We are pleased to announce the addition of the Native Speaker Award to the existing award categories. For this award, eligible applicants are those who speak Indonesian as their first language and are currently completing post-graduate studies at an Australian university.
Participants have the chance to win up to $2,000 by submitting a 5-6 minute speech on a broad range of topics covering this year’s theme ‘Our Future’. Entrants can also showcase an original performance in Bahasa Indonesia or use Bahasa Indonesia to teach the audience one of Indonesia’s many dialects.
Performances may include (but are not limited to):
- Reciting an original poem
- Performing an original song
- Demonstrating and/or explaining a traditional (Australian or Indonesian) ceremony, dance or handcraft
- Performing a monologue
- Delivering an original translation of a famous Australian poem with commentary
- Presenting a stand-up comedy routine
Why have a native Indonesian speaker category?
The motivation behind this award is two fold. First, the team at NAILA believes it is important to hear perspectives on the bilateral relationship from Indonesians, as well as Australians. Second, NAILA aims to establish a mentoring and networking community of Indonesian language speakers. By including native Indonesian speakers in this year’s contest all participants, including the Executive Award category, will have a benchmark to which they can strive to achieve first class Indonesian language and presentation skills.
Whilst we would love to open up this award to all Indonesians, at this stage of our development, it would be difficult for us to adequately sort through and mark (potentially) thousands of applications coming in from Indonesia or undergraduates studying in Australia (did you know there are approx.17,000 Indonesians studying here). So we thought we’d keep it local and limit it to Indonesian post-graduates studying in Australia – at least for now.
Yuk! Check out this example for an indication of the standard of application required.
For more information on how to apply for this category visit the 2016 NAILA Rules and the Native Speaker Award category.