IRIP Representatives:

IRIP Board

Ed Aspinall

Ed Aspinall is the Chair of the IRIP Board. He also serves on Inside Indonesia’s editing committee. Ed became involved in things Indonesian when he spent a year in Malang, East Java, as a teenager in 1983 (his father was working on an Australian government aid project). Later he studied Indonesian at high school and university. He finished his PhD in 2000 on the topic of the democratic movement that overthrew the Suharto regime. Now he researches Indonesian politics at the Australian National University, currently with a focus on the conflict in Aceh.

Gerry van Klinken

Gerry van Klinken and his partner Helene became avid readers of the magazine when they were living in Salatiga, Central Java in the late 1980s. After both submitting pieces and being thrilled when they were published, Gerry found himself editing the magazine in 1996. After moving to a guest editor system in 2002 he continued to be actively involved in the magazine, first as coordinating editor, and later as a member of the editing committee. He is now a researcher in the Netherlands. Gerry is continually struck by the infectious energy that Indonesia inspires in those who return from their travels. He sees that energy as a sustaining force for the magazine. Helene and Gerry's own memories of Indonesia include high adventure, back-packing around the archipelago and being shipwrecked at night on a coral reef in a traditional sailing boat! They both want the magazine to be a 'bridge between people, to challenge stereotypes, to highlight movements and individuals who we think symbolise a better tomorrow.'

Anton Lucas

Anton Lucas is Treasurer of the IRIP Board. He arrived in Yogyakarta from the University of Hawaii's East West Center in late 1969 on an Indonesian language semester study programme and it changed his life forever. He wrote a PhD on the independence struggle of 1945 on Java's north coast, and has since taught in Indonesia, in Makassar (1984-85), and in Yogya (1990-92). After the magazine started in the mid-1980s, he signed up his wife Kadar's extended Yogya family, and a Catholic nunnery in Central Java, as subscribers. Kadar's family were interrogated by intelligence officers, and the nuns were accused of spreading banned Marxist teachings. Indonesia has changed a lot since then, but the magazine maintains its commitment to social justice, and what is happening at the grass roots level in the largest Muslim country in the world which is Australia's closest neighbour. Anton teaches Asian Studies and Indonesian at Flinders University, and does research on agrarian and environmental issues.

Deryn Mansell represents Indonesian teachers on the Board, and edits the education supplement for Inside Indonesia. She studied Indonesian at secondary school and, after discovering that backpacking is much more fun when you speak the language, returned to study Indonesian at Monash University a few years later. She completed her honours thesis while participating in the first ACICIS program at UGM in Yogyakarta in 1995 and returned to Australia to become a secondary school Indonesian teacher. In 2001 she spent six months encased in 100 per cent polyester school teacher's uniform in Cirebon , Java while undertaking fieldwork for her Masters of Education on the place of intercultural communication in language learning.

Bob Muntz joined the board of Inside Indonesia in 2005. He first encountered Indonesia as a back-packing tourist 25 years ago, and has been involved in the country with frequent visits for more than 20 years. He collaborated with Indonesian labour activists on workers rights issues throughout the 1980s while working with Australia Asia Worker Links in Melbourne, and has managed development programs in Eastern Indonesia for Oxfam Community Aid Abroad for much of the past 15 years. His attraction to Indonesia derives from his interest in political change and social justice issues in South East Asia, and from the many impressive Indonesian social justice activists he has encountered and worked with over the years.

Dave Matthews

Acting Board Members

Jemma Purdey

Jemma Purdey is currently researching and writing a biography of Herb Feith, who until his death was one of Inside Indonesia’s earliest and long-time supporters. Jemma’s interest in Indonesia came via her passion for human rights causes beginning in the early 1990s and an interest in knowing more about our near neighbours. Jemma has spent extended periods of time travelling, studying and researching in Indonesia. She wrote a PhD on anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia during the last years of the New Order and after reformasi. She now works as a researcher in the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University.

Julian Millie

Julian Millie is an ARC fellow currently working in the anthropology section of the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University. His current project concerns Islamic preaching in West Java. Prior to undertaking this project, Julian completed two other studies on the Islamic culture of Indonesia. He has taught in a number of departments in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University, and is a member of the executive committee of the Monash Centre of Southeast Asian Studies.