Ahmad Arief
Ahmad Arif has been dedicating 16 years of his life towards journalism, working in one of the most established press in Indonesia. Being stationed in Aceh during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he began to wonder about the role of local knowledge in anticipating a disaster. This led him to focus on covering natural disasters, especially on mitigation and the social resilience that relates to it.
In this talk, Arif takes us on an expedition across the Ring of Fire, discovering the juxtaposition between the natural beauty of the archipelago and the dangers within its landscape. He argues that the real threat lies within our ignorance; environmental literacy, understanding natural resources, is the key to identify risks of disasters. Until now, Arif actively advocates the importance of reporting catastrophes comprehensively, to highlight risk mitigation instead of the perspective that bad news is good news.
Erik Prasetya
Erik Prasetya is a pioneer of street photography here in Indonesia. For around 35 years he has worked as a photographer to publish several books. He recorded various moments of the Reformation era 21 years ago, from day to day, from events long before and also up until Suharto’s fall. The series of events in 1998 sharpened his work instincts – Erik’s work is an image that explores the emotions of the city (in this case, Jakarta and all its changes) in the public sphere. He records ordinary everyday happenings but prioritizes the beauty and crudeness of it all, or what he calls, banal aesthetics.
Fadly Rahman
Fadly Rahman spoke about one specific local food that also serves as a metaphor for the ingredient of Indonesia. He works as a historian specializing in food history studies and works as teaching staff in the Department of History and Philology at Padjadjaran University. He has completed his undergraduate education in the History Study Program of Padjadjaran University (2006) and his Masters in the History Study Program at Gadjah Mada University (2014). Fadly has published two books on the culinary of our archipelago, namely Rijsttafel: Budaya Kuliner di Indonesia Masa Kolonial, 1870-1942 (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2011 & 2016) and his most recent book, Jejak Rasa Nusantara: Sejarah Makanan Indonesia (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2016). He has since received several awards related to his writings which discusses Indonesia’s food and culinary issues.
Farwiza Farhan
Farwiza Farhan is the winner of the 2016 Whitley Awards, she works at the Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on earth where four gigantic beasts--orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinos still roam the land. After graduating with a master’s degree from the University of Queensland,
in 2012 Wiza Co-founded Hutan, Alam, dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA) an NGO that empowers local leaders and organizations in policymaking to build a sustainable Aceh socially, environmentally, and financially. As a born-and-raised Acehnese, she saw how the ecosystem in her area is constantly threatened: Forest fire from agriculture land opening, to massive infrastructures development projects such as road network and hydroelectric power plant, at the same time understand the importance and needs of local community to have access and infrastructure, after the area suffered the tsunami and decades-long conflict.
In this talk, she elaborates on how development and conservation are actually partners and can co-exist just like human society and nature. In fact, she argues that the involvement of the local community is crucial for conservation effort to thrive and our participation matters.
Grace Natalie
Grace Natalie is a chairperson and co-founder of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI). This year she competed as a member of the legislature where she received the most votes in her electoral district with 179.949 votes. But since her party failed to gain enough votes to pass the national electoral threshold, she didn’t get elected. In this talk, Grace explains how the loses resulted in her regained conviction that everything in our life is political. So people’s ignorance and apathy actually do harm than good for their own sake, because many things in our day-to- day life are decided politically. Grace started her career as a journalist and television host for 8 years, working at various prominent national stations in Indonesia. Grace used to host Apa Kabar Indonesia Malam, a talk show program focused on the latest controversial political and social issues. She believes that participatory politics culture, meritocratic leadership, and an accountable & professionally managed political party are mandatory requirements needed for politicians of today.
Kenny Santana
If you peek into Kenny Santana’s social media account (@kartuposinsta), you might find yourself muttering the words: “What a lucky b****”. Working as travel consultant & blogger, Kenny’s 9-5 includes circling the globe, airport hopping, staying at fancy accommodation, and attend events worldwide. But, no, he will not talk about how “boring” it is working as a globetrotter, but instead in this talk he takes us on a philosophical journey behind the feeds, to the what’s-the-odds event of his life. And how he navigates and rediscovered the meaning of luck in his sometimes-not-so-lucky real life.
Keroncong Musyawarah
Keroncong is one of Indonesian traditional music. The key musical instruments of Keroncong is Cak and Cuk that people often get mistaken with Ukulele. Keroncong Musyawarah is here to share their take on Keroncong music; that it is enjoyable whether for older or younger people.
Educated in classical music in Yogyakarta does not mean that Anton Suryanto, Agung Wibisono, Dwipa H. Pratala, Achdinanti Victoria, Dessy Saptany, and Andika Candra, members of the group are not fluent in playing Indonesia’s traditional music arrangements. Keroncong Musyawarah was founded in 2016 in hope to be able to preserve Keroncong music in Indonesia and makes it more relatable to the younger people. They often perform classical Keroncong music and also numbers of cover versions of western classical music or pop music in Keroncong style.
My-Land Dodd
With a decade of experience at Landesa, an INGO, My-Lan Dodd, works to secure land rights for millions of the world’s poorest people, mostly rural women and men, to create opportunity and to promote social justice. Her expertise is in land policy, law, regulatory reform and implementation, fighting and advocating for women’s land rights; gender-responsive land governance; and customary/community land rights. Graduated from Seattle University of Law in 2017, she is an attorney and a land tenure specialist.
Theater Pandora
Teater Pandora is an independent theater that was established in 2014 by the alumni and students of the Universitas Indonesia from various faculties. Breaking away from the label “campus theater” to “independent theater”, Teater Pandora puts forward the spirit of the younger generation to work and dedicate themselves to the advancement of Indonesian performing arts. Throughout their conception, Teater Pandora has conducted several experiments, the most recent of which is the #MempermainkanRuang campaign. This campaign is a form of protest against the lack of cultural space – especially theater space – in Indonesia, and in Jakarta in particular. Teater Pandora has one determination: to become a Reactor! That is ready to be blown up to create a more disciplined, educational, innovative and fun theater culture.
Widharmika Agung
Widharmika was trained as an Industrial Engineer at Bandung Institute of Technology for his undergraduate study, got his Master Degree from Kennedy School of Government, but has been spending his entire professional career in the private sector transforming business. He uses his diverse background and network to help build Indorelawan.org, Indonesia’s largest web-based volunteer matching network. He believes to solve challenges in today’s world people from various background, e.g. private, public, and civil society need to work together as one despite all their differences. For his Talk, Widharmika will talk about what is volunteerism and why it is important.