Australian authors travel across Indonesia

Authors from Australia will travel across Indonesia as part of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival`s (UWRF) expanding children and youth program.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty said the children and youth program was a wonderful example of Indonesian-Australian collaboration and cross-cultural exchange, the Australian embassy said in a statement here Friday.

"The Australian writers will be cultural ambassadors for Australia," Ambassador Moriarty said.

The Australian writers taking part in the program are: novelist Colin Falconer from Western Australia; novelist Inez Baranay from Sydney; children`s and adult fiction writer Jon Daust from Western Australia; and writer and journalist Ruby Murray from Melbourne.

"This is a chance to develop mutual understanding in Indonesia and Australia of the quality and diversity of literature of the other country. It will also provide opportunities to build inter-cultural understanding and establish long-term links between the writers and the communities they visit and the people they meet from across Indonesia," he added.

This initiative will take the writers to Aceh, Jakarta, Makassar (Sulawesi); Banjarmasin (Kalimantan); and Kupang (East NusaTenggara). Among the arts and youth organisations they will work with are: Komunitas Tikar Pandan, Komunitas Komseni, Komunitas Payingkul, and Komunitas Sastra Papua.

With funding support from the Australia Indonesia Institute, the Australians will present a one-day workshop developed by each author together with community leaders, local writers and young people.

Executive Producer at the UWRF Jane Fuller said the writers would take part in an open forum for emerging writers, poets, thinkers, future leaders, songwriters, students and interested community members.

"The idea behind the program is to extend the reach of the UWRF beyond Bali and to deepen the festival's existing links with communities through a program of literature, writing, ideas and literacy, said Fuller.

"The community, the writers, the emerging writers and other participants will come together to learn, engage, share and discuss literature and ideas. They all will get an opportunity to discuss their thoughts and perspectives with the visiting writers, facilitating an exchange of ideas, processes and networks," she said.(Antara)

Related: Ninth Ubud Writers and Readers Festival kicks off