250 at Women in Asia conference
By Helen Jarvis
MELBOURNE — The Fourth Women in Asia Conference was held at the University of Melbourne October 1-3. More than 250 people (including about 10 men) attended.
Women came from throughout Australia and from at least seven Asian countries — Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Pakistan. They work in academia (both women's studies and Asian studies departments) and in women's activist and research and development organisations.
A major strand of the conference concentrated on Asian women workers. Here the conference benefited from the presence in Melbourne of delegates to the Asia Australia Workers Links conference going on at the same time.
Other strands focused on themes such as Feminism and Nationalism, the Gendered Body, Violence, Women and the State, Women and the Media.
A strong cultural component included the dramatic performance by Filipina Merlinda Bobin of fragments of her epic The Cantata of the Warrior Woman, poetry reading by Suniti Namjoshi, the launching of the book of short stories Maidenhome by Ding Xiaoqi and screening of The Mirror Burns, a film about women in Vietnam after the war, with discussion by film maker Di Bretherton.
The conference was organised by the Women's Caucus of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, which projected that its next major efforts might be a joint conference in Asia, perhaps in Penang in conjunction with the women's studies program at the Universiti Sains Malaysia and the women's groups existing in that country.
The Women's Caucus has conveners in each state, and publishes the Women in Asia Newsletter, available from Antonia Finnane, History, University of Melbourne, Parkville Vic 3052.