Ele traces her ‘origin story’ in Asian Studies/the study of Asia to her upbringing in Darwin as a child, where she began to learn the Indonesian language, where she had Indonesian friends, and where a rich variety of cultures and languages coexisted. Even at a young age, it gave her a strong sense of what Australia was and what it could become. Later in her childhood she resumed the study of Indonesian at high school in Sydney and Adelaide, where she credits her continued interest in the language and culture to committed, passionate teachers. At university Ele combined studies in Communications, International Studies, and Anthropology with Indonesian. Her studies culminated in a PhD at the ANU (completed in 2024). A novel aspect of her thesis was its exploration of how New Colombo Plan scholarships affect host societies in Indonesia, rather than the more familiar and well-explored aspect of the scholarships’ impact on Australian recipients. Ele has been an active member of ASAA and served as Postgraduate Rep while completing her PhD. She notes that the campaign to preserve Australia’s well-deserved reputation for world-leading excellence in Asian Studies has never been won definitively, and it is up to the current generation to build on the efforts of early generations.

Watch Ele’s interview below or on the ASAA’s youtube channel here. See the other interviews in the series here.