Past Awardees

Primary Awardee

Bronte Halden

Bronte is a Grade 6 student at East Manjimup Primary School. She lives in Western Australia with her parents, two sisters and a dog. Her hobbies include soccer, skipping, reading and doing triathlons.

Bronte loves going to school and she has been studying Indonesian since Grade 3. Her favourite subjects are maths, sport and Indonesian. She has loved taking part in the NAILA Awards for the past three years. Submitting to NAILA 2019 has provided her with so many different opportunities to extend her language and performance skills. Her favourite part of this year’s NAILA competition was learning of all the different ways her school helps the environment.

When Bronte grows up, she wants to start her own conservation program and live in Indonesia for a while to continue her Indonesian language learning and to help save native animals.

Monash University Middle Awardee

Sophie Wherrett

Sophie is in Grade 7 and loves reading books, cooking, art and maths. She has lived most of her life in Tasmania but when she was seven, her family moved to Indonesia and she has been going back and forth ever since. She loves the warm weather in Indonesia and thinks the people are very friendly. Her favourite Indonesian foods are sate, mie goreng and bakpao. Sophie is thinking she might like to become an architect or teacher, and perhaps Indonesian will be useful in the future.

Sophie is very grateful for the experience of competing in NAILA which has encouraged her to take her language skills to the next level – thanks NAILA!

The University of Melbourne Asia Institute Senior Awardee

Samirah Yip

Samirah has recently graduated from Monte Sant Angelo College, North Sydney. After previously studying Japanese and French in primary school, she chose to study Indonesian as a language elective in Grade 7. For the past six years she has thoroughly enjoyed studying Indonesian, not only deepening her understanding of traditional Indonesian culture but also developing new friendships.

She chose to study Indonesian because she was fascinated by the traditional Indonesian ceremonies, traditions and performances such as Wayang Kulit, and developed an interest in learning about the unique historic heritage of Indonesia. Indonesian was her favourite subject whilst studying at school, and she hopes to sustain these skills in the future for potential job opportunities or leisurely holidays to Indonesia.

Samirah has previously visited Indonesia with her family several times, and hopes to travel to Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surabaya with her classmates in the near future to sustain her passion for and skill in the Indonesian language.

Tertiary Awardee

Callum Lowe

Callum is in his third year of study at the Australian National University where he is an undergraduate researcher at the Research School of Population Health. He works on projects with the Department of Global Health, with a particular focus on the epidemiology of disease in the Asia-Pacific region, and is currently doing a project on sanitation in rural Central Java.

He has studied Indonesian for about two full years now but actually never intended on studying Indonesian. When he moved to ANU he wanted to study a language having just returned from a teaching trip in Vanuatu where he learnt a language called Bislama. Indonesian was the only language that fitted into his timetable so he chose it without much thought, and in his first class he felt extremely out of place as he was the only one who didn’t know a thing about Indonesia. But now, a few years later, it has become a big part of his work and his goals!

Executive Awardee

Anastasia Pavlovic

Anastasia’s love for Indonesia stems back to her first visit to Jakarta back in 2001, falling in love with the becak, warung and satay. Upon entering university, she sought to reconnect with her cultural heritage by taking an Indonesian class. Four years later, she graduated with a BA majoring in Indonesian studies and sociology from the University of Sydney. During this time, she took part in a university exchange program to Universitas Gajah Madah, Yogyakarta with ACICIS in 2016. She also spent three months interning in the public relations department at Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Yogyakarta (DPRD DIY) and volunteered as a Web & Video Officer for AIYA National.

She is particularly passionate about how the power of youth & women can change the world – which can only occur with a shared language & understanding of one another. Anastasia currently resides in Singapore where she consults with Australian small businesses on their social media marketing strategy.

Educators Awardee

Jane Ahlstrand

Jane Ahlstrand is a lecturer in Indonesian at the University of New England in the regional city of Armidale. After completing her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2018, Jane moved to Armidale, and began her first academic appointment at UNE. She primarily teaches online, and while her students come from a range of backgrounds, they are united by a keen interest in Indonesia and its language. Aside from language teaching, Jane is an advocate for engagement with Indonesia through the arts. She teaches Balinese dance, and is currently hosting an artist in residence at UNE who is teaching gamelan to the community, and assisting in the digital documentation of the university’s gamelan collection.

Deakin University Wild Card Awardee

Nita Novianti

Nita Novianti is a lecturer at the English Department of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), Bandung. She is currently doing her PhD at the University of Tasmania. Also a mother to two beautiful children, Nita has always loved literature. She has published a couple of short stories and three novels. Apart from teaching English literature, she has also been teaching BIPA (Indonesian to Other Speakers of Languages) since 2008 and published as well as edited books on BIPA.

The NAILA competition has given her an avenue to channel her love for poetry and to put her translating skills to a real test. Her self-confessed brazenness to translate and recite a famous Australian poem by Dorothy Mackellar, titled “My Country”, has taken her to earn the “Wild Card” Award. Her very supportive husband and children have really helped her in applying for the Awards.

People's Choice (Group) Awardee

Kenez and Blake

The winners of the NAILA 2019 People’s Choice (Group) Award are Kenez and Blake from South Australia.

Primary

Blake Johnson

Blake is a Year 4 student at Aveley Primary School in Western Australia. He has always lived in Aveley, which is near the Swan Valley region. 

Blake’s favourite subjects at school are Sport, History, Drama, English and Bahasa Indonesia. The main reason he enjoys learning Indonesian is because he enjoys learning about the culture, food and language. His Indonesian teacher is Ibu Yang, who has been teaching him Indonesian since Year 1. 

When he finishes schooling, Blake would like to compete in the Olympics in athletic running events. He is currently involved in football (AFL), cricket and little athletics on the weekends. 

Junior

Kayla Burnett

Kayla is a Year 8 student at Emmaus Christian College in Adelaide. She has been learning Indonesian since Primary School and has found that competing in NAILA has improved her Indonesian. Partaking in NAILA was enjoyable and challenging for Kayla, with the opportunity to apply and share her interests to a wider community. She has traveled to Indonesia numerous times to visit relatives and wants to continue improving her Indonesian to communicate with them fluently. Kayla loves to discover more about her Indonesian cultural background and hopes to look further into it in the future.

Besides loving the Indonesian culture, Kayla loves the arts. Craft making, drawing, painting, and sewing are all some of Kayla’s main interests. Her main passion is sewing and she hopes to apply it in future job opportunities.

Middle

Sreeya Das

Sreeya is a 14-year-old student studying the LEAP Program at Lyneham High School in Canberra. She has been studying Indonesian for almost eight years, with her interest and love for the language growing each year. She speaks four languages: Oriya, Hindi, English and Indonesian. Sreeya continues to strive to improve her language skills. 

Sreeya appreciates the opportunity to participate in NAILA as it has allowed her to extend her vocabulary, improve grammar, and enhance Indonesian fluency. This chance to learn has only furthered her love for Indonesia’s culture and language. 

She also enjoys Science (especially Chemistry), Mathematics, and Art, and would like to pursue Medicine in the future. She has a love for fitness and maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle. 

The University of Melbourne Asia Institute Senior Awardee

Rya Hwight

Rya Hwight is a Year 11 student attending Iona Presentation College in Perth, Western Australia. After learning Italian since Kindergarten, Rya chose to take Indonesian as an elective subject when it was offered at school while she was in Year 8. Since then she has found the last four years of studying Indonesian to be very rewarding and advantageous.

During the July school holidays in 2018, Rya had the opportunity to visit the island of Java on a school tour, spending time in Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Malang. As her first visit to Indonesia, she thoroughly enjoyed the time spent there and found the experience to be invaluable and beneficial in further developing her language skills and learning about the country and its people.

Living south of Perth and along the beautiful coastline, Rya enjoys taking her dogs to the beach during summer or spending time outside playing sports. Her other interests include swimming, playing piano and art. After completing her High-School education, Rya is still undecided about her career path but is interested in exploring the world and visiting new countries.

The Australia-Indonesia Centre Tertiary Awardee

Ellen House

Ellen House is a third-year student at the University of Sydney studying her Bachelor’s degree in Arts (Languages). She commenced her studies of Indonesian in Year 7 and continued to study the language through to the HSC. Ellen’s love of the language and diverse culture of Indonesia inspired her to major in Indonesian Studies at university. Earlier this year she undertook a semester of study in Yogyakarta through the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICS). Ellen is passionate about the study of language and culture as a vehicle to better understanding the way of life of different peoples around the world.

Executive

Bryanna Wilson

Bryanna’s passion for the Indonesian archipelago began in 2006 when she started studying Indonesian language at Ferny Grove State High School and has accelerated ever since. She took part in a university student exchange program to Yogyakarta in 2015 with the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS). In Yogyakarta she immersed herself in the language and the student lifestyle and got the opportunity to travel around Indonesia. In 2017 she completed an Australian Volunteers International (AVI) assignment working as an editor/translator for the SMERU Research Institute in Jakarta. SMERU produces research into poverty and development throughout Indonesia. Since completing her assignment with SMERU, Bryanna has been living in Jakarta with her husband and child and is currently doing freelance editing and translating alongside the extremely rewarding job of being Mum to her daughter, Kirana. She has recently launched a new business and website at www.aksaraenglish.com and is certain that her relationship with Indonesia will continue well into the future.

Wild Card

Iven Manning

Iven is a student of Indonesian and Linguistics at the University of Western Australia who has  recently returned from 18 months living and studying in Indonesia as part of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship. Throughout this fantastic stint, Iven soaked up as much Indonesian and Javanese language as he could, along with copious amounts of oil, sugar, motorbike fumes and secondhand kretek smoke. Iven has loved studying Indonesian and Javanese over the past three years, but it is what he’s learnt, gained and experienced as a result of knowing those languages which he considers to be of even higher value. Language is a bridge upon which people from different worlds come together and such exchanges have brought him happiness and wisdom – things which Indonesia has in abundance. He’ll always be grateful that it shared a little bit of each with him.

For Iven, it was hard not to feel a touch dismayed as he watched his language skills erode when he returned home to Australia. He is appreciative of the chance to maintain them through the NAILA awards, and thankful to be flown over to be a part of things this weekend. Makasih banyak NAILA!

Deakin University Teacher Awardee

Tom McKenzie

Tom currently teaches Indonesian across Years 5 – 10 at Christian College Geelong, bringing his enthusiasm and passion for the Indonesian language and culture to a varied student base. Through his teaching, he aims to instil this same sense of love for Indonesia in his students. One of Tom’s biggest goals in Indonesian education is to combat the rapid decline of students studying the language through to VCE. With a change in teaching methodology, moving towards a more relaxed, fun, and interactive classroom, Tom has seen a large increase in students continuing their study in non-compulsory years.

Outside of the classroom, Tom has a keen interest the in bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia, bringing his teaching expertise to the AIYEP group of 2015 – 16, as well as various other programs and initiatives. After achieving his goals in teaching, Tom plans to extend his passion for Indonesia into other areas, further promoting the language and country to the broader community.’

Native Speaker

Andrian Liem

Andrian was born and raised in Lampung. Now he is completing his PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ) under the supervision of Peter Newcombe and Annie Pohlman, with a scholarship from the Indonesian Government (LPDP RI). He joins in Pojok Bahasa at UQ and Balai Bahasa dan Budaya Indonesia Queensland to promote Indonesian language and cultures. He has also been interested in knowing more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples and cultures because history shows that the friendship between Indonesian and First Nation peoples was established long before European colonisation.

People's Choice (Group) Awardee

Team ACI (Aku Cinta Indonesia)

‘Team Aku Cinta Indonesia’ are a brother and sister duo who are 9 and 12 years of age.  They have been living in Indonesia on and off since 2014 but prior to that they didn’t speak a word of Indonesian.

Learning Indonesian actually hasn’t been easy for them so entering the NAILA competition was the perfect motivation to improve their skills. They practiced over and over until they could remember the words without too many mistakes.

Just like in the video they love animals, Indonesian food and sightseeing.  Adik really does want to become a vet and his big sister has just asked to start learning Javanese.  Who knows she might even end up using her language skills for a job in the future!

They want to thank NAILA for this great opportunity to improve their skills and showcase the richness of Indonesia to their friends and family.