Some of the best writers and poets from Indonesia, Timor Leste, Singapore and Australia are represented in this fine new book titled TERRA, launched at the Sydney Writers Festival last Saturday evening. All the writers have one thing in common. They have all been guests of Darwin’s WordStorm festival since its conception in 2004. They include Ayu Utami, Nukila Amal, Linda Christanty, Triyanto Triwikromo, Iswadi Pratama, Dorothea Rosa Herliany, and the list goes on.

This impressive volume of 65 short stories and poetry by 45 Austronesian authors is edited by Sandra Thibodeaux (Darwin) and Sitok Srengenge (Jakarta) with most of the translations by Kadek Krishna Adidharma (Bali).  Funded by the Australia Indonesia Institute and ArtsNT,  the book is jointly published by Kata Kita and NT Writers Centre. Hot off the press only days before, it was selling like hot cakes at the launch venue, overlooking Sydney Harbour, where a crowd gathered to hear readings from TERRA.

Sandra Thibodeaux explained the history behind the book and it’s title, then the audience were treated to some moving readings. A short story by aboriginal elder Alec Kruger was read by co-author Gerard Waterford, a play excerpt about Indonesian and Malaysian students in Melbourne by Alana Valentine, a sad yet funny Martini story from Frank Moorhouse and an ode to Sydney by Mike Merrill titled Night Knows. Indigenous Australian poet Romaine Moreton read her poems, Beside the River and Freedom Now, followed by the Bahasa Indonesia translations read by Jarrah Sastrawan, a young part-Balinese high school student. The power of this moment was not lost on any of us - Australian Indigenous writing spoken by a young Balinese man carrying more than a hint of Indonesian poetic tradition in his voice as his father, Balinese poet and musician Ketut Yuliarsa, looked on.

It was fitting also that Janet de Neefe, Director of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival was officially launching TERRA, for it has been this movement of writers and their work travelling between new festivals in the region that has nurtured the latest cross-cultural literary wave just starting to break on all our shores. The triad of WordStorm, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale has nurtured a strong flow of communication between writers, publishers, translators, and the reading public.

A series of readings at various cultural centres across Indonesia are planned for the Indonesia launch of TERRA at the two international literary events in Indonesia this year.
Supported by the Indonesia Australia Language Foundation (IALF), readings will also take place in all IALF’s English teaching centres.

TERRA, like Utan Kayu’s bilingual festival publications, provides a great model for other festivals to follow.  Funding for translators is the key to turning this wave into a significant movement. For when you have some of each nation’s best writers together in one volume, readers who wouldn’t normally travel so far a field, are able to taste the literary feast without leaving home.

No travel warnings or visa problems here!  Instead, a bunch of neighbours reach across terra firma and write up a storm.

TERRA will be launched in Indonesia with readings in the following cities:
• Jakarta, Magelang and Surabaya during the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale, 23 through to 31 August 2007 http://www.ukliterarybiennale.com
• Ubud and Denpasar during the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, 25 through to 30 September 2007 http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com

First Published in the Jakarta Post