Indonesian Australian

Indonesian Australians

Total population
50,975 (2006, by country of birth)[1] 35,941 (2006, by ancestry)[2]
Regions with significant populations
New South Wales 21,886 [3]  Victoria 12,606 [3]  Western Australia 7,883 [3]  Queensland 5,307 [3]  South Australia 1,531 [3]  ACT 773 [3]  Northern Territory 764 [3]  Tasmania 204 [3]
Religion
Christianity (59%), Islam (17%), Buddhism (11%)[3]
Related ethnic groups
Indonesians, overseas Indonesians

Indonesian Australians are Australian citizens and residents of Indonesian origin or descent.^{[citation needed]} The 2006 Australian Census found 50,975 Australian residents who stated their place of birth as Indonesia, and 35,941 who stated their ancestry as Indonesian.^[1][2] These comprise people who trace their roots to a variety of ethnic groups in Indonesia and elsewhere.

Migration history

As early as 1750, seamen from the Indonesian island of Makassar had settled on Australia's northern coast, spending about four months per year there collecting sea cucumbers and taking them back home to trade. By the late 19th century, the pearl hunting industry was recruiting workers from Kupang, while sugar plantations had hired migrant labourers from Java to work in Queensland; Dutch colonial authorities estimated they formed a total population of about 1,000. However, after the federation of Australia and the enactment of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the first part of a series of laws which collectively formed the White Australia policy, most of these migrants returned to Indonesia.^[4] Beginning in 1942, thousands of Indonesians fled the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and took refuge in Australia. Exact landing statistics were not kept due to the chaotic nature of their migration, but after the war, 3,768 repatriated to Indonesia on Australian government-provided ships.^[5] In the 1950s, roughly 10,000 Indo people (Eurasians of mixed Indonesian and European descent), who had previously settled in the Netherlands and held Dutch citizenship, remigrated to Australia, thus bypassing the White Australia policy.^[6][7] Large numbers of Chinese Indonesians began migrating to Australia in the late 1990s, fleeing the political and economic turmoil in the aftermath of the May 1998 riots and the subsequent fall of Suharto.^[8]

Religion

Though Islam is the majority religion in Indonesia, Muslims are the minority among Indonesians in Australia.^[9] In the 2006 Australian Census, only 8,656 out of 50,975 Indonesians in Australia, or 17%, identified as Muslim.^[3] They lack their own mosques, but instead typically attend mosques established by members of other ethnic groups.^[9] In contrast, more than half of the Indonesian population in Australia follows Christianity, split evenly between the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations.^[10]

Notable people

• Nadya Hutagalung, Sydney-born MTV VJ^[11]
• Jessica Mauboy, singer, born to an immigrant father from Kefamenanu, West Timor and an indigenous Australian mother^[12]

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} ABS 2006
2. ^ ^{a b} ABS 2006b
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} ABS 2007
4. ^ Penny & Gunawan 2001, p. 439
5. ^ Lockwood 1970
6. ^ Willems 2001, pp. 263–329
7. ^ Coté & Westerbeek 2005, p. 289
8. ^ Ikegami 2005, pp. 21–23
9. ^ ^{a b} Saeed 2003, p. 12
10. ^ Penny & Gunawan 2001, p. 441
11. ^ "Asia's Top 20 Heartbreakers". Asian Pacific Post. 2005-09-22. http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/40288182079598fe010796cf4e73013d.do.html. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
12. ^ Whitfield, Deanne (2008-06-28), "Jessica Mauboy: 'Idol' cultural ambassador", Jakarta Post, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/28/jessica-mauboy-039idol039-cultural-ambassador.html, retrieved 2010-03-10 

Sources

• Coté, Joost; Westerbeek, Loes (2005), Recalling the Indies: Colonial Culture and Postcolonial Identities, Askant Academic Publishers, ISBN 9789052601199 
• Ikegami, Shigehiro (2005), "A Profile of Indonesian People in Australia", Memoirs of the Shizuoka University of Art and Culture 6: 21–30, http://nels.nii.ac.jp/els/110006177736.pdf?id=ART0008148609&type=pdf&lang=en&host=cinii&order_no=&ppv_type=0&lang_sw=&no=1268201498&cp=, retrieved 2010-03-10 
• Lockwood, Rupert (October 1970), "The Indonesian Exiles in Australia, 1942-1947", Indonesia 10 (10): 37–56, doi:10.2307/3350634, JSTOR 3350634 
• Penny, Janet; Gunawan, Tuti (2001), "Indonesians", in Jupp, James, The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People, and Their Origins, Cambridge University Press, pp. 439–441 
• Saeed, Abdullah (2003), "Who are Australia's Muslims?", Islam in Australia, Allen and Unwin, ISBN 1865088641 
• Willems, Wim (2001), De uittocht uit Indie 1945-1995: De geschiedenis van Indische Nederlanders, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, ISBN 9789035123618 
• "20680-Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex - Australia", 2006 Census, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/ViewData?action=404&documentproductno=0&documenttype=Details&order=1&tabname=Details&areacode=0&issue=2006&producttype=Census%20Tables&javascript=true&textversion=false&navmapdisplayed=true&breadcrumb=POLTD&&collection=Census&period=2006&productlabel=Country%20of%20Birth%20of%20Person%20(full%20classification%20list)%20by%20Sex&producttype=Census%20Tables&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&topic=Birthplace&, retrieved 2009-02-27 . Total count of persons: 19,855,288.
• "20680-Ancestry (full classification list) by Sex - Australia", 2006 Census, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/ViewData?breadcrumb=POLTD&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&subaction=-1&issue=2006&producttype=Census%20Tables&documentproductno=0&textversion=false&documenttype=Details&collection=Census&javascript=true&topic=Ancestry&action=404&productlabel=Ancestry%20(full%20classification%20list)%20by%20Sex&order=1&period=2006&tabname=Details&areacode=0&navmapdisplayed=true&, retrieved 2009-02-27 . Total responses: 25,451,383 for total count of persons: 19,855,288.
• "2914.0.55.002 2006 Census Ethnic Media Package" (Excel download), Census Dictionary, 2006 (cat.no 2901.0) (Australian Bureau of Statistics), 2007-06-27, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/5618AB4511347DC2CA257306000D44C2/$File/2914055002_2006%20(Reissue).xls, retrieved 2008-07-14 

Further reading

• Da Costa, Hilary (September 1992), "Indonesians in Australia - Profile of a little-known community", Inside Indonesia 32, ISSN 0814-1185 
• Nonini, Donald M. (2004), "Spheres of speculation and middling transnational migrants: Chinese Indonesians in the Asia-Pacific", in Yeoh, Brenda S. A.; Willis, Katie, State/Nation/Transnation: Perspectives on Transnationalism in the Asia-Pacific, Routledge, ISBN 041530279X 
• Penny, J. (1993), Indonesians in Australia, 1947 to 1986, Working Papers, 84, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, ISBN 073260513X 
• Siregar, Bahren Umar (1987), Language choice, language mixing and language attitudes: Indonesians in Australia, Ph.D. dissertation, Monash University, OCLC 34466563