“Dharma” means the action of service, and “Nusantara” means unity in diversity. Dharma Nusantara is an independent cultural group involved in traditional Indonesian art and cultural education established through the request and encouragement of the Cultural & Education Section of the Indonesian Consulate General Offices in Melbourne & Darwin for the purpose of education and development. We seek to promote communication, understanding and unity between Indonesian and other Australian cultures & all the proceed of our classes and performances is specifically to sponsor orphans and disadvantage children in Indonesia, Africa, and Sri Lanka
Origins
Dharma Nusantara-Australia was established in August 1996 by Mr Ronnie Takdare in Melbourne-Victoria following the request of the Indonesian Embassy through the Melbourne Indonesian Consul General Mr Wahid Supriyadi. In 1997, following an agreement between the Indonesian and Australian governments to focus on rebuilding the relationship between both countries through “people to people relationships” (ie. via education, culture and tourism) Dharma Nusantara was asked to actively promote this objective through it’s Indonesian cultural educational workshops for schools and other educational institutions in Victoria.
Dharma Nusantara-Australia 8 years later in August 2005 was established also at the Indonesian Consulate-Darwin lead by Mr Vaughn Allit who has been living in Darwin as a NT police officer, under guidance and supervision by Bapak Buchari Bakar (Consul General) and accompanied by Cak Ahmad & Mas Faidi.
Dharma Nusantara helps to promote the Indonesian cultural activities held by the Consulate General Offices, which are aimed at both the Indonesian and Australian communities in Australia especially Victoria & Northern Territory.
Relationship-Building
Since the beginning Dharma Nusantara focuses in the education sector by helping to facilitates and coordinate close working relationship between the Indonesian Consulate and teachers of Indonesian/Asian Studies & also introducing Indonesian Cultural Workshops for Australian schools and educational institutions. In 2006 Dharma Nusantara-Australia playing an important role in the 1st ever joint educational project between the Northern Territory Dept of Education with the Indonesian Consulate-Darwin
One of the functions of the Indonesian Consulate is to report back to Indonesia on the changing attitude towards Indonesian by Australians. The Indonesian Consulate is keen to dismiss the stereotypical view, which some Indonesians still hold that Australia is a predominantly mono-cultural (and white) country and that Australians are largely un-Asian-friendly. Dharma Nusantara’s activities go a long way to help promote Indonesian culture, and therefore the Indonesian Consulate of Victoria and recently Darwin Consulate is very interested in receiving positive written feedback as well any publicity, either from regional newspapers or school newsletters, regarding Dharma Nusantara’s Indonesian cultural activities that it holds at Australian schools and educational institutions.
At the same time our performances which mainly performs by Our Australian brothers and sisters help to change the stereotypical view of Australian to the Indonesian-Asian communities especially how open minded Australian people are. Some of the Australian community festivals Dharma Nusantara performed are:
a)Moomba festivals-Melbourne
b)Yearly Indonesian festival-Melbourne
c)Australia multi cultural festival-Canberra
d)Pako festival-Geelong, Victoria
e)Darwin festival-Northern Territory
f)And others Communities or Organisations Cultural Festivals both in Victoria & NT.
The Teachers
Edward V Jones
Originally from Geelong (85 km west of Melbourne) and started learning Dharma Nusantara pencak silat seriously from 1998. In the beginning he spent 2-3 days a week traveling between Geelong to Melbourne to learnt pencak silat instead of just every Wednesday evening at Melbourne Indonesian consulate. Finally in 2001 he moved to Melbourne to live with Mas Ronnie to take on the traditional way of learning pencak silat. In 2009 after 8 years of intensive training he went back to Geelong and will be taking over the training of Dharma Nusantara.
Edward V Jones played an important part in setting up Dharma Nusantara education project; he was also involved in all of them including:
- The implementation of “the Introduction of Asian Circular Thinking based of art and ritual in comparison to the Western Linear Thinking based of science and technology” as educational programs using the example found in the traditional art of Pencak Silat for Australian schools, universities, and educational institutions.
- The implementation of “The Indonesian cultural studies programs for schools and educational institutions” in Australia in cooperation with the Indonesian consulate/embassy, states schools, catholic schools, and association independent schools (based on the comparison between the Asian circular thinking and Western/European linear thinking).
- The implementation of training program to help youth in difficulties.
- The implementation of joint educational project between Northern Territory dept of education and Indonesian consulate Darwin.
- The organisation for the Dharma Nusantara performances for Australian cultural events such as Moomba-Melbourne, Pako festival-Geelong, Darwin festival, etc.
Vaughn Alitt
Originally from Geelong also, started his training on Dharma Nusantara pencak silat together with Edward Jones in 1998. And together with Edward Jones, he also spent 2-3 days a week traveling between Geelong-Melbourne for intensive training in every aspects of Dharma Nusantara Pencak Silat. In 2004 Vaughn Alitt moved to Darwin to start his work as Northern Territory Police Officer. He was also contributing some of his knowledge of Pencak Silat to the self defense training of NT Police Force. Although he is living in Darwin he is coming back at least 2x a year to further his pencak silat training. Just like Edward Jones he was also involved in every aspect of Dharma Nusantara education programs and also running seminar/workshops for Indonesian cultural studies as per-requested by Charles Darwin University and Indonesian consulate, Darwin.
Damian Da Silva
Started his training on Dharma Nusantara pencak silat back in 1996, however he spent lots of time traveling overseas to Europe and Asia until finally coming back to settle down in Melbourne in 2004 and continue his pencak silat training again.
Marty Roberts
Started his training on Dharma Nusantara pencak silat in 1998 also; however he also spent lots of time traveling Australia and overseas. In 2006 he came back to settle down in Melbourne again and since then he continue his pencak silat training.
Bobby Halqisah
Started his training on Dharma Nusantara pencak silat in 1998 also, just like Edward Jones and Vaughn Alitt he was involved in all the education and cultural activities of Dharma Nusantara. However, he moved back to Indonesia in 2009 after 12 years living in Australia.
Summer Buckland
She started her training on Dharma Nusantara pencak silat in 2003. Since then she has become the manager and coordinator of Dharma Nusantara-Australia.
Mas Ronnie
Ron Takdare who is also known as Mas Ronnie is the principle teacher and founder of Dharma Nusantara-Australia. He is currently working on a project that requires him to be in South East Asia especially Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia for research to complete his new book. He often goes back to Australia (Melbourne and Darwin) to continue teaching Dharma Nusantara. However, since he spends most of his time away from Australia he appointed Edward Jones as the principle teacher for Dharma Nusantara-Australia in Melbourne, with the help of Damian da Silva, Marty Roberts and the rest of the brothers. Meanwhile he also appointed Vaughn Alitt as the principle teacher for Dharma Nusantara in Darwin with the help of Cak Ahmad and Faidi since 2005.