Inside Indonesia
Dancing for diversity
Written by MONIKA WINARNITA
Sisters Mira and Yana were born in Australia to an Indonesian mother and Australian father of Irish descent and identify as ‘half-half’: they feel both Australian and Indonesian and equally at home in both places. While their childhood was spent in Australia, their mother Ningsih ensured they embraced Indonesian culture. Amongst the Indonesian diaspora, Ningsih is regarded as having successfully raised culturally literate Eurasian daughters. As Yana explains, being part of her mother’s dance school has enabled the sisters to feel continually immersed in Indonesian culture.
The dance group’s approximately 30 members are like a ‘big family’ for Mira and Yana, an Australian version of the cousin-like relationships typically associated with an Indonesian extended family. Indeed, the group contains three sets of sisters who are ‘half-half’ (Indonesian and Anglo-Australian mixed background) or Eurasian, as well as their Indonesian mothers and some Australian-born friends.