Ubud Writers & Readers Festival – My thoughts, insights & musings

I must acknowledge first up just how privileged I am to be able to attend the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and learn from authors and activists from all around the world. It was an awesome experience and has left an indelible mark on both my heart as well as my noggin.

Please read this blog in the spirit it was shared; with love, compassion, and a desire to learn. I wish to state that in no way am I wanting to impose myself on others with my writing, but I feel a deep desire to share my thoughts and inspirations with whoever may be reading this, and I am very grateful that you are, I warmheartedly wish you all the very best.

My aim is to improve myself and strive to be better each day. Writing is one way I am trying to meet this aim and it is one way I can contribute towards my wish to live in a society that sustainably exists within our planetary limits and that has a loving heart at its core. Hopefully my writing will go some way to showing why this is important and how we can achieve this.

I hope this blog inspires some reflection and hope and might even encourage you to consider attending next year’s Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

The Lead Up

We arrived in Ubud on Monday, just in time for a late lunch, so our first port of call after checking in was Taco Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant only a two-minute walk from our lodgings for the week, the Ladera Villa on Jl Bisma. We stayed there last year and loved it so thought it would be great to stay there again, and it was.

Our last meal in Ubud last year was at Taco Fiesta, we enjoyed it so much that we thought it only fitting that we share our first meal there this time around. And they didn’t disappoint, the food was sensational. Probably sounds weird that the first thing we did was eat Mexican food in Ubud, but don’t worry, I ate Nasi Goreng nearly every day so got more than my fair share of Indonesian cuisine during our stay. I must also confess we also enjoyed the local dessert, Dadar Gulung on several occasions during this trip. Dadar Gulung is pandan-flavoured thin pancakes filled with sweetened shredded coconut and they are a delight. Anyway, enough about my stomach …

Later that afternoon I decided to do a reconnaissance walk to Taman Baca and Indus Restaurant the venues for the main program of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. Timewise it was a great walk, only took me about 20 minutes, easy, however the heat and humidity is not what I am used to, especially coming out of winter, so by the time I arrived my skin had turned into taps, and I was dripping in sweat. Lesson learned.

Note to self … take advantage of the free shuttle bus when attending the festival later this week!

Being in a lather of sweat was a constant for me for the next week. But it didn’t stop me taking plenty of walks, the highlight being my walk along the Campuhan Ridge walk on Tuesday morning. As my body was still on South Australian time, which is 2 ½ hours ahead of Bali, I was up at stupid o’clock but it’s also the best time to get out and about as it’s not so hot. As fate would have it during the walk I stopped to watch the sunrise at the same time as some other random fella, so we shared the moment, had a quick chat, wished each other all the best and went our respective ways. I love those random interactions that occur from time to time, they are priceless.

Later that morning we visited the Gunung Kawi Temple which is just north-east of Ubud. It was built in the 11^th century and comprises 10 rock-cut shrines (called candi) that are carved into 7-metre-high sheltered niches carved into the face of a rock cliff. We got there early, to avoid the heat, but to get down to the temple you must take a 371-step descent. We managed it OK but were hot and sweaty by the time we got back up. It was a fascinating place, and I can’t help but marvel at the energy, time and skill it took to create this temple. It is awe inspiring. We have now visited several temples in Bali, and they have all been moving experiences.

Apart from wandering around Ubud, this was our only real planned activity in the lead up to attending the festival, which gave me plenty of time to read. I read two books during our stay in Bali, ‘Radical Love’ by Satish Kumar and ‘Right Story, Wrong Story” by Tyson Yunkaporta. I had heard Satish being interviewed about his book back in June this year by Wendy Shinyo Haylett on her podcast, Everyday Buddhism, and had to purchase it. Every now and again you come across a book that resonates with your soul, and Radical Love does just that for me. It’s a ripper. As for Tysons book, I thoroughly enjoyed his last book, Sand Talk, so when I saw his new book was to be released in early October, I just had to order it, and it only arrived a few days before we left for this trip. I must fess up at this point and share that I practice what the Japanese call, ‘tsundoku’, the habit of buying books and letting them pile up without reading them. At present that pile stands at well over a dozen books, but with my excitement at the recent arrival of Tyson’s book, it has skipped the queue. Anyway, I digress, but I thought it important to mention both those books as they have influenced some of my reflections and thoughts coming from the festival.

Day 1: Thursday 19^th October 2023

We wandered down to the Puri Lakasan Museum car park, arriving early hoping to get the first shuttle at 8am. We met Jane and Judy who were very friendly, and it was great to catch up with them each day on the shuttle (and sometimes during the day) and compare our festival experiences.

The first session we attended was Behrouz Boochani, talking about his latest book, Freedom, Only Freedom with Kirsti Melville. In this book Behrouz combines his writing with essays from experts on migration, refugee rights, politics and literature providing a challenging account of not only his own traumatic experience but also identifies the wider structures of violence which hold thousands of us in a state of misery in refugee camps across the world.

I found myself trying to imagine what it was like for Behrouz, and all the other refugees, holed up in these prisons for many years and wondering if I could survive the physical and mental abuse. It’s just horrendous what we are doing to these people, all in the name of ‘border security’ and to ‘stop the boats.’ I just can’t fathom the state of mind that thinks treating people in this manner is reasonable. Its inhumane and leaves me feeling an overwhelming sense of shame whenever I reflect on it, which I was moved to do listening to Behrouz. Its gut wrenching listening to his story, and I can only imagine living it.

What I learned from Behrouz is he has experienced Colonialism 101, which in this case seems to be based on rounding up the ‘other’, be it the indigenous or refugee, sending them to some faraway place (like Rottnest Island or Flinders Island for First People of Australia, Manus Island or Nauru for recent refugees), and treating them appallingly.

Given his experience of feeling the brunt of our inhumane refugee policies and practices and bearing witness to the suffering and degradation inflicted on him and his fellow refugees, I believe Behrouz is a person who needs to be heard, especially in mainstream Australia. I am in awe of his resilience and tenacity in the face of such hardship.

So that was the first session of the festival, filling me with inspiration and awe at the human spirit and our ability to overcome all odds but also filling me with the repulsive feeling of shame and guilt for being complicit in our inhumanity for putting people in these situations in the first place. It was an emotional rollercoaster no doubt, but what an introduction to Ubud, if that is any indication, I think I am going to enjoy the next four days.

Just as a postscript, I have since purchased Freedom, Only Freedom, although hopefully it doesn’t stay as long in my tsundoku pile of ‘to be read’ books as his first book, No Friend But the Mountains which has been in that pile for a couple of years now and is yet to be read … hmmm, I guess I should probably read that one first …

Anyway, back to Ubud. The next session on our agenda was ‘Decolonisation in Writing Practice: Paving the Path to Equality’. A few speakers were absent so this session became a conversation between Tanaïs and moderator Eva Fernandes. Tanais is a fiction writer and perfumer and released her memoir, In Sensorium, in 2022 and Eva is a writer, poet, and artist.

Eva opened proceedings with a poem which was awesome and the conversation and energy between Tanais and Eva was captivating and a perfect blend of the serious and the funny. I was taken by a term coined by Tanais, patramyth, meaning the erasure, lies and violence of the dominant culture. According to Tanias, “We are in an ongoing battle against the patramyth. We are reckoning with the pain of living in a world that constantly deems your life as unworthy is an inheritance of patriarchy and colonization, forces we are trying to destroy in this lifetime. Making art, perfume and writing in this powerful, loving and raging femme embodiment are the ways I move towards a new consciousness.”[1]

I have spent some time reflecting on the meaning and impact of the patramyth, especially in the context of my own country and the result of the referendum indicating that the patramyth is very much alive and well for many of my fellow Australian’s. Whilst this is of no great surprise to me it does make me sad.

Tanais has inspired a new context for how I approach my own writing as I will now also ask myself, how is my work confronting the patramyth?

This session also highlighted the importance of reading and literacy as it fosters critical thinking and the ability to ask the right questions.

The first two sessions were at the Alang-Alang stage at Taman Baca, our next session was held at the Indus Restaurant which became my favourite venue for the festival. The backdrop for the restaurant is the breathtaking view of the adjoining river valley and occasionally a cool breeze would come through.

Unfortunately, we were a bit late by the time we arrived at the Indus Restaurant as we had ducked across the road for a quick lunch which ended up taking longer than anticipated. The irony of losing track of time and being late for a session named ‘Unveiling ‘Tri Samaya’: Exploring the Essence of Time’ was not lost on me.

We then wandered down to the Valley Stage at Taman Baca to listen to Yan Lianke talk about his latest book Heart Sutra with Antony Loewenstein. We didn’t quite feel this session as the interview seemed to get lost in translation, the answers didn’t seem to correlate with the questions. Anyway, at least we enjoyed sitting next to the air conditioners in this venue which kept us nice and cool.

Our last session of the main program for the day was back at the Indus Restaurant for ‘Shattering Boundaries Through Writing and Activism’ with Velia Vidal, Galuh Wandita and Eva Fernandes. This was a moving session from these inspirational women.

We had taken a lot in, so it was time to adjourn to the lower level of the Indus Restaurant and enjoy a cocktail while taking in the view and reflecting on the day.

Amy was happy to stay at the bar and enjoy another drink, so while she did that, I wandered up to Dharma Kula for the book launch of Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse by Jem Bendell.

Professor Jem Bendell is known for his research on the breakdown of modern societies caused by environmental change. His ‘Deep Adaptation’ paper is credited with inspiring the growth of the Extinction Rebellion movement in 2018 and creating a global network focused on reducing harm in the face of societal collapse.

As soon as I heard of Jem’s new book, I knew I had to read it and after listening to him talk about it I am certain I will be referencing several of his ideas in my own book. Overall, I agree with Jem’s assertion that we need to change our whole lifestyle and way of life as our current anthropocentricism is leading us to our destruction.

I purchased Jem’s book first thing on Friday from the bookstore at the festival and I look forward to reading it however I expect it to be a sobering read.

Our last event for the day was the Special Event, ‘A Night in the Amazon: Tales of Magic and Wisdom’ held at the Indus Restaurant. This event promised to step us into the enchanting world of the Amazon. The highlight of this event was listening to Helena Gualinga, she was awesome and spoke brilliantly. She is an inspiration and it’s amazing to think she is still only 21. I could have listened to just her story and been happy with the event. However, other presenters Wade Davis and Carlos Castaño-Uribe were also excellent. Wade was extremely interesting, and we subsequently watched his documentary, Sendero de la anaconda on Netflix when we returned home. I highly recommend it. Carlos spoke in Spanish and was interpreted by his wife, which was entertaining as they had a great chemistry.

One of the customs of the indigenous people of the Amazon that I found interesting was that marriage has to be between people of different languages. This meant that tribes were always interconnected and also reduced the likelihood of violence between tribes.

The more I learn about South America and the Amazon the more I would like to travel there, it is a fascinating part of the world.

So that was day one, we ended up getting home at around 9pm, so a long but absorbing day, and a great introduction to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

Day 2: Friday 20^th October 2023

Today is my brother’s birthday so the first thing I did was send him a message to wish him all the best. I also mentioned the heat, so he advised me to keep hydrated. My brother is a bit of a beer connoisseur, so he was referring to drinking beer, but whilst I have enjoyed a Bintang or two, the drink that I have thoroughly enjoyed while in Bali has been a Turmeric Jamu from Honeymoon Guesthouse which is located just across the road from the Ladera Villa. I’ve tried other turmeric drinks but this one is the best so far and I enjoyed it on most days during this trip to Ubud.

Anyway, I digress, it was an early start again today meeting Judy and Ruth for the 8am shuttle again. Originally I had planned a late start for today with the first session I had picked starting at 10.15am. But I was up early and keen to get back into the festival, so I decided to attend the 9am session with Rebecca Makkai talking about her book, I Have Some Questions For You with Veronica Sullivan.

From my experience, be it at Adelaide Writers Festival or Womad, there is always something, an artist or author that wasn’t on your radar but after seeing their performance you become a fan. Two notable examples for me in recent years are Robert Dessaix from Adelaide Writers Week and Spinifex Gum from Womad. My preparation for Ubud was the same as Adelaide Writers or Womad, I study the line up, choose my favourites and generally follow what I’ve picked out but there will always be a change of plan somewhere and its usually these decisions that reveal the unknown gold.

Now the reason I am telling you this is this was the exact thought that crossed my mind halfway through the conversation between Rebecca and Veronica. It was captivating and I was thinking here is that nugget of gold I didn’t realise I would find. To be honest, I only decided to attend this session as it was at the Indus Restaurant, and it meant I could get a good seat for the next session at 10.15am.

Listening in on this conversation was a wonderful way to start Day 2 at the festival and if you wish to be captivated with a dark and multilayered story encompassing murder, racism, sexual abuse, grief, the nature of collective memory, and privilege, then perhaps Rebecca Makkai’s, I Have Some Questions For You is just the book for you.

As it is, I was even more moved by another session later in the festival that wasn’t on my radar, but more about that one when we get to it.

The session I was to start with today was titled ‘Journey to Freedom’, highlighting the story of refugees as one of survival, transformation and triumph, featuring Behrouz Boochani, Edel Rodriguez and Agus Nur Amal (PM Toh) who spoke of their personal experience as refugees. This conversation was moderated by Kirsti Melville.

The opportunity to listen to Behrouz again was the hook for me to attend this session, but I also found the stories of Edel and Agus to be equally enthralling, filling me with both respect and admiration for them as well as shame and despair for the circumstances they had to endure. I particularly enjoyed listening to Edel, and am tempted to purchase his graphic memoir, Worm, which was published on 7^th November. Agus had everyone laughing when he demonstrated his ‘fake TV’ and hats off to the audience member who spontaneously played their role as a TV reporter, they were awesome. There is something healing about laughing and it seems every session I’ve attended so far that has tackled a serious issue has also contained many humorous moments and anecdotes.

With this in mind, the next session I attended was titled ‘First Knowledge’s: Indigenous Law’. This session was moderated by Michael Williams with Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn who co-authored the book, Law – The Way of the Ancestors, and Sugi Lanus, an Indonesian curator at the Lontar Museum in Karangasem, Bali.

Given the result of the referendum it was great of Marcia and Aaron to honour their commitment to present at Ubud. I don’t know either of them personally, but I would have thought being in Ubud this week was a blessing in disguise for them given the result. From my own perspective I have been happy to be away from home as I don’t really want to face the reality of living in such a racist, mean spirited and cold hearted country. If nothing else, we are all now well aware of the power of the patramyth and the body of work still required to confront it.

Having Michael Williams moderate this session was a stroke of genius as he was able to take the initial heavy-hearted atmosphere in the room and guide us into a place of positive thinking and laughter.

This was a very interesting discussion. I enjoyed listening to Sugi explain the traditional Balinese laws and customs around the management of water. Apparently the ‘headman’ at the mouth of the river had the final say on matters which had me thinking about how different the Murray Darling Basin would be managed if the same laws and customs applied in Australia. I think we would have a much healthier river system if this was the case.

I enjoyed Marcia talking about Woman’s Law and explaining that an important part of this was focused on medicinal and herbal practices and she used the example of the Ngangkari, traditional healers of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) lands in the remote western desert of Central Australia. Ngangkari have looked after people’s physical and emotional health for thousands of years. This had me thinking about my mum as had she been born into a different culture on Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) lands, she would have been a Ngangkari given her roles as a leader, nurse, midwife, caregiver, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Mum has always been that person in our family that we turn to in times of crisis or critical health issue and is currently assisting one of my Aunties through palliative care … I love you mum.

Sorry, anyway, the Ngangkari still have a prominent role in their communities although their work is now more focused on emotional health as for injuries such as broken legs or arms you are best to go to the hospital. Which highlights that traditional as well as modern medicine have equally important roles to play in the lives of the people of these communities. This idea is a nice segue to one of the main points of this session as well as a point made in Tyson Yunkaporta’s book, Right Story, Wrong Story, and that is that settler law is incomplete so we should integrate Indigenous Law and current settler legal systems in a framework of legal pluralism. The argument that settler law is incomplete is based on the fact it is possible to commit immoral and unethical acts of destruction that are not illegal.[2]

This was highlighted in Yunkaporta’s book with his yarn with Aunty Mary, “…she asserts that First Law is a ‘full Law’ because it includes all ethical and moral behaviour and takes care of existence and every aspect of a complete human being. She says it is a Law of relationality that you can only learn from the land. The first relation is between land and people, and the second relation is between people and people. The second is contingent on the first.”[3]

It is apparent that First Law is more nuanced and less combative than settler law and as such there is much to be learned from it. One of the points I make in my own book is that it is imperative that we are inclusive and learn from all cultures across the world, especially indigenous ones, and this session has further convinced me of the importance of this.

One other point made during the session that piqued my interest was the similar roles that meditation and silence have in both First People culture as well as the Balinese and Buddhist culture.

Now before I go on, I must confess that I have Marcia and Aaron’s book in my tsundoku pile of ‘to be read’ books and it’s been there since April this year. To make matters worse, this book is part of the ‘First Knowledge’ series, and I have the other five[4] also waiting to be read, and just to top it off, the seventh book of this series, Innovation – Knowledge and Ingenuity, has just been released, so that will also need to be added to this pile. I plan to start tackling these books in the New Year.

My next session ‘Nusantara Unveiled: A Visionary Transformation of Indonesia’s Capital’ was back at the Indus Restaurant. I was looking forward to a session all about town planning and nerding out on that but instead it was more about the design of the logo. Which was fine and I appreciate the thought and values that went into the design, but I didn’t really feel it, so decided to end the day there and wander home. I was surprised to learn that Jakarta is sinking 14 centimetres per year though, no wonder they need a new capital!

With the early finish today, I returned to the Ladera Villa and enjoyed a swim before heading to Taco Fiesta for tea with Amy. After that we wandered to the new market in the centre of Ubud where the ‘Under the Stars’ free event was occurring. This event was entertaining and created a great atmosphere in the middle of town. We topped off the night with Gulung Dadar for dessert from the Legend Café on the way home. Yep, my stories always come back to my stomach …

Day 3: Saturday 21^st October 2023

This was a morning of changed plans, I was heading to the museum car park to get the shuttle again but ended up chatting to a taxi driver and deciding to get a lift up to the festival. It meant I was super early which was a good chance to soak in the ambiance of the location as well as stick my nose in a book for a while. I had also originally planned to see Vandana Shiva first thing this morning but decided to attend the ‘Potency of Political Art’ session with Edel Rodriguez and Goenawan Mohamad instead. I was happy to see Edel speak again, I was in my favourite location at the Indus Restaurant, and I was assured a good seat for the next session that included Grace Tame which I was certain was going to be popular. And it was.

Anyway, the first session today was awesome and lived up to its hype which was, “In an insightful dialogue, these two pioneering artists will delve into the intersection of art and politics, exploring the profound influence their creations wield over societal narratives and the moulding of public sentiment. Converging diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, Rodriguez and Mohamad will illuminate the pivotal role art assumes in challenging established norms, reflecting power’s dynamics, and igniting essential conversations for significant social transformation. With their unique styles and compelling journeys, this captivating conversation assures an illuminating exploration of the unyielding essence of political art and its potential to reshape the world.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The session I was most looking forward to today was, “The Strength in Vulnerability: Memoir Writing”. The panel included Tanaïs, Grace Tame, Kathryn Heyman, Kartika Jahja and was moderated by Annika Blau. I had already enjoyed listening to Tanaïs on Thursday so was happy to listen to her again. Similarly, I have enjoyed listening to Grace speak on several occasions at Adelaide Writers Week and wanted to hear from her again and I heard Kathryn speak on ABC about her latest book, Fury, so was interested to hear more from her and whilst I wasn’t aware of Kartika i now know she is an Indonesian transdisciplinary artist and cultural activist as well as the singer and songwriter of the band Tika & the Dissidents. Currently, she’s deeply engaged in producing the research-based documentary theatre SUPERIA (Suara Perempuan Indonesia) to amplify the voices of Indonesian women.

This was a captivating panel of woman talking about their experiences with sexual assault. A few points I noted from the session:

Vulnerability is the opposite of cowardice or denial.
Men are afraid of being laughed at; woman are afraid of being killed. This is a quote from Margaret Attwood and highlights the disparity in power and consequence.
Human culture is sick and out of balance, how do we address the imbalance?
There is a need to define a line between solidarity and exploitation especially when trying to assist people who have experienced sexual assault.

The questions I kept asking myself during this session was why do we (men) do what we do? Why do feel entitled to have power and control over others and to inflict such pain and trauma?

This session also had me reflecting back on yesterday’s session when I learned about the Ngangkari as well as the pluralistic nature of First Law that enables Women’s Law. As Yunkaporta highlights, the addition of Mens and Womans Business would be an excellent addition to settler law as it would mean all laws regulating fertility and women’s bodies could only be made by women, for women. This may go a long way to address the imbalance in our society, especially with regard to respect and dignity of woman.

Tanais talked again about the role of perfume and smell in our lives and how a smell can invoke a memory. This had me thinking about the smell that invokes the strongest memories for me. That smell would be coffee, and it reminds me of Oma. This is probably why I love the smell of coffee, but believe it or not, I don’t drink it, I don’t like the taste.

All speakers agreed that there are two responses to a trauma like sexual assault. The first is to be consumed by bitterness and hatred and that is understandable. The second is to respond with compassion and empathy, and this is the motivation behind all the panel members sharing their respective stories.

All the speakers at this session were brilliant but I must make special mention of Grace Tame. I have found her to be a powerful speaker every time I have had the privilege to hear her speak, but I found this time around that her delivery and manner is even more confident and assured. And she is still only in her 20’s. Grace is an inspiration and when I think of the likes of her or Helena Gualinga I think we should just hand the reigns of the world to this generation of women.

My next session was ‘Exploring Queerness in Poetry’, I am neither a poet nor queer so I thought this would be a great session to learn from a different experience and perspective than mine. The panel included Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Broede Carmody, Virginia Helzainka and Chris Tse, and was moderated by Adolfo Aranjuez. This was an entertaining session and highlighted how important the moderator is for these events, Adolfo was hilarious and just brought a great energy to this session which was embraced by the panel.

This session covered a range of themes around why and how these poets do what they do but the topic that resonated with me the most was the role of humour and I was taken by the thought that humour is an empathy enabler. This made me reflect on the previous sessions which all featured humour when dealing with serious issues. I guess when we are dealing with hardship or heartache, no matter what the circumstance creating it, we need empathy, and hence we need humour to deal with these things.

Next up was ‘Shaping Justice Through Ecofeminism and Activism’ with Vandana Shiva, Helena Gualinga and Farwiza Farhan, moderated by Amanda Katili Niode. Ecofeminism is a powerful movement intertwining environmental and feminist ideologies and has made significant strides in shaping our understanding of the interconnectedness of gender, ecology, and social justice. Ecofeminism is not about women, it is about restructure.

I was happy to listen to Helena Gualinga again as she provided further insight into her recent experience in Ecuador with regard to their recent referendum and the activism and lengths she had to go to stand up for her community. Like many of us I have been thinking about constitutions and referendums recently and wrote a blog about it, here is a link. In it I refer to the South African Constitution, I love its preamble, but below is the preamble of the Ecuador Constitution, which has a similar vibe to the South African preamble, I’d love for our constitution to start with something similar …

We women and men, the sovereign people of Ecuador

RECOGNIZING our age-old roots, wrought by women and men from various peoples,

CELEBRATING nature, the Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), of which we are a part and which is vital to our existence,

INVOKING the name of God and recognizing our diverse forms of religion and spirituality,

CALLING UPON the wisdom of all the cultures that enrich us as a society,

AS HEIRS to social liberation struggles against all forms of domination and colonialism

AND with a profound commitment to the present and to the future,

Hereby decide to build

A new form of public coexistence, in diversity and in harmony with nature, to achieve the good way of living, the sumak kawsay[5];

A society that respects, in all its dimensions, the dignity of individuals and community groups;

A democratic country, committed to Latin American integration-the dream of Simon Bolivar and Eloy Alfaro-peace and solidarity with all peoples of the Earth;

And, exercising our sovereign powers, in Ciudad Alfaro, Montecristi, province of Manabi, we bestow upon ourselves the present:

Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador

Whilst I really enjoyed listening to Helena and Farwiza I found myself hanging on every word Vandana Shiva said, it was great to just be in the same room as someone so wise. It had me thinking that maybe I should have stuck with the original plan this morning and seen her at the first session but that’s the rub of a festival such as Ubud, you will always miss something as you can’t be at more than one place at once.

Vandana emphasised the importance of diversity and shared the catch phrase of ‘Diverse woman for diversity to resist the monoculture’. Diversity is a key feature of nature and is the very basis of ecological stability. Diverse ecosystems give rise to diverse life forms and diverse cultures which are the basis of sustainability. Diversity in nature and society is the source of beauty and creativity, strength and resilience, abundance and wellbeing.

One of the statements Vandana made that stuck in my head was, “Justice is the norm when diversity is the aim”. In this sense, diversity is not about how we differ, diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness. In a world where we seem to be intent on creating monocultures (from both a social and environmental perspective) and demonising the ‘other’ it’s important to remind ourselves of this wisdom.

The recent events in Palestine is an example where we have decided that some people don’t deserve to exist. It’s hard to fathom we still think in this way, this is the same ideology as Hitler and his Nazi’s. This state of mind has perpetuated itself throughout the world at the expense of indigenous people, people of LGBTIQ sexuality, transgender people, refugees, our elderly and immunocompromised people during the pandemic and basically seems to be the fallback position when dealing with any minority in a society. The result being injustice, inequality and conflict.

Vandana also spoke about the patterns of behaviour from our capitalistic and patriarchal society that we need to unlearn, and that much of the violence against woman and nature comes from entitlement. Whilst everyone has some form of entitlement, we have found an imbalance where individual rights (or entitlements, privilege and power) have become sacrosanct. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves of First Law and focus on our obligations to land and each other.

A few other points she made included:

Activism requires you to act and not be an observer and usually requires anger to create transformational change as well as a refusal to accept the status quo.
Can’t be an activist for 1 or 2 days, it’s a lifelong dedication.
When you take on the big powers you need to be resilient.
By constantly creating new partnerships we create resilience.
Conservation is not about keeping people out – this is a colonial version
Ancient knowledge merging with ecological scientific knowledge is the key.
Democracy of life is found in the forest and nature.
Idea of engineering life is based on the idea that life is inadequate.

If you are interested in learning more about the work Vandana does here is a link to the Navdanya website. The Navdanya movement started 30 years ago and promotes a new agricultural and economic paradigm, a culture of food for health, where ecological responsibility and economic justice replace the present greed, consumerism and competition which have become dominant in society. It aims at regaining the common good as a foundation for a renewed sense of community, solidarity and culture of peace. Sounds good to me.

The next session I attended was ‘The Future of Artificial Intelligence’ with Toby Walsh and Antony Loewenstein. To be honest, I only lasted about 10-15 minutes into this session. It’s not that Toby didn’t sound like he knew his subject, or that the subject wasn’t interesting, it’s just that my brain had had enough by then and needed a break.

As such, I wandered down to the Cantina Bar early for the ‘Jazz and Poetry’ special event. It didn’t start until 4pm but I got down there by a bit before 3 which gave me some time to enjoy a beer and the view while reflecting on the day. It wasn’t too long before Amy came along to join me as well as the other attendees for this event.

I couldn’t have thought of a better way spend a Saturday afternoon than to listen to some jazz and poetry in this venue, which feels like you are sitting amongst the trees overlooking the river valley. We spent an evening at the Cantina Bar last time we visited Ubud so was already well acquainted with the venue and was excited for this event. And it didn’t disappoint.

By chance we ended up sitting with Mike, Clare and Mary Ann. We had met them on Friday afternoon when we dropped into the Honeymoon Guesthouse for a drink and got to chatting with them about the festival but didn’t know that we would all be at this event today.

Our MC for the afternoon was Vamba Sherif and we had musicians playing jazz tunes on the saxophone and guitar between and during the poetry readings. The poets that we heard from were Fred Leone, Ghayath Almadhoun, Joanna Yang and Chris Tse, an eclectic but brilliant line up.

Fred has released hip hop music through his Impossible Odds Record Label based in Queensland. I’m embarrassed to say that Fred wasn’t on my radar before Ubud, there are not many Oz hip hop CDs I don’t have but somehow, I didn’t come across his. Anyway, I have acquainted myself with his music now, it’s good, you can check it out here.

Ghayath was next, I found his poetry moving but I couldn’t get out of my head his opening statement where he quite nonchalantly let us know that he lost 14 cousins in one bombing in Gaza the other night. If I was to lose 14 cousins, I would only have 2 left. It leaves me numb reflecting on the violence we exert on each other.

A line from his poem that resonated with me was, ‘Palestine, the land that invented god’. I thought about this line in two ways, firstly, recognising the irony of having such despicable acts of war occurring in a location where we created a god which wants us to act in a kind, compassionate and loving way. Secondly, I was thinking about this being the place that invented monotheism and a god in our own image and the despicable acts occurring in this region at present are a direct consequence of the imbalance of our own egos taking precedence leading us to a world of narcissists doing everything we can to maintain power and control over others.

Ghayath’s poetry also referred to refugees dying in the Mediterranean asking the questions, ‘why do bodies that are alive sink and drown but dead bodies float?’ and ‘why can’t this be the other way round?’

Another line from his poetry that captured my imagination was ‘Dogs are wolves that have accepted humiliation’.

I am keen to purchase Ghayath’s poetry book, Adrenalin, unfortunately they were sold out at the festival.

Next up was Jo Yang who is the 2022 Australian Poetry Slam Champion, she was excellent. Chris Tse was the last poet to perform and despite following such a great lineup held his own and shared an excellent and thought-provoking reading as well.

It was a shame this event finished up at 6pm as I would have been happy listening to the music and poetry readings well into the night. But all good things must come to an end and that was the end of Day 3 of the festival for us.

One more day to go …

Day 4 – Sunday 22^nd October 2023

I met up with Judy and Ruth in the Puri Lakasan Museum car park to catch the shuttle for the last time. I have enjoyed their company in the mornings and today we had a longer chance to chat as the shuttle was late. We were waiting around for about 35-40 minutes and there was still no shuttle. By then there were at least 2 busloads of people waiting. But all good, 8, actually it may have been 10 of us, decided to grab a taxi and fortunately a taxi van was ready to go so we got to the festival in good time, and it only cost about $1 each!

Judy and Ruth were off to see Geraldine Brooks talk about her book Horse with Leigh Sales, they had seen Geraldine earlier in the festival and loved it so were excited for that. I was tempted to join them, but I was looking forward to attending the ‘Understanding and Challenging Authoritarian Resurgence’ session with Michael Vatikiotis, Antony Loewenstein, and Andreas Harsono, moderated by Janet Steele. This session was a discussion on how to safeguard democracy in the face of growing concerns arising from autocracy and authoritarianism, often veiled as populism, promoting ultra-nationalism, racism and xenophobia.

There are several types of authoritarianism found across the world but at its core, authoritarianism is characterised by a controlling government and the rejection of democracy, human rights, and political plurality. The type of authoritarianism that is worrying for many of us is creeping authoritarianism. This has come about from global crisis’ resulting in Anti-terrorism Bills and more recently Public Order Bills limiting the freedom to protest.

It was frightening to learn that Governments across the world are obsessed with spying on their own people and one of the greatest exporters of spyware, as well as many other combat and spy related products, is Israel, exporting their nefarious wares to over 125 countries. Apparently, there are no regulations regarding spyware and one of the largest users of this technology has been Mexico.

The even more frightening thing I learned is Israel not only export these tools but also their ultra nationalist ideology. Well let’s be real, its fascism and is the antithesis of the First Law discussed on Friday.

Other points I got from this session are:

There is too much opinion and not enough factual analysis.
Telling the truth is human rights
We miss the point
We have an inability to convey the double standard – even though the message is loud and clear, some lives are worth more than others.
Human rights tend to stop at religion and racism.
One standard for the west, one standard for the others.
We accept Israel becoming a theocratic state but didn’t accept the Taliban?
Democracy is democracy when minority human rights are upheld.

The second session at the Indus Restaurant was ‘Unsettling Colonial Structures’ with Marcia Langton, Aaron Corn and Todung Mulya Lubis talking with Katie Carr.

This was another interesting session and highlighted that politics based on centralisation, division and security/public order is inherited from colonialism. In contrast, Indigenous Law is about personal obligations, ‘You have to live your obligations’ … ‘Not have to, or want to, it’s a way of being’

We have serious issues of state capture which is defined by the World Bank as “the exercise of power by private actors — through control over resources, threat of violence, or other forms of influence — to shape policies or implementation in service of their narrow interests”. Other concerns raised during the discussion was the lack of truth of political advertising laws and the lack of transparency in political donations. I have previously written about these concerns in a blog I wrote about politics, here is a link.

After two heavy sessions it was a nice change up to attend the ‘Culinary Heritage Caretakers’ session with Ros Rotanak, known as Chef Nak, a female celebrity chef from Cambodia with a mission to preserve and elevate Cambodian cuisine and Khir Johari, a food historian from Singapore talking with Sonia Nair.

This was a fun session and highlighted several truths such as no one person exists in isolation and is influenced by others in a culture. Hence, fusion food is as old as history. This had me imagining a world where the only thing Palestinians and Israelis argued about was who made the best hummus!

One thing that fascinates me is how food and spices spread around the world and it is something I write about in my book in the context of colonisation and trade and its impact on our history and current predicament. Who would have thought that if it wasn’t for the Portuguese, Indians wouldn’t be cooking with chilies!

This session did have my mind wandering back to the session with Vandana Shiva and her work to protect seeds noting that the growing of seed and the free exchange of seed among farmers has been the basis to maintaining biodiversity and our food security for thousands of years. The disappearance of our biodiversity and of our seed sovereignty is creating a major crisis for agriculture and food security around the world.

I was also thinking about Satish Kumar’s book, ‘Radical Love’ as in it, he highlights that there should be as short a distance between where food is produced and where it is consumed and if we wish to feed people properly without adding to the climate crisis then more of us need to be involved in the production of food.

Anyway, as you can see my mind did wander a bit during this session, but please don’t take that as an indication I didn’t enjoy this session, on the contrary, I loved it and enjoyed these foodies talking about their passion. I am also into my food, and I have written a blog about all things food, here is a link.

I will leave the last words on this topic to Satish Kumar who wrote in his book Radical Love;

“A good meal expresses love louder than words.”[6]

My next session of the day was moderated by Adolfo Aranjuez, and titled ‘Body Language of Dance’. In this session Elghandiva Astrilia, Wayan Sumahardika and Abdi Karya talked about their experience as dancers. Again, it was enjoyable listening to people talk about their passion. This session highlighted for me that humans have always danced, and we have kept cultural knowledge in dance. Dance is part of our rituals and connects us to spirituality.

Two kernels of wisdom stuck with me from this session, firstly that ‘dance is performing memories’ and secondly ‘dancing is embracing hybridness’.

Up next was Michael Vatikiotis and Antony Loewenstein talking with Kirsti Melville on the subject of ‘Clashes and Hope: Unpacking the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’. This was another packed crowd as we all wanted to learn more about what was happening in this region.

It’s hard to know where to start with the issues in the Middle East as it really has just been a clusterfuck since Europeans and now Americans have gained influence over the region. That’s not to say things were perfect under the Ottomans, but it’s hard not to think that the decisions made on behalf of this region have been made to deliberately sabotage its future prosperity and security.

That’s not to condone, defend or in any way excuse any of the aggression and violence occurring in Palestine, none of it can be justified. But it’s been happening since 1948.

The problem as I see it is that if we condemn Israel for their actions associated with settler colonialism and creating apartheid against the Palestinians then we need to be able to fess up and condemn ourselves and our own behaviours and actions.

We need to acknowledge our own complicity in the mess we have created.

Here in Australia, we have just proven that we are not ready to face up to this responsibility. But what is happening to the Palestinians is just another version of what has occurred to indigenous people throughout the world over the last few centuries, be it in Australia, Asia, Africa, or North, Central and South America.

There is a collective trauma of colonisation and imperialism that needs to be addressed across the world. I believe this is imperative to enable us to clear our collective conscience so we can heal and live in balance with the world again.

I am reminded of the session yesterday where it was highlighted that in the face of trauma you can be consumed with hate and bitterness or respond with empathy and compassion. Hate is the prevailing response in Palestine at the moment, but it can’t be the solution. Only love can conquer hate.

We must start with truth, truth builds trust. But it also demands humility to acknowledge mistakes and also requires thinking in complex terms and accepting uncertainty. As Stan Grant wrote, “There are those who seek certainty, who divide the world up and take sides. I don’t trust certainty; I know that in certainty, ignorance and deceit lie. Give me questions more than answers.”[7]

To think in complex terms, we need to acknowledge that people and groups can be both good and bad at the same time and two opposing viewpoints can both be partially correct and partially incorrect. Evidence can be complicated and suggest contradictory conclusions. Perhaps this is where we can look at a pluralistic legal system that incorporates First Law so we may have a better system to ensure we don’t commit immoral and unethical acts. Perhaps this also needs to be coupled with a focus on obligations to the land and each other instead of focusing on entitlement, rights, and privilege.

But in the meantime, I agree with a point made during the session that the only way to immediately deal with Israel and its apartheid of the Palestinians is exactly how the world dealt with South Africa. Israelis may need to be forced to feel economic pain just as white South Africa did in order to change its apartheid policies. But at the same time the rest of the world needs to do some soul searching, truth telling and healing.

I have purchased both The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports The Technology Of Occupation Around The World by Antony Loewenstein and Lives Between the Lines by Michael Vatikiotis to learn more about this region and its impact on the world.

There was a good chance that I was going to head home after that session. I hadn’t picked anything else I really wanted to see apart from the ‘20 Years of UWRF: A Reflective Celebration’ which I thought would be good to attend. But that session was not on until quarter to 5 and it was now quarter past 3.

I decided to stick the day out so my penultimate session for the festival was Michael Pedersen talking with Michael Williams about his book, Boy Friends. I had no idea who Michael Pedersen was, but I figured any conversation with Michael Williams should be fun to listen to as he was probably my favourite moderator during the festival, but special mentions to Veronica Sullivan, Adolfo Aranjuez and Kirsti Melville, they were also awesome.

But wow! This was probably my favourite session of the whole festival … remember when I was talking about those nuggets of gold you find at festivals back at the start of Day 2 with Rebecca Makkai, well this was the nugget of the festival for me.

Michael Pedersen was brilliant and had us all in stitches. As soon as he started to speak, I started to smile. There’s something about the Scottish accent, and the Irish one for that matter, that just makes me smile. Its music to the ears and I can listen to it all day. I guess the Scottish accent always make me think of John Flynn (a great family friend whom I have known since I was a young kid) and Billy Connolly, two of the funniest people I know (not that I actually know Billy, but I have watched him on TV many times).

Anyways, before we know it Michael Pederson is up on his feet invigorating us with his irresistible energy while captivating us with his stories and poems, he was awesome.

But it’s funny, I first noticed Michael on probably the Tuesday or Wednesday night before the festival began at the Honeymoon Guest House. We stopped in there most evenings to take advantage of their happy hour (which gave me an opportunity to enjoy their Turmeric Jamu). Anyway, I remember noticing Michael when he was sitting with friends at an adjacent table. It was his bouffant of hair that first drew my eyes to him, firstly with some envy but then I reminded myself just how liberating it is to have a low maintenance head. Anyway, as it was with most people hanging out at the Honeymoon during the week, we figured he was here for the festival but with no idea that he would have such a huge impact on it.

This is the typical Ubud festival experience that Janet DeNeefe talked about in the next session, with everyone generally staying in the one spot there is always opportunities for interactions between authors and attendees. If only I knew of Michael earlier, I would have been able to say thanks for such a brilliant session.

There were so many great things Michael said about friendships but one that stuck with me was when he said, ‘The messier the meal, the better the friendship’, indicating that friendships are forged around a dinner table and the best meals are shared meals. I couldn’t agree more.

One of the messages from Michael’s session was that male friendships don’t have to be all macho and aggressive and can embrace more feminine friendship qualities. This was an excellent contrast to the previous session about the conflict in Palestine. which is all about being macho and aggressive, imposing power and control over others through violence and apartheid. I have believed for a long time that in this instance it’s time to just let the woman of the region sort it all out, they couldn’t make matters any worse and we would have a better chance of kindness, compassion and love coming to the fore.

I have held off buying Michael’s book, Boy Friends, as I know as soon as it arrives, I will want to read it, and I already have a pile of books I need to absorb to finalise my research for my book. But if anyone is thinking of a Christmas present for me this book would be awesome. 😉

The last session of the main program that I enjoyed at the Indus Restaurant had Janet DeNeefe, Kadek Purnami, Toni Pollard and Dwi Ermayanthi talking with Rosemarie Milsom about ’20 Years of UWRF: A Reflective Celebration’. This was a great session to finish off the festival for me. I only found out this festival existed a year ago and the more I learn about it the more I want to be part of it. This was a fun discussion between very good friends and colleagues, and it was a pleasure to hear them reminiscence about the last 20 years of the festival.

I was moved by the story of the beginnings of the festival which came after the Bali bombings. The idea of the festival was not only a way to get people to visit Bali again but was also as a direct reaction to the violence of the bombing to say to the world that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’, hence a writer’s festival was born!

It has now become something so much more than that. This was recognised during this session when someone said ‘…it’s a human rights festival under the cover of a writers festival’. Personally, I believe events such as Ubud are vital as they are opportunities to celebrate our humanity in all its diversity especially when we have powerful forces actively working to divide and/or control us.

So that was it, that was my experience of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, it has been transformative, enjoyable, and whilst heart breaking at times it has left with me a great sense of hope for the future given the wisdom and passion evident amongst those of us who see the folly of the status quo and want to create a better world.

To wrap this blog up, I just want to go back to the start of this blog and reiterate just what a privilege it was to have this experience, I hope I did the festival justice with my words.

But of course, events like these can’t happen without the vision and passion of people like Janet DeNeefe and her team at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. So, it is with absolute gratitude that I wish to acknowledge everyone who is associated with this festival and offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to you all, thank you so much for putting on such a magnificent event.

It may have taken me 20 years to cotton on to this festival, but now that I have, I am looking forward to this becoming an annual event for me and attending many more Ubud Writers & Readers Festivals in the years to come.

I hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading this blog.

All the best.

Tim

PS … If you enjoyed this blog, you may also enjoy some of my others, here are the links …

Where’s my Voice …!?

Food Glorious Food

Some Thoughts About Politics

Some Thoughts About Religion

#BlackLivesMatter … do they really?

Consciousness – the path to our new ‘ism’?

Some reflections on Afghanistan