Edition 49: Jan-Mar 1997 - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

A veneer of tradition

How strong is local tradition in the face of the modern state?ARIANNE VAN DER MEER attends a ceremony in Sumatra's Minangkabau area, famous for its matrilineal culture. She finds that the cultural symbols do survive. But they are now also tools in the hands of the central government.

Aceh's year of living dangerously

Australian volunteer LEON JONES was living in Aceh in the lead-up to the violence that eventualy left up to 2000 dead.

Schooling in Aceh

Education should open doors to a brighter future. But when school costs the earth yet yields only failure, is the price too high? BARBARA LEIGH talks with Raziah, a poor mother in Aceh.

The forgotten cost of counter-insurgency in Aceh

KERRY BROGAN talks with two women whose husbands 'disappeared'.

Battle for the pews

GERRY VAN KLINKEN explores the dramatic conflict within the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP). Environmental protest, military-backed thugs, and guerilla tactics to attend Sunday worship - these are the ingredients of a bizarre story.

Of money and trees: a 19th-century growth triangle

Unbridled money freely crosses borders and destroys Sumatra's pristine environment.... The 1990s? No, the 1850s, writes FREEK COLOMBIJN.

Two Sumatran films

The National Library of Australia now has the most comprehensive collection of Indonesian films available outside of Indonesia. Two films in this collection come from Sumatra.

Colonial legacy

It may be true that Java rules Indonesia. But Javanese labourers in Sumatra, writes BUDI AGUSTONO, have been at the bottom of the heap for generations.

A veneer of tradition

Aceh's year of living dangerously

Schooling in Aceh

The forgotten cost of counter-insurgency in Aceh

Battle for the pews

Of money and trees: a 19th-century growth triangle

Two Sumatran films

Colonial legacy

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