Loving Indonesia from Abroad
Carlo, 7, happily played with his sister Marina, 3, on the verandah of Kafe A Tavola in Largo Settimio Severo, Milan, Italy. The two children joked with each other in Italian.
“Carlo, can you speak Indonesian?” asked a café visitor, a member of the Indonesian community in Italy’s fashion capital. “Bisa! [Yes, I can!],” Carlo responded. Dialogue in Indonesian soon followed between Carlo and several Indonesians that dusk in late May. Marina sometimes chimed in, also using Indonesian.
Rieska Wulandari, the children’s mother, is still an Indonesian citizen. Her husband Andrea Costi is Italian. The mixed heritage family has lived in Milan for more than eight years. Rieska said she had never thought about changing her citizenship. She remains deeply in love with Indonesia for simple reasons based on more than just nationalism. She passes down this love for her homeland to her two children.
A simple way of loving Indonesia, Rieska said, was by teaching her children Indonesian.
Yuth Novara, an Indonesian citizen who has resided in Novara, Italy, for more than 20 years, shares Rieska’s sentiment. Apart from having married an Italian, her child is also married to an Italian.
“By using Indonesian, children will always remember their roots. This is also practical for when we visit my home country. My children will not feel left out. They will be able to communicate with my extended family,” said Rieska, a former employee of Milan’s Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC).
Mother’s request
Rieska said her mother had visited from Indonesia to be with her when she gave birth to Carlo. “At the time, my mother told me to teach my children Indonesian so that they could talk to their grandparents and our extended family in Indonesia. It is easy for children to learn new languages. It is far more difficult to teach their grandparents Italian,” she explained.
To honor her mother’s request, Rieska uses Indonesian to communicate with her children. Thanks to a supportive environment, both children, especially Carlo, can speak Indonesian well.
“I often hear complaints from my friends living abroad. They say that they do not enjoy visiting Indonesia as the language barrier makes it difficult for their children to communicate with family. Meanwhile, I also teach my children to love Indonesian songs,” Rieska said.
These led to protests. They said they should travel to other countries in the summer
Yuth said she “forced” her children to visit Indonesia during Italy’s summer holiday, in order to sharpen their Indonesian language skills and deepen their love for her home country. “These led to protests. They said they should travel to other countries in the summer,” she said on Tuesday (25/6/2019).
Apart from using Indonesian in communicating with one another, Yuth and her children almost always support Indonesian product exhibitions in Milan. “Our Italian family, especially my mother in law, loves the Indonesian way of child-rearing. She says that, that way, the children have better manners and never think twice before helping others,” she explained.
Nevertheless, educating children about Indonesia in Italy is not without its problems. Rieska said Carlo’s preschool teacher once complained that he was constantly using Indonesian. Rieska then made a Indonesian-Italian dictionary for the teacher. Nowadays, Carlo is bilingual.
Tatik Mulyadi, Intan NC Sibarani, Risky Trisniawati and Ketut Niken Aprilian in Milan, as well as Dewi in Turin, also married Italians. They have different ways of showing their love for Indonesia, including supporting the creation of an anti-hoax community to tackle the spread of fake news about their homeland. Dewi and her husband Pietro own Warung Jawa (Javanese Food Shop), which offers Indonesian dishes such as nasi tumpeng [cone-shaped yellow rice with side dishes], in Turin. Their customers are mostly foreigners.
“I love participating in the Indonesian independence celebration in August. My father once told me that rain of rocks in your own country was still better than rain of gold in a foreign land,” said Tatik, an alumnus of the University of Bergamo who has resided in Italy for more than 25 years.
Dual citizenship
As an Indonesian woman married to foreigner and living abroad, Rieska said she was worried about the future of her and her children’s citizenships. In Indonesia, it is as if they are forgotten. Abroad, with an Indonesian passport, Rieska receives different treatment. .
“Holding on to my Indonesian citizenship is an honor. However, it is difficult to get residence permits abroad and other administrative rights,” Rieska said. Many Indonesian women end up changing their citizenship just to avoid the unnecessary hassle. “It is time that Indonesia adopts a dual citizenship policy. Indonesia will not lose its people and there will be many benefits,” she continued.
On the other hand, Milan-based Indonesian lawyer Maria Ardianingtyas said it would not be a problem if children of mixed culture families chose to give up their Indonesian citizenship. They can still contribute to loving Indonesia through various ways, even by popularizing Indonesian songs abroad.