Indonesia-Australia museum internship enhances cross-cultural understanding

Indonesia-Australia museum internship

"Direct contact between people is essential for cross-cultural understanding"

For Putu Ayu Yunita Yastini, who likes to be called Ita, it was the obvious choice of the Australian Museum for her museum internship under the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program in 2013.

Ita is a graduate from Udayana University in Denpasar, Bali, specialising in English language as well as literature and culture. She is interested in indigenous cultures and preservation of local languages and also in organizing public events which often are cultural, community-related or academic in nature.

She wishes to learn how the eastern or Asian cultures, including Indonesian and Balinese, are represented at the Australian Museum and, even more broadly, how Westerners perceive Indonesia.

Ita is interested in museums as potential meeting places for communities, artists and curious visitors who can all learn from each other. She believes direct contact between people is an essential component in developing mutual understanding and the ability to enjoy what different cultures have to offer.

In her faith in the museum as an agent of learning and inspiring within and across cultures, Ita hopes to take her Australian Museum internship experience back home as a potential model of ‘a comfortable place to discover knowledge and comprehensions’ about the natural world and people.

Check out blog posts related to Ita's museum internship:  Balinese Expressions

View Asia-Europe Museum Network members in Australia and Indonesia