Please note that this event has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Indonesia’s declaration of independence, the 70th anniversary of the historic Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, and the 60th anniversary of the genocidal massacres of Indonesian communists and their supporters. It is time to reflect on how Indonesia’s place in the world has changed over the decades and what it means to be an Indonesian citizen now. In the early decades after independence, the nation was a collective project for the future and the term “nation building” was commonly invoked. We are today the result of those earlier efforts at “nation building.” We are the future that the early nationalists dreamed about. We need to ask now: what has been built? What needs to be torn down and rebuilt?
Presented by UBC’s Centre for Southeast Asia Research.
About The Speaker:
Prof. Hilmar Farid was the Director-General of Culture of the Indonesian government for nine years (2015-24), supervising the operations of the many museums, archeological sites, and historical monuments in the country. He was responsible for the repatriation of large number stolen artefacts from museums in the Netherlands. He has a Ph.D. from the cultural studies program at the National University of Singapore (2014). His thesis was on the writings and life-history of the Indonesian writer, Pramoedya Anata Toer. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and is the author of the book (in Indonesian) War of Words: Language and the Politics of the Anticolonial Movement (2024). He runs a popular podcast on YouTube with the title JalinTalks, interviewing film stars, artists, musicians, and intellectuals.
