cucumbers, sea slugs, have played a part in the Spice Routes. Reflecting on the trepang trade I am going to discuss the different trajectories that formed the history of the Spice Routes.

Dr Hilmar Farid is an historian and cultural activist. In the 1990s he was active in the pro-democracy movement. He is a founding member of Jaringan Kerja Budaya, a collective of artists and cultural workers in the early 1990s, and also the Institute of Indonesian Social History in 2000. He taught history and cultural studies at the Jakarta Arts Institute and University of Indonesia for several years. He received his PhD from the National University of Singapore and wrote his thesis on Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the politics of decolonization in Indonesia. He has been an active member of the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) and the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society.

Dr Farid will be joined in this seminar by Dr Leigh Penman as discussant. Professor Lynette Russell AM, Director of Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, will act as host for this seminar.

Source: Meeting Registration – Zoom