THE NINTH EUROPEAN COLLOQUIUM OF INDONESIAN AND MALAY STUDIES.

By G.E. Marrison

This Colloquium was held at Needler Hall, Cottingham, one of the
halls of residence of the University of Hull; our hosts were the
Centre for South-East Asian Studies, under the direction of
Professor V.T. King, and organized by Dr. Michael Hitchcock,
Lecturer in South-East Asian Development Sociology; meetings were
held from Mondays 5 to Friday 9 July, 1993, with the theme :
Images of the Malay-Indonesian World. 

The 44 papers were distributed before the meetings and briefly
introduced and discussed, all in plenary session under the
following headings and chairmen:
1. Popular culture and visual imagery (Michael Hitchcock)
2. Indigenous identity and world view (Terry King)
3. Literary imagery (Russell Jones)
4. Image of gender (Lewis Hill)
5. Foreign and local interface 1. (Michael Hitchcock)
6. Foreign and local interface 2. (Jan Wisseman Christie)
7. Images of State, power and politics (Clive Christie          
            
CSEAS Secretariat did much to ensure the success of the
conference by reproducing copies of the papers in time for the
presentations and discussions. The main difficulty was that with
a heavy programme, it was not possible to give much time to
discussion. On the other hand, it was recognised that there was
a desire to attend , not least by many younger scholars, and also
that a colloquium has to be large enough to justify the effort
and funding of the host institution. There is, it seems to me, a
matter for discussion here, both to ensure how a conference can
best promote the scholarship to which it is dedicated, and
equally ( and (and I speak from the experience of reviewing) how
to deal with the publication of conference papers, to ensure that
they are available in a reasonable time, and what the editors do
about selecting the materials, introducing their subjects and
filling up gaps.
A conference with images in the context of two largely Muslim
countries had a difficult concept to deal with. Only a small
number of the papers were concerned with visual imagery,
including television and film, and an entertaining illustrated
talk by Professor Jean-Luc Maurer of Geneva: A New Order
sketchpad of Indonesia history: the 40th Independence Day painted
billboards of Merdeka Square, photographed in Jakarta in July,
1985, which presented Indonesia's self-image of its history,
struggle for independence and later achievements. Other papers
dealt variously with the notion of image in sociological or
political ways, both as promoted, and as received by observers.
Some of the speakers dealt with the literary imagery of modern
Indonesian and Malay writers, including the ideas, ideals and
observations of the authors on current life in their countries.
Some of the papers were based on localized field studies: C.Chou
on the Orang Suku Laut; K. Saptodewo on Central Kalimantan; S.
Cederroth on Sasaks; S. Rodemeier on Alor; W.Kraus on Sunda; A.T.
Gallop on Brunei; M.A. Patty-Noach on Rotti; C. Davis on
Minangkabau; others on colonial, independence and
post-independence historical themes. Since the theme was image,
with its philosophic and open-ended implications, the colloquium
produced a very wide and varied view of the Indonesian and Malay
scene. Perhaps the next stage would be to look for and express
the inner realities of Malay and Indonesian life, if indeed that
can be achieved by external observation.
Two special events were organized for the participants: on 6
July, a reception was held at the exhibition "Art and Religion in
Bali", which had been mounted in the Brynmor Jones Library,
University of Hull by Lewis Hill, lecturer in Southeast Asian
Social Anthropology, CSEAS, assisted by Margaret Nicholson, in
charge of the Southeast Asian collections of the Library, and by
Mrs. Helen Jaspan. The guest of honour was Mr. R.J. Carrick, the
British Ambassador to Indonesia. The exhibition was splendid,
being mostly drawn from CSEAS collections, including textiles,
baskets, paintings, woodcarvings. and photographic displays,
these including Balinese dancing, and the cremation ceremony in
1978 of Cokorda Gde Agung Sukawati at Ubud, one of the leading
patrons of the revival of Balinese art in the 1930's and later
years. The second special event was an outing on 7 July to
Beverley, with guided tour of the great medieval Minister church,
specially noteworthy for its series of carvings of medieval
musicians on its pillars and walls.
Professor Terry King, Michael Hitchcock, Lewis Hill, as well as
the other academic and supporting staff of the Centre for
Southeast Asian Studies are to be congratulated for organizing
this enjoyable and successful conference. It is proposed that the
Tenth Colloquium shall be held in Berlin in 1995.