Sate Sesep Aroma comprises four small, joined shopfronts. The first three are dining rooms that are “kind of” clean. The magic happens in the fourth shopfront, where two cooks work a 2m long charcoal-powered grill in a never-ending quest to fill orders from a never-ending stream of customers and delivery drivers.
Culture
Nongkrong Festival held the ‘Barang-Bareng’ event on Sunday, 14 December 2025, at Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. Nongkrong is a festival organised by a group of Indonesian-Australians as a space for the diaspora to gather and maintain cultural connections.
In my own childhood, growing up in regional Victoria in the ’80s and ’90s, Indonesian was offered at four of the five schools I attended over 13 years. In 1990, 90,000 kids were studying Indonesian in schools across Australia. By 2000 that number was well over 300,000.
“Summer rainfall fell and riverbeds became seasonally dry, placing stress on both hobbits and their prey,” said Dr Gagan, an honorary professor at the University of Queensland.
Enrolments in Asian languages have plummeted. Between 2004 and 2022, Indonesian language enrolments at universities fell by 76%, according to the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies.
The Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services has confirmed that the requirements for obtaining Indonesian citizenship by foreigners have just been tightened.
Aimed at museum professionals, the program focused on practical knowledge and skills including hands-on exercises using museum collections. Experts from the Western Australian Museum, Dr Melanie Piddocke (Director, Culture and Communities) and Erica Boyne (Head of History) engaged with Indonesian experts, fostering reciprocity and collaboration.
Komodo National Park sits in Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands and is fast rising on the global travel radar. It’s quieter than Bali but growing more accessible thanks to new direct flights and a crop of luxury hotels.
The Rahwana theatre production took the stage on Saturday, 8 November at RMIT Capitol Theatre in Melbourne.
On a Melbourne Fringe Festival stage, Shannan Tamby Lim portrayed a character named Samson, an innocent young man who left his home for the first time and encountered mythological creatures. The story drew inspiration from the concept of ‘merantau’, or migration, which holds significant importance in Minangkabau culture.
The University of Melbourne has launched IndoTekno, a flagship training program welcoming Indonesian theatre production professionals to Melbourne for hands-on learning and creative exchange.
A journey to the Bandas, where nutmeg was once worth more than gold, reveals the fragile survival of a forgotten Chinese diaspora.
The Futsalroos will travel to Jakarta to take on Indonesia in an A international fixture at Indonesia Arena on Saturday, 1 November (kick-off 7:30pm local / 11:30pm AEDT).
This year’s theme for the festival was imajinasi. The winning film this year centres on a father facing life as an empty nester.
Actor brothers Stephen, 49, and Bernard Curry, 51, were named winners of The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition after a come-from-behind victory in Java, Indonesia.
Visitors enjoyed diverse activities including dance and band performances, traditional reog shows, food stalls, clothing vendors, fashion shows, and children’s workshops.
