Tag: family

THREE SISTERS OF SOCIAL INNOVATION

R.A. Kartini is an Indonesian national hero for pioneering choice in marriage for women and and education for girls.

She acheived what she acheived in part because of the support of two similar aged sisters and in part because of a deep respect for the culture she was changing:

Shee wrote this on March 29, 1902 about herself and those two sisters:

“we three had grown to be one in thought and in feeling.

We have broken with many traditions, and can do what others cannot, on account of the unusual freedom of our bringing up; and now we are working to break tradition still further.

No Javanese girl must be seen before her marriage; she must remain in the background, usually in her own chamber; and in December we were at Semarang with sister, and she went openly into the shops to buy some things which she wanted.

A Javanese girl receives no good wishes upon her engagement; the subject is not mentioned before her; still less does she mention it herself. She acts just as though she knew nothing of it. I should like to have read the hearts of our fellow countrywomen when they heard sister speak openly and freely of her coming marriage.

A day or two before the wedding, we commemorated our dead. That is our custom: in the midst of joy we always invoke the memory of our dead.

Sister sat with crossed legs before the gold shining kwade, motionless as an image of Buddha, between the gravely dressed, solemn-looking wives of the native dignitaries, equal in rank to her husband.

Young girls ought not to have dressed her alone, but we did it just the same. We thought that it was entirely too stupid for us not to be allowed to touch sister in her bridal toilet.

….. when superstition is cast off, we do not want the poetry to be trampled under foot.

There is so much that is lovable in my people, such charm in their simple naive beliefs. It may sound strange, but it is, nevertheless, a fact, that you Europeans have taught me to love my own land and people. Instead of estranging us from our native land, our European education has brought us nearer to it; has opened our hearts to its beauties, and also to the needs of our people and to their weaknesses.”

Geoff Fox, March 29, 2026, West Footscray,

Meeting SBY – I saw his Kartiniist Soul.

On the 8th of August, 1903, Javanese princess and common people’s advocate Raden Ajeng Kartini wrote of a deeply meaningful meeting she had with a village midwife:

“Just now we have company; at the table where I sit there are five of us working. Justinah the wise woman came this morning and will stay until next week. We think her a treasure. She spends her time here usefully, teaches embroidery and is so severe when we are careless. When we make a mistake, she immediately pulls everything out. How rich I felt this morning when she laid her hand trustingly on my shoulder, while I explained something or other to her. Now she feels at home with us; I look with so much pleasure into her fine intelligent eyes; they say so much.

She is a dessa-child. Oh, how full of love is her calling! You would enjoy meeting her. She listens with attention when one speaks, and then asks such intelligent questions. If you ever come to our neighbourhood again, I hope to be able to take her to you. This clever little woman has already attended forty-eight women in child-birth, and she is such a young thing still, with all a child’s eagerness.”

Exactly one hundred and ten years years later on the 8th of August, 2013, I was blessed to meet an astonishimg Indonesian man, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, (SBY), who rose from birth into a lower middle class family in the very small village of Tremas (about 8 kilometre north northeast of the alun-alun in Pacitan on the glorious south coast of East Java) to become the first two-term democratically elected president of his homeland, Indonesia, the fourth largest nation on earth.

I told SBY in that very brief meeting a little bit both about the results of my cross cultural engagement with a wonderful grassroots man, Mr Syukur Kuseke, the traditional owner of Air Kaca, a national heritage (cagar budaya) site in Morotai and about my dad’s time in Morotai in World War Two. SBY said that he would like to visit Air Kaca. The president met very many people that day so my time with him was limited, but, as I left the room in the presidential palace, SBY’s eyes followed me with a child like eagerness to know more that I will never forget.

Alhamdullialh.

I praise the Lord for allowing me that treasured memory of meeting SBY.

The villages of the world are frequently where the greatest joys and purity are found, created and nurtured for us all.

Mbah Jeff (sudah tua), December 2nd, 2024, Melbourne, Australia