CAUSINDY 2015: Real Outcomes

CAUSINDY 2015 delegate, Paul Mead has secured a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for a bilateral baseball tournament.  Paul is part of a team spearheading an exciting Australia-Indonesia sports initiative called Diamonds in the Rough – now funded by DFAT. This exciting new bilateral baseball competition will promote sports to young women from both countries. A particular focus of the event is to showcase how sport can empower women to address domestic violence. The competition is bring coordinated through Baseball Australia and the Aussie Hearts International Womens Baseball Program.  Overall, it is hoped that the initiative will help improve bi-lateral relationships between Australia and Indonesia, create sport development opportunities,advance gender equity (including developing women as leaders), promote trade and tourism opportunities, and contribute to social cohesion.

The CAUSINDY team is excited to support the Diamonds in the Rough initiative and will be providing strategic support. CAUSINDY is looking for support from its network (particularly those in Jakarta) who can help guiding the Australian delegation with some local knowledge, helping to promote the program and recruit a cohort of participants, introducing the delegation to the right people and helping to make a difference. If you are keen to be part of this, please email Paul at paul@paulmead.com.au

Q&A with Ross Tapsell

Ross Tapsell (@RossTapsell) is a lecturer in Asian Studies at the Australian National University, and the author of By-Lines, Balibo, Bali Bombings: Australian Journalists in Indonesia. He was a delegate to CAUSINDY 2013 in Canberra.

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Ross speaking on the “Portrayals in the Media” panel at CAUSINDY 2014 in Jakarta.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve spent the first 3 months in Jakarta researching media ownership in the digital era in Indonesia. I am currently on sabbatical based at Indiana university in the US, and will return to the ANU in July.

Did CAUSINDY help you form new networks and relationships?

Yes. My friends in CAUSINDY were able to put me in touch with great contacts for my research, including research on Indonesian politics and elections, media, Papua, and Australia-Indonesia relations.

What is your advice for new applicants?

To emphasise what unique skills or experience you might bring to the cohort.

How did participating in CAUSINDY benefit you?

As well as building networks and relationships for my work, I have made many friends in CAUSINDY that I regularly catch up with whenever we have the opportunity.

The Australia-Indonesia relationship has always been one of highs and lows, motives and prejudices, causes and effects. As Jamie Mackie wrote:

“Closer engagement with Indonesia may be little more than a dream, but it is a dream worth cherishing – and even proclaiming forthrightly as the goal we should be advancing. It does not greatly matter that the goal will probably remain forever just beyond our grasp. It is the direction that the dream provides that is crucial”.

CAUSINDY points us in the direction of that dream.