In an opportunity to demonstrate building bridges of friendship and trust across our diversity, an exchange visit from IofC Indonesia was organised in May-June this year. A group of five Indonesians, professionally-trained from various backgrounds and who have been working with IofC Indonesia as agents of change and peacebuilders, were selected for the visit.
The group arrived in time for the LM workshop in Queensland and were active participants at the course sharing their practical experiences with the rest of the participants.
In Sydney the group met up with IofC Sydney members.
In Melbourne the women in the group attended a Creators of Peace Circle facilitator training and refresher session at Armagh. IofC Indonesia has an energetic outreach around Indonesia and now plan to use CoP Circles in various sectors and also plan to translate the manual into Bahasa.
“I have a great appreciation for the understanding of the ‘why’ of Peace Circles…we will see needs being met as we start working in our communities.” – Participant
The IofCA trustbuilding team briefed the team on their current work in building trust with First Peoples.
On June 8 the group contributed to a presentation and discussion on grassroots peacebuilding initiatives in Indonesia and Australia held at Armagh.
The speakers included Prof. Greg Barton from Deakin University and Siti Nurwati Hodijah from the National Commission on Violence against Women in Indonesia.
At the end of the afternoon the Australian-Indonesian collective was launched as an informal partnership between IofC Australia and IofC-Indonesia.
While in Melbourne the group participated in an an exchange of knowledge about working with inter-generational trauma; they visited Conciliation-Resources (www.c-r.org) a peace-building NGO working in the Asia Pacific region and Benevolence Australia (benevolenceaustralia.org) a service-orientated Muslim community organisation. On 16 June Eid was celebrated at Armagh with an array of traditional dishes. Most importantly, interpersonal connections were forged and strengthened by the Indonesians and their Australian hosts which are the foundations for future collaborations.
The Indonesian visitors celebrating Eid at Armagh – June 2024