This year’s high-calibre- CAUSINDY delegates were congratulated for their selection into the well-regarded program now in its third year at an event held at the residence of the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, in Jakarta on Tuesday 14 September.

Through a competitive process, 30 CAUSINDY delegates, 15 from Australia and 15 from Indonesia, were selected and invited to attend the annual Conference of Australian and Indonesia Youth from 19-22 September 2015. Delegates were chosen from a range of sectors, including international development, government, business and education, with delegates selected due of their current day and future role in growing ties between Australia and Indonesia. The full list of this year’s delegates is here.

At the farewell event, Peter Varghese, Secretary of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), described CAUSINDY delegates as the “texture” in a bilateral relationship that is often only defined by the strength or weakness of current government relations between the two very different by closely located neighbours.

Karina Akib, co-founder of CAUSINDY, explained that this year’s conference was deliberately being held in Darwin, as “this is where the relationship began” between Indonesian traders and indigenous Australians hundreds of years ago. Previous CAUSINDY conferences have been held in Canberra and Jakarta.

According to Karina, not only will delegates learn more about the ancient trade in sea slugs that initially saw relations thrive between Indonesia and Australia, they will also have the opportunity to discuss businesses opportunities, politics and to talk to local school children in Darwin about what the Australia – Indonesia relationship means to them. This year’s full program including the list of impressive speakers is here.

At Tuesday’s event, which was also attended by CAUSINDY alumni from 2013 and 2014, Luke Arnold, a 2014 delegate and Jakarta-based First Secretary from DFAT, described the challenge of finding it difficult to know how to connect to Indonesian youth through his work in the justice and democratic governance sectors in Indonesia. He praised CAUSINDY for the network he now has of Indonesian youth leaders.

Stay connected to the action in Darwin through this hashtag #causindy on Twitter or this account on Instagram.