A guest post by Jade Ella Trapp. Jade is a naturopath and midwife living sometimes in the NSW town of Lismore and other times in Central Java.  She developed an interest in jamu when she first moved to Java as a student in 2000. A late afternoon stroll through the heavily concreted inner-city suburb of […]

This is a book for travelers and observers of the world, especially people who are drawn to the challenges and contradictions of cities. Cities included are Hong Kong, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris and San Francisco, but author Kirsten Seale begins in Sydney, at the markets with which she is most familiar. The messy, kitsch, and undeniably atmospheric Paddy’s Market offers a great starting point to pose the deceptively simple question ‘What is a market?’

I am writing from Banjarmasin, in South Kalimantan, one of the four Indonesian provinces on the island of Borneo. Banjarmasin, ‘the city of a thousand rivers’, is an urban edge in itself, settled on a delta island near the junction of the Barito and Martapura rivers. Banjar language is a result of the fusion of […]

Last week I visited Katoomba to see The Visitors exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. This is new work for Heidi and Hugo, following on from their focus on housing in Owner Occupy commissioned by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. It extends their thinking about inhabitation into the plant world, considering how humans can work for plants. […]

Cities in Java have many obstacles to walking. Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, is no exception: Footpaths are difficult to find, non-existent, or in disrepair. Traffic is ruthless. Maps are inaccurate. The weather is oppressively hot. Despite this situation, jalan-jalan (walking without a specified aim) is still the best way to explore the city and […]

Jakarta can feel oppressive for residents and visitors. If you’ve heard stories about the traffic, the reality is much worse. As in any city though, there are many people doing good things. Journalists Fergus Jensen and Rebecca Henshcke have been living in Jakarta for around 15 years. For the last nine of those they have […]