2015
Getting in the Festive Festival Mood
28 October 2015
It is all about to happen here. Today is the eve of the festival and the start of book launches, etc. Not got an invitation to the big opening tonight at the Palace but have been to enough of them in the past. Hugely crowded and lots of speeches.
More friends arriving today so will be catching up with them. On Monday I linked up with Maritsa, a friend of my friend Win from Victoria. Win had asked me to look out for her and another woman, Julie arriving today. So I'd written to them beforehand to make contact. Maritsa and I had a wonderful day on her first day here - she was last in Bali 20 years ago so all very new! After coffee with Josh we went up to the festival site to pick up passes - I collected mine too - a free one for us translators, saving $400, so often worth more than they can afford to pay us for our work! I went in to the festival office to make sure someone in authority got the message about clearing the blocked footpath between venues (still not done!! They have one more day.)
Pak Jun (Wayan Juniarta, the anthology editor) whom I'd missed seeing last week was at the office and came down and had a chat. He has been right in the centre of the negotiations with police and military over the past two weeks regarding the bans on the sessions relating to events of 1965, along with Ketut, (Janet the Director's husband), while Janet was away at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Maritsa, who was with me, could not believe she was having access to the horse's mouth! The police wanted to ban all the films being shown as part of the festival too, saying the festival only had a licence to discuss books. They have since watched every one of them and cancelled one other film on top of Oppenheimer's "Look of Silence". Jun has been fronting the media and setting up interviews - had just come from one with CNN. The news is certainly out there across the world and to some degree across Indonesia, but mainly in the English language press.
It has been a frantic time for the committee - they issued a list of cancellations and changes on their website yesterday! Lots of speakers / writers are no longer coming in protest - or in fear of consequences because of their 1965 connections. The memoir book launch of a NZ woman, Jan Mantjika, who married here back in the 60s has also been cancelled because its title is Bali 1964-2009 (hence it also covers the year 1965!) And another big blow - the session on "Tolak Reklamasi" has also been banned. Nothing to do with 1965 - it is the local protest movement against the reclamation of a huge area of mangrove swamps in Benoa Bay down south to build a vast new tourist hotel complex. An environmental disaster if it goes ahead. Another case of censorship and the authorities wielding power to protected vested interests, in this case the developers. There has never been a grassroots environmental protest movement on this scale before in Bali and the young people of Bali are desperate to save Bali from more harmful, development.
Maritsa and I continued our day with a visit to Neka Gallery followed by lunch at Kamasan (I never seem to eat anywhere else!) where we bumped into newly arrived friends from Sydney, Deirdre and Gwynedd. Gwynedd happens to be the mother of Josh's great mate from school and uni days, Frank, so when I alerted Josh that she was in Bali he came down to see her and catch up on Frank's news.
In the evening Threads of Life had an opening of a special textile exhibition, so I took Maritsa up to that too. A charming talk upstairs in the rooftop cafe by Jean and William the owners, on the meaning behind the exhibition’s title "Vessels of Becoming" in regard to their exquisite textiles from across the archipelago. William has a session on the main program this year talking about the stories in cloth.
Big names at the festival (some known only to the Australian readers among you) are Nam Le, Drusilla Modjeska, Chigozie Obiome (Nigerian - The Fisherman - was a Booker nomination), Desmond Tutu's daughter Mpho, Michael Chabon, Tony and Maureen Wheeler of the Lonely Planet - and a larger than ever number of Indonesian and other Southeast Asian writers.
Domestic life continues to all this backdrop starting with Jasmin and the school drop. I took yesterday off and resumed swimming with Josh, but I did have my regular dinner date with Diana Darling at Pulau Kelapa / Kamasan. Deirdre and Gwynedd turned up once again by chance and joined us. So a jolly evening of good conversation, beer, kretek and excellent Javanese food!
Jasmin has rescued a dying chicken some teacher had in a box at school and was about to dispose of. She is hoping to bring it back to life. I dread going over to the main house in a minute to find it has died overnight. She still mourns the loss of her bantam, Angie, taken by a dog last time I was here.
You probably won’t be hearing much from me for a bit once the frenzied pace of the festival takes over my life. A blessed rest from reading these jottings, do I hear some of you say?
More friends arriving today so will be catching up with them. On Monday I linked up with Maritsa, a friend of my friend Win from Victoria. Win had asked me to look out for her and another woman, Julie arriving today. So I'd written to them beforehand to make contact. Maritsa and I had a wonderful day on her first day here - she was last in Bali 20 years ago so all very new! After coffee with Josh we went up to the festival site to pick up passes - I collected mine too - a free one for us translators, saving $400, so often worth more than they can afford to pay us for our work! I went in to the festival office to make sure someone in authority got the message about clearing the blocked footpath between venues (still not done!! They have one more day.)
Pak Jun (Wayan Juniarta, the anthology editor) whom I'd missed seeing last week was at the office and came down and had a chat. He has been right in the centre of the negotiations with police and military over the past two weeks regarding the bans on the sessions relating to events of 1965, along with Ketut, (Janet the Director's husband), while Janet was away at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Maritsa, who was with me, could not believe she was having access to the horse's mouth! The police wanted to ban all the films being shown as part of the festival too, saying the festival only had a licence to discuss books. They have since watched every one of them and cancelled one other film on top of Oppenheimer's "Look of Silence". Jun has been fronting the media and setting up interviews - had just come from one with CNN. The news is certainly out there across the world and to some degree across Indonesia, but mainly in the English language press.
It has been a frantic time for the committee - they issued a list of cancellations and changes on their website yesterday! Lots of speakers / writers are no longer coming in protest - or in fear of consequences because of their 1965 connections. The memoir book launch of a NZ woman, Jan Mantjika, who married here back in the 60s has also been cancelled because its title is Bali 1964-2009 (hence it also covers the year 1965!) And another big blow - the session on "Tolak Reklamasi" has also been banned. Nothing to do with 1965 - it is the local protest movement against the reclamation of a huge area of mangrove swamps in Benoa Bay down south to build a vast new tourist hotel complex. An environmental disaster if it goes ahead. Another case of censorship and the authorities wielding power to protected vested interests, in this case the developers. There has never been a grassroots environmental protest movement on this scale before in Bali and the young people of Bali are desperate to save Bali from more harmful, development.
Maritsa and I continued our day with a visit to Neka Gallery followed by lunch at Kamasan (I never seem to eat anywhere else!) where we bumped into newly arrived friends from Sydney, Deirdre and Gwynedd. Gwynedd happens to be the mother of Josh's great mate from school and uni days, Frank, so when I alerted Josh that she was in Bali he came down to see her and catch up on Frank's news.
In the evening Threads of Life had an opening of a special textile exhibition, so I took Maritsa up to that too. A charming talk upstairs in the rooftop cafe by Jean and William the owners, on the meaning behind the exhibition’s title "Vessels of Becoming" in regard to their exquisite textiles from across the archipelago. William has a session on the main program this year talking about the stories in cloth.
Big names at the festival (some known only to the Australian readers among you) are Nam Le, Drusilla Modjeska, Chigozie Obiome (Nigerian - The Fisherman - was a Booker nomination), Desmond Tutu's daughter Mpho, Michael Chabon, Tony and Maureen Wheeler of the Lonely Planet - and a larger than ever number of Indonesian and other Southeast Asian writers.
Domestic life continues to all this backdrop starting with Jasmin and the school drop. I took yesterday off and resumed swimming with Josh, but I did have my regular dinner date with Diana Darling at Pulau Kelapa / Kamasan. Deirdre and Gwynedd turned up once again by chance and joined us. So a jolly evening of good conversation, beer, kretek and excellent Javanese food!
Jasmin has rescued a dying chicken some teacher had in a box at school and was about to dispose of. She is hoping to bring it back to life. I dread going over to the main house in a minute to find it has died overnight. She still mourns the loss of her bantam, Angie, taken by a dog last time I was here.
You probably won’t be hearing much from me for a bit once the frenzied pace of the festival takes over my life. A blessed rest from reading these jottings, do I hear some of you say?