Evi Mariani - Media Freedom

In March this year parcels containing a pig’s head and the carcasses of dead rats were sent to the offices of Tempo magazine in Jakarta. The story made international headlines and led to an outpouring of support and condemnation from across Indonesia’s mediascape and public more broadly. Known for its deep investigative reporting the magazine’s chief editor described the brazen threat on its journalists as an act of terrorism. Just weeks after the attack on Tempo, the latest World Press Freedom Index downgraded Indonesia’s rating across all indicators.

Media organisations and news outlets across the world face inevitable decline and are struggling to maintain relevance in the face of competition from social media platforms, content creators and influencers. In Indonesia, mass layoffs of journalists are imminent as the old commercial model collapses. In response, a new, although undeniably small movement of independent journalism is pushing back with the aim of finding new ways to beat both the algorithm and those seeking to suppress press freedoms.

So what is the state of the media in Indonesia today? What protections are in place for journalists and in the midst of political, economic and technological challenges, who will stand up for a free press?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Evi Mariani, journalist and co-founder of the independent journalism collective, Project Multatuli.

In 2025, 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: With permission Project Multatuli

In recent years, Indonesia has experienced a remarkable transformation in its gaming landscape, with mobile esports emerging as a powerful cultural and economic force. What was once considered a fringe activity now enjoys mainstream legitimacy, supported by both grassroots communities and government institutions.

In this episode, Tito Ambyo speaks with Haryo Pambuko Jiwandono, a PhD candidate at RMIT University researching mobile game esports in Indonesia. They explore how esports in Indonesia has evolved from informal gatherings at internet cafes to a structured industry with professional teams, government support, and international success. In 2024, Indonesia won the FIFA E World Cup against Brazil and dominated in the Football Manager competition against Germany, marking significant achievements on the global stage.

Haryo's research illuminates how mobile games like Mobile Legends and PUBG Mobile have democratised gaming across Indonesia through their accessibility on smartphones, fostering community-centered "play gatherings" in coffee shops and warung. While celebrating these successes, the conversation also examines the precarious economic realities faced by many esports athletes and the challenges for Indonesia's emerging game development industry.

From governmental efforts to build sustainable career paths in esports to the tensions between creative freedom and cultural preservation in game development, this episode offers valuable insights into how digital gaming is reshaping Indonesia's social landscape and contributing to its global cultural footprint.

A growing protest movement

On 28 March, in downtime Jakarta across from the Sarinah department store, an unlikely group of protesters gathered holding signs and making speeches. The crowd largely consisted of middleclass women of various ages, gathered under the name ‘Suara Ibu Indonesia’ (Voices of Indonesian Mothers). For the organisers, the choice of name and location for their protest was deliberately designed to evoke a moment in Indonesia’s past, now 27 years ago, when in the final months of the autocratic Suharto regime an economic and political crisis saw student protests met with deadly violence at the hands of the military and police. Then a group called Suara Ibu Peduli (Voices of Concerned Mothers, SIP), tapped into growing concern within wider society about the state of their country.

In late March 2025, as student protests at campuses and in front of law offices were once again met with violence by state law enforcement, the women who gathered in downtown Jakarta expressed their fear of a return to unbridled militarism and a contempt for democracy. The revision of the Military (TNI) Law a few weeks earlier, which opens the door for active military figures to occupy more and key positions in the government and bureaucracy, appears to have sparked a broadening of the growing protest movement. As one of the original SIP organisers, Karlina Supelli was quoted as saying, “If mothers have joined the protests, this means that the situation has become critical.”

What compelled the Suara Ibu Indonesia protesters to go to the streets now? What are the urgent concerns of activists and students amid a time they describe as ‘Indonesia Gelap’? Can such opposition to the newly installed Prabowo government be sustained for the long haul?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Olin Montiero, a feminist activist, researcher, writer, consultant and producer. Olin has been working for the women 's movement since the 1990s and was a member of the Suara Ibu Peduli movement in 1998. She has founded several women organisations in Indonesia, including the network Peace Women Across the Globe Indonesia and ArtsforWomen, connecting women activists, artists, art workers and cultural workers for a feminist collaborative space. Olin facilitates feminist networks Jagat Setara (Online platform feminist discussion), Woke Asia Feminist (young feminist in Asia network), and FeministArt Community (a new young people discussion on art creativity and feminism).

In 2025, 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: Olin Monteiro

Bones can tell us so much about the past, not just about the ancestry of modern humans (or homo sapiens) but also about the people and cultures of times long forgotten.

When we think about Indonesia’s place in history, we’re often inclined to think about the histories that shape the socio-cultural and political dynamics we see today. But Indonesia’s global historical significance goes way beyond this when we start considering how Indonesia features in early movements and migrations of humans and how they might have lived.

It's estimated that ancient humans travelled through Wallacea, what we now understand as Eastern Indonesia, at least 50,000 years ago (possibly even before 65,000 years ago) before coming to Australia and its surrounding islands.

There is also evidence of pre-modern ancestry- the most famous, perhaps, being the discovery of skeletal remains in Central Java, which became known as the “Java man,” in the 1890s. These were the first known fossils of the species homo erectus. While difficult to pinpoint precisely, the most recent estimates date these remains to being around 1.3 million years old.

You may also recall the discovery of the Flores hobbits in the early 2000s, when skeletal remains of a species of “tiny humans” was found. These are estimated to be somewhere between 190,000 to 50,000 years old.

Today’s guest is very familiar with the information we can glean from old bones. Dr Melandri Vlok has experience working on archaeological projects in Kalimantan and Sulawesi. She’s a bioarchaeologist and palaeopathologist who specialises in the Asia-Pacific region. One of her truly impressive claims to fame is her work in the discovery of a 31,000 year-old skeleton which shows strong signs of being one of the earliest known examples of a successful amputation, which you can read about in the highly renowned journal Nature. She’s also a member of the exclusive National Geographic Explorers community, having received funding through the program to further her research.

In Indonesia, a country prone to disasters and emergencies, effective risk communication can mean the difference between safety and vulnerability for millions. But what happens when risk communication fails to reach those most marginalised? How do social determinants of health impact how urban poor women navigate crises like the COVID-19 pandemic?

In this week's episode, Tito Ambyo chats with Citra Lestari, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. With a background as a risk communication professional and drawing on her personal experience as a mother, Citra's research focuses on how urban poor women in Jakarta understand and respond to health crises. She explores the cognitive, affective, and socio-cultural factors that influence risk perception among marginalised communities, challenging the notion of "ignorant others" who simply fail to understand expert advice.

Citra's research reveals how protocols designed to mitigate risk often fail to consider the everyday realities of those living in informal settlements, where economic precarity and fear of authorities shape decision-making. She argues for a dialogic approach to risk communication that centers marginalised voices and develops localised knowledge rather than imposing universal protocols that may be impossible to follow.

In 2025, 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 University.

Queer Muslims and Their Allies

Amid Indonesia’s conservative turn, the moral panics of the 2010s and the introduction of the draconian Criminal Code in 2022, LGBTQI+ people are as vulnerable as at any time in the country’s modern history. In a nation with the world’s largest Muslim population and where religion plays a central role in defining belonging and nationalism, the identities of queer Indonesian Muslims provide valuable insight into how these subjectivities are negotiated in everyday life.

How do queer Muslims maintain their faith and religious practices in an increasingly hostile environment? While in the West religion and queerness are often seen as incompatible, how and why do LGBTQI+ Indonesian Muslims hold onto their faith? How does progressive Islam inform the work of their Allies and what support do they provide?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Dr Diego Garcia Rodriguez, a Leverhulme-funded Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham. His book, 'Gender, Sexuality and Islam in Contemporary Indonesia: Queer Muslims and Their Allies' (Routledge), was published in English in 2024 and will be published in Indonesian by Marjin Kiri in 2025.

In 2025, 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.

Photo by Project M/Narriswari dan Sang Daulat

This past week has seen what some have argued are the first big mobilisations of the new Prabowo government, with coordinated student protests across 12 cities under the banner of Indonesia Gelap, or “Dark Indonesia”.

The students list a number of demands, from human rights to environmental issues, but the trigger for these protests lie in deep budgetary cuts initiated across the public service, to the tune of US$44 billion. The worst ministries and agencies, including the Ministry for Manpower and the Ministry for Public Works, have proposed cuts of up to 55%. The National Consumer Protection Agency is being cut a whopping 73%. Meanwhile, the police, the Ministry for Defence and the Supreme Court are seeing cuts of around 15-16%.

The government is selling these cuts as efficiency dividends for a sluggish and unproductive bureaucracy, and the savings will be directly diverted to fund Prabowo’s policy promises.

This includes of course, Prabowo’s signature investment in human capital, the MBG, or Free Nutritious Meals program. But around half of these savings, US$20 billion, will be diverted to a a new sovereign wealth fund, known as Danantara, which stands for Daya Anagata Nusantara.

Danantara is a super-holding company for state enterprises, modelled on Singapore’s Temasek, which will be used to invest in mega projects like food estates, renewables and nickel.

What is Prabowo’s economic agenda? How will reshape the country and confront the key challenges in the years ahead? Will Prabowo’s economic plans take the country closer to its grand plans for Golden Indonesia 2045?

To help us unpack Prabonomics is Riandy Laksono, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies or CSIS in Jakarta and Australia-Awards PhD candidate at The Arndt-Corden Department of Economics at the Australian National University.

Climate Change is well-recognised as a massive challenge facing society today. It is clear that the political, economic and social consequences of climate change will not be felt equally, not only globally but also across Indonesia. Geography, class and—indeed--gender dynamics will influence how individuals Indonesians experience and respond to climate change.

But it’s not just the environmental impacts that require navigation. As Arora-Johnson wrote in 2011, within the gender and climate development nexus, poor, rural-based women are portrayed as the most vulnerable and likely to die due to climate events. So, are these portrayals accurate? And how have they influenced thinking about women’s roles in climate crisis projects. Sustainable development projects that seek to address climate change are often coupled with questions of how to address inequality, with a narrow focus on what gender inequality actually is and who is responsible for overcoming it.

In this episode, Elisabeth Kramer speaks with Dr Jane Ahlstrand, a Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the University of New England, about her new research project on the relationship between climate crisis projects, sustainable development and gender in Indonesia. Jane completed her PhD at the University of Queensland, where she examined the use of language in the Indonesian online news media to represent women politicians and their dynamic relationship with power during a period of political and social transition. She is the author of the book, Women, Media, and Power in Indonesia published by Routledge in 2022.

Photo: Project M/Yuli Z

In Melbourne and across Australia, Indonesian diaspora communities are reimagining what it means to celebrate their cultural identity through art, food, and the simple act of "nongkrong" - hanging out. But what happens when these cultural practices become spaces for exploring complex questions about belonging, identity, and ethical settlement on Aboriginal land?

What does it mean to maintain connections to Indonesia while building new communities in Australia? How can festivals become sites of both cultural celebration and critical dialogue? And what roles do art and creative practice play in helping diaspora communities navigate their layered identities?

In this episode, Tito Ambyo talks with Moira Tirtha, founder of Melbourne's Nongkrong Festival and a researcher studying Indonesian creative diaspora. Together they explore how the festival has evolved from a simple gathering among friends to become an important space for cultural dialogue and community building. Through their conversation, we learn about the complexities of Indonesian-Australian identity and how cultural events can create meaningful connections across communities.

Moira is both a researcher and cultural producer, bringing unique insights into how festivals can serve as sites of research and cultural expression. Her work examines how Indonesian creative diaspora contribute to both their adopted homes and homeland, moving beyond traditional economic measures to explore cultural and social impacts.

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.

Photo: Nongkrong Festival 2023 [Photo credit needed]

Art, activism and a cancelled show - Wulan Dirgantoro

Late last year news media splashed the image of an elderly artist standing before a locked door at the National Gallery of Indonesia. The sign behind him displayed his name - Yos Suprapto – and the title of his solo exhibition 'Kebangkitan: Tanah Untuk Kedaulatan Pangan' (Revival: Land for Food Sovereignty), due to have opened on 19 December. The headlines explained that the gallery had cancelled the show with little notice. What followed was a battle of words and claims around the cancellation, or as the gallery described it, it's closure at the behest of the artist. The newly minted Minister for Culture, Fadli Zon, also weighed in.

What was it about this exhibition that made it so contentious? Who is the artist and why did this show become a lightning rod for controversy? More broadly, what might it mean for freedom of expression, art and activism in Indonesia?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Dr Wulan Dirgantoro, a lecturer in art history and curatorship at the School of Culture and Communication, the University of Melbourne. 

In 2025, 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: Yos Suprapto with one of the controversial paintings in his now cancelled exhibition, December 2024

Source: IG @politicaljokesid