BBIP Board 2019

2019


LEON WALKER Board member
Leon’s interest in Indonesia goes back about thirty years, both for business and pleasure. He has visited Indonesia more than 50 times. For a time he was importing Indonesian goods for wholesale and retail in Perth.
He studied Indonesian at Central TAFE and later graduated from Curtin University with a degree in Indonesian.
Leon operates a small contracting business in the building industry and is interested in local government. He remains interested in establishing business ties with Indonesia.
About 3 hours away from Perth we have Indonesia with a population of about 270 million. There are issues between Australia and Indonesia; issues can only be resolved in communication. Communication requires language. Leon believes it is arrogant to suggest that only English should be used in communications with Indonesia at various levels. Hence the study of Bahasa Indonesia is important.
Leon has joined the Board of BBIP to make a difference, to make a contribution and to give something back.


DENICE WEAVER Webmaster
Denice began to learn the Indonesian Language at high school in the 70’s and has more recently been trying to advance her skills in the language. Since moving back to Perth together with her family she has begun to travel to a few places in Indonesia. She loves the food and culture and especially the beautiful people.
Denice is an I.T .Lecturer at TAFE and an ordained Christian minister. Denice and her husband have friends and ministry contacts in Bali (and other parts of Indonesia) where they are involved with their local communities. With her husband she hopes to spend more time over in Indonesia in the future, supporting the various communities.
Denice feels that it is so very important to ensure that the Indonesian language is offered in schools and educational organizations across Australia to facilitate cross cultural relations with our neighbours.


FIONA BETTESWORTH Vice-Chair
Since being exposed to the real Indonesia during high school, Fiona has had a strong interest in the Australia- Indonesia relationship. She has spent a considerable amount of time living, studying and travelling in Indonesia, including throughout Java, in Sulawesi and in Lombok.
Fiona first learnt Indonesian in senior school at high school and is currently working on developing her small business Real Indonesia, which aims to connect Australians to authentic travel experiences in Indonesia that support local economic development.
Fiona has been in the role of Vice Chairperson BBIP for two years.


SUE COOPER Secretary and Membership Secretary r
Sue taught Indonesian language at secondary school for 18 years, before retiring from teaching at the end of 2018. She started her teaching career as an Italian teacher but quickly found that Indonesian was a more relevant language for Australians to learn, and more enjoyable to teach. Sue gained her Indonesian language skills through TAFE, in-country study, teaching to Year 12 level, and through setting up student exchange programs in Bali and East Java.
She is passionate about the importance of improving the Australia-Indonesia relationship through people-to-people contact and the study of Indonesian. Time and again she has witnessed how these can change students’ lives, and is proud of her several ex-students who have gone on to study Indonesian at university and participate in ACICIS in-country study.
As President of WILTA for 7 years, Sue was involved in the support of Indonesian teachers throughout WA via the provision of professional learning and networking events and exchange opportunities. She was present at the establishment of BBIP in 2009, fulfilled the role of secretary on the BBIP Board for a year, and liaised with BBIP to help organize an Australian teacher group trip to Bali for language classes and the ASILE Conference in 2014. In retirement, Sue is keen to join BBIP again and help to promote Indonesian language and culture in Western Australia.


JAYNE BROWN Board member
Jayne first became interested in the Indonesian language in the late 1990s after learning it at TAFE. Jayne graduated in 2018 from Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Arts in Indonesia Language and Asian Studies. She is very passionate about encouraging people to learn a second language and with Indonesian our very close neighbour and such an easy language to learn, she is very interested in promoting the Indonesian language.
Jayne has travelled extensively throughout Java and Bali over the last 20 years, falling in love with the food and the culture and way of life. She especially enjoyed living in both Jakarta and Yogyakarta while participating in two ACICIS programs.
Jayne enjoys being part of the team that is the BBIP Board which brings projects together to nurture the relationships between Australians and Indonesians.


JEREMY SNYDER WILTA Representative
Like many Australians, Jeremy grew up in a monolingual and monocultural bubble. When he was 24 years old, he visited Indonesia for the first time, got married, started a young family and fell in love with the language and culture. This transformed his life.
Currently, Jeremy works as an Indonesian teacher at Canning Vale College. He's the Past President of the Westralian Indonesian Language Teachers Association (WILTA) and continues to serve on the Committee.
He runs a YouTube Channel, Dua Budaya, focussed on Indonesian language and culture, has designed a board game (Monumental Indonesia) and has Indonesian and Australian cultures intertwined in his life and his identity. Jeremy's purpose now is to continue to challenge the monolingual and monocultural mindset of many Australians through positive action highlighting the diversity of Indonesian and Australian cultures.


VICKI RICHARDSON Board member
Vicki Richardson has been a member of the BBIP Board for the past 3 years. She has been passionate about Indonesia and Indonesians since her first visit over 35 years ago.
Vicki taught Bahasa Indonesia for 18 years until retirement 2 years ago. During her teaching career her holidays were primarily in Indonesia travelling through various islands lapping up the culture and making new friendships.
Vicki currently lives between Surabaya, East Java – our sister state - and Western Australia. During her time in Indonesia she volunteers for the East Java Education Department and assists English teachers in the classroom.
Vicki promotes the sister state relationship and BBIP in Indonesia and assists BBIP in any manner that she can whilst she is away from WA; for example. organising the Surabaya end of the live stream of the Michael J School Concert in 2018.


MOYA MCLAUCHLAN Webmaster and Course coordinator
Moya is a retired teacher of Indonesian and a language teacher educator who just can't give up her connections to teaching and Indonesia.
BBIP helps Moya to stay involved with dynamic people committed to improving mutual understandings between Australians and Indonesians.
Moya has been a member of the BBIP Board for four years, during which time she has managed all
Indonesian language classes and has gradually been lured into the web manager role. She enjoys meeting BBIP's members, students, teachers, assistants and ambassadors and tackling the challenges of learning new IT skills (not always, but frequently enough to keep her hooked).


ROBBIE GASPAR Board member
Robbie Gaspar is a former professional footballer and father of 2 who spent close to 8 years playing professionally in Indonesia. Robbie is now studying a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting and Indonesian at Murdoch University.
Robbie is the Professional Footballers’ Australia Player Development Manager for Perth Glory, and a consultant to FIFPro Asia. Robbie previously sat on the committee of the Western Australian branch of the Australia-Indonesia Business Council (AIBC) for 4 years.
Robbie is extremely passionate about Indonesia- Australia relations and using sport and language as a means to further improve the relations. He continues to go into schools regularly and encourage students to continue or take up the learning Indonesian.
When the opportunity arose to nominate for a position on the board of the BBIP, he jumped at the chance to do so and would love the opportunity to be a part of the BBIP.


OMAR HARRIS
Representative of the Consul-general of Indonesia in Perth
Bahasa Indonesia has been taught in Australia for a long time. With its ups and downs, the language remains one of the foreign languages at schools across Australia. As a representative of the Consulate, it is my job to ensure the promotion of Indonesian language and culture. Apart from being a job, promotion of language and culture has also been one of my interests. I see the importance of BBIP in helping the Consulate reach its mission. BBIP came as the leading course provider and has been teaching classes at the Consulate.
I am happy with the fact that our countries are- geographically speaking- close and WA contributes most
in terms of tourist numbers from Australia to Indonesia. Moreover, lots of potentials can be explored to strengthen the already strong relations between the countries. I think BBIP can be one of the vehicles in introducing Indonesia and to maintain/increase the interest of those who are already familiar with Indonesia. I hope the Consulate General can support BBIP in as many ways as possible.


CHRISTOPHER JORDAN-WRIGHT BOARD MEMBER
Christopher learned some Indonesian at school but a family trip through Java and Bali was a life changing experience for him. He continued his Indonesian studies in the Navy and by travelling to Java twice a year to immerse himself in the language and culture.
In 1994 he gained a Teaching English as a Second or Foreign language and volunteered to teach English in Bandung for part of the year for nine years. He found the experience amazing as he lived in a boarding house and was immersed in the lifestyle and culture. Sharing our cultures, traditions and way of life was a thrill. Every day brought new questions, experiences and friendships. 25 years down the track he is still in contact with former students and teachers.
Eleven years ago, Christopher joined the BBIP team. He has undertaken board roles of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Membership and General Board member. He thoroughly enjoyed working on BBIP Projects including, the Perth Indonesian Film Festival, Indonesian Study Tours, Teachers Assistant Program, Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program, and other BBIP initiated functions and festivals, meeting the most amazing people, movie stars, singers, politicians, and Indonesian celebrities and making some life time friends along the way.


Jenny Hammington Board member
Jenny spent her first five years of life living in South East Asia and when visiting Indonesia for the first time as an adult a few years back had a feeling of being "home". This lead to an interest in Indonesia and a love for travelling to the region.
Jenny has studied Indonesian language as part of her completed Community Development degree and also as part of the International Aid and Development degree that she is currently studying. Jenny uses her travels to Indonesia and her conversations with friends living in Bali to continue to develop her language skills which she describes as a "slow progression".
Jenny has a strong interest in community led tourism and development and aspires to use community led tourism at both ends of the 3 hour flight to develop connections between Indonesia and Western Australia.
Jenny has joined the BBIP board in the hopes that she can be more involved in Indonesia related projects and events and hopefully use her background to bring value to the work that they are currently doing and aspire to do in the future.


Bruno Palva Treasurer
After wanting to pursue a new hobby and meet like-minded people, Bruno joined Balai Bahasa in February 2019 as a beginner. Thinking and hoping his accounting skills and enthusiasm for his new pastime could be of some benefit, he became Treasurer of Balai Bahasa soon after joining.
Bruno has a Masters degree in Accounting from the University of Western Australia and is currently in the process of becoming a Registered Tax Agent. He was a political analyst in a past life and was even published in the Jakarta Post back in 2011...Some things were just meant to be!
Aside from learning Bahasa Indonesia, Bruno enjoys dining out, spending time with his fiancee, watching UFC and travelling (the only part of Indonesia he has seen so far is Bali, but he is aching to see other areas and testing his Bahasa Indonesia!)


KAREN BAILEY CHAIR
Karen taught Indonesian to students in Western Australian schools for over twenty years. A former President of WILTA from 1996-2006, she has been involved in many projects which have enhanced professional development opportunities for teachers of Indonesian and created closer links with teachers and organisations in Australia and Indonesia.
Karen has always believed strongly in the place of in-country learning in improving student outcomes in second language learning and organised her first school-based study tours for her students to Yogyakarta in 1997. She has since also led several in-country study tours for teachers of Indonesian and school leaders.
After retiring as WILTA President in 2006 Karen became founder of the Balai Bahasa Indonesia Perth (Inc), established in 2008 in cooperation with WILTA, the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra and the Consulate General of Indonesia in WA.
During 2009, Karen was awarded an Endeavour Executive Award from the Australian Federal Government and undertook work experience at the Pusat Bahasa (now called Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa), the institution in Jakarta responsible for designing and regulating the growth of the Indonesian language in Indonesia. This experience consolidated Karen’s interest in the teaching and learning of Indonesian in Australia and Indonesia.
In June 2013 Karen was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours list for service to education, particularly through the promotion of Indonesian language and culture.
Karen retired from the Department of Education in 2015 after 35 years teaching and now consults in the area of Indonesian language education and devotes much of her time to Balai Bahasa Indonesia Perth.


Let me introduce you to the BBIP Board.
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INVITATION
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