Sugar Nutmeg

Most people from Nusantara know the competition between Indonesia and Malaysia, but how many know how this competition even came to be? Maryam Lee breaks it down for us in this episode! With her wisdom, she unpacks the complexities of ethnicity and religion in Malaysian national identity, how political structures today are inherited from colonial ways, and the many layers of liberalism. Plus, we t...

Abdul Samad Haidari is a Hazara-Afghan journalist turned refugee poet, currently in Indonesia waiting for resettlement. Besides volunteering as a humanitarian-aid worker and teacher, Abdul is the author of the poetry collection “The Red Ribbon,” which is the 3rd best-selling book in Indonesia. Abdul talks to us about his background, his family, his book, his activities with the refugee community a...

In this special bilingual episode, Ruth Ogetay gets candid about the history of West Papua, the current plight of Papuans and other ethnic minorities in Indonesia, multilateral relations with other countries, as well as how and why a series of events involving transnational corporate deals led to the current situation concerning West Papua. Originally from Paniai, Ruth Ogetay attended university i...

Eugenio "Ego" Lemos talks to us about permaculture practices, legacies of occupation, reconciliation and resilience, the dilemma of post-conflict countries, common problems with aid and charity, Indonesian influence versus Australian presence in Timor, East Timor then versus West Papua now, ricenization as a form of cultural destruction, and how sociopolitical events at large affect personal lives...

Silong Chuun talks to us about how distance brings clarity and awareness, reclaiming narratives through his clothing brand "Red Scarf Revolution", creative ways to spark conversations and recontextualize history, parallels between the communist regime in Cambodia then and the capitalist administration in the US today, memoranda of understanding for Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese refugees, colonial...

Burmese photographer Yu Yu Myint Than talks to us about education before the Saffron Revolution, Burmanization, the conflict in Shan state, dynamics between ethnic minorities, between the camera and the captured, how artists in Myanmar deal with censorship, the ethical dilemmas she faced as a documentary photographer, transnational collaborations, and how the personal is political.  Yu Yu Myi...