Dewi Anggraeni Dewi Anggraeni i(A28300 works by)
Also writes as: D. Anggraeni Fraser
Born: Established: 1945 Jakarta, Java,
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Indonesia,
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Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1970
Heritage: Indonesian
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BiographyHistory

Dewi Anggraeni gained a Master of Arts degree in Letters from the University of Indonesia and a Diploma of Education from La Trobe University in Melbourne where she settled. In Australia she has worked as a technical editor, a teacher of English as a Second Language and also as the Australian correspondent for Tempo, a major news and current affairs magazine in Indonesia, as correspondent for the daily English language newspaper, The Jakarta Post and for FORUM Keadilan.

Anggraeni has contributed periodically to INTAN (Indonesian Teachers' Association) Newsletter and AIA News. Minh's Free Country and A Foreigner in East Gippsland, were broadcast on Radio 3CR in 1986. She has been a member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW). In 1990, she received a Project Assistance Grant from the Victorian Ministry for the Arts.

Anggraeni's fictional terrain is often the ground between cultures : difference as well as connection, misunderstanding but also genuine communication. Some of her characters, like herself, are cultural 'go-betweens' who discover the possibilities and the costs of entering into relationships - personal, social, sexual - outside the comfort zone of their own communities. Her work is finely tuned to the different cultural sensitivities of Indonesia and Australia, and to the need, both in fiction and journalism, to find culturally correct ways of approaching her topics, especially in sensitive areas such as politics and sexual behaviour. Her book, Who Did This to Our Bali? (2003) is a response, both personal and cultural, to the Bali bombings of 12 October 2002.


Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Co-editor of Indonesians in Victoria from the 1950s (Monash University, 1995). Joint author of a book (in Indonesian) about women in Indonesia (1997) and reviewer of two books by Adrian G. Horridge on traditional boat builders in Indonesia. Author of an electronic commentary Bali, Terrorism and Australia: Clash of Perceptions (2002).

  • Author writes in these languages:INDONESIAN, ENGLISH

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Stories of Indian Pacific Eltham North : Indra Publishing , 1992 Z50488 1992 selected work short story novella "Stories of Indian Pacific are three novellas, set in New Caledonia, Australia and Indonesia, written in Dewi Anggraeni's engaging style that moves easily from one location to the next. 'To Drown a Cat' explores racial tension in New Caledonia; Uncertain Step is the story of an Indonesian bride in Australia; and in Crossroads two artists, an Australian and an Indonesian, meet in Bali. The novella is set in 1988, shortly after the violent confrontation between the French army and Kanak separists in the northern island of Ouvea. The story explores the tensions that explode in bloody confrontation, within a family divided by allegiance to two sets of ancestors, the French Caldoche and the indigenous Kanak. 'Uncertain Step' tells the story of Aryani, and her relatively late marriage to Steve, an Australian teacher who already has two children, and is still good friends with his previous wife. Aryani finds the Australian scenery, Steve's hometown, Adelaide and people's response to herself very different from everything she is used to in Bandung. Her uncertain step into marriage with this warm but almost unknown Australian is the story of so many Asian brides and their Australian husbands. In 'Crossroads', the young Australian rock singer, Justin is introduced to a new world of art and life, when he meets the Balinese poet and playwright, Nyoman. Justin sees for the first time, art as close to nature and art as important for political and social change." (Source: Google Books
1989 Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships Australia Council Literature Board Grants Writer's Project Grant
Last amended 22 Apr 2013 14:59:45
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