The Volunteer Graduate Scheme for Indonesia in Historical Perspective

This thesis examines the Volunteer Graduate Scheme for Indonesia (VGS), a student-run initiative of the 1950s that sent idealistic and young Australian university graduates – including doctors, teachers, engineers, and scientific researchers – to work for the Indonesian Republic. Although less than fifty volunteers ended up serving in Indonesia through the Scheme, its cultural impact was profound: many ex-volunteers became leaders in their professions thanks in part to their experiences in Indonesia, the pool of experts who founded the academic discipline of Southeast Asian Studies in Australian universities were drawn heavily from the alumni of the VGS, and cultural organisations such as the Australian-Indonesian Association of Victoria were founded and run for decades by individuals who went through the VGS. The VGS also served as a precursor and model to other voluntary aid programs, such as the United States Peace Corps and British Voluntary Service Overseas, and is the ancestor of Australian Volunteers International. More than this, through examining the VGS and placing it in its historical context, new perspectives can be added to the historiographies of Australian-Indonesian relations, the Cold War, and post-war conceptions of Australian identity. The thesis divides into four substantive chapters. ‘Background to the Formation of the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ traces the developments within Australian society that made something akin to the VGS feasible and, to the individuals who founded it, desirable. ‘The Volunteer Graduate Scheme and Australian-Indonesian Relations’ provides a short history of the VGS as it operated, and shows how the VGS represents a less-familiar perspective in the history of Australian-Indonesians relations than is normally presented, in which ‘world minded’ Australians rather than diplomats or experts spearhead interactions with Indonesian society. ‘The Cold War and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ examines the ways in which the Cold War – and anti-communism – influenced the development of the VGS and, by extension, the ways that Australians engaged with Indonesia and understood Indonesian society and their own actions. This chapter shows that although the Cold War is fundamental to understanding the events of this period, the driving force of actions were often more complicated than a simplistic communist / anti-communist dichotomy. ‘Identity, White Australia, and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ provides two new perspectives on the formation of Australian national identity in its relationship with Asia in the Menzies era. The first section of this chapter looks at the impact of mass migration of non-English speaking European countries, and the ways in which the changes occurring within Australian society influenced the understanding Australians had of their own identity and place in the world. The second section looks at the roles that gender played in the VGS. Gender served as a complicating factor to the Scheme’s pursuit of intercultural friendship, with mixed-race intimate relationships a source of anxiety and pride, at different points. This section also shows how female volunteers themselves used gender and their experiences in Indonesia to offer a critique of the position of women in Australian society.Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 201