Future COCI/AusHeritage Initiatives Meeting, Jakarta – May 2009

AusHeritage Chair Vinod Daniel and Board Member Ian Cook hold planning discussions with ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, May 2009.

From left to right: Linda Lee, Assistant Director, The ASEAN Secretariat, Ian Cook, AusHeritage Board Member, Septania Kadir, Program Coordinator, ASEAN Foundation, AusHeritage Chair, Vinod Daniel and Arief Maulana, ASEAN Culture Officer, Culture and Information Unit, Bureau for Resources Development at an informal dinner at the Borobudur Hotel, Jakarta.

AusHeritage representatives Vinod Daniel and Ian Cook met with ASEAN Secretariat officers Linda Lee, Assistant Director and Arief Maulana, ASEAN Culture Officer, Culture and Information Unit on Monday 18 May at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. Long-term colleague Septania Kadir, now Program Coordinator at the ASEAN Foundation also attended the meeting.

The agenda for the meeting covered future ASEAN-Committee on Culture and Information (COCI)/AusHeritage initiatives, AusHeritage’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with COCI and progress with the joint project to produce a contemporary guide on cultural mapping.

In addition to meeting with the ASEAN Secretariat, the AusHeritage Delegation met with:

Hari Untoro Dradjat, Director General for History and Archaeology, Department of Culture and Tourism and the Director of Museums, Dra Intan Mardiana N. Part of discussions covered case studies for the cultural mapping Guide with respect to the work done by the Department in Borobudur including recent photogrammetry associated with the 2006 earthquake in Indonesia.
A courtesy visit to the National Museum was made where Vinod Daniel and Ian Cook met with the director Dra. Retno Sulistianingsih S. The possibility of undertaking a capacity building program with the Museum was raised as a future initiative.

The delegation made an early morning visit to the Australian Embassy to meet and brief the newly appointed Sanchi Davis who has taken over from Fiona Hogarth as Second Secretary (Cultural).

The AusHeritage delegation also visited the Jakarta UNESCO Office and met with Ms Wieske Octaviani Sapardam, Administrative and Program Assistant for Culture and Ms Yunita Mandolang, Program Assistant for Communication and Information (joined for Memory of the World briefing). Masanori Nagaoka, Program Specialist for Culture was away on a mission in Medan. A key reason for visiting the UNESCO office was to discuss the Nias Island cultural mapping/tourism project A copy of the Nias cultural tourism map was presented to the delegation.

For further information contact Ian Cook at ianlcook@bigpond.net.au