This week, on The ABR Podcast, we feature Nathan Hollier’s commentary ‘“Come nearer to Asia”: Australia’s place at Bandung, 1955’. Seventy years after the 1955 Asian-African Conference, Hollier reflects on Australia’s official absence from this historic ‘postcolonial moment’, as well as its unofficial presence. Hollier recalls the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Australia, to ‘come closer to Asia’. ‘Seventy years on,’ he says, ‘Nehru’s invitation still calls to us, however faintly.’

Nathan Hollier is Manager of The Australian National University Press and co-editor of Profiles in courage: Political actors & ideas in contemporary Asia. Here he is with ‘“Come nearer to Asia”: Australia’s place at Bandung, 1955.’, published in the September issue of ABR.