NAILA 2025 featured a sports theme and drew participants from various categories. Judge Ana Surjanto hopes the competition can boost interest in learning Indonesian among Australian students, which has been declining.
The University of Queensland in Brisbane hosted the National Australia Indonesia Language Awards (NAILA) 2025 awards night on Saturday, 22 November. NAILA is a competition that recognises and promotes the development of Indonesian language learning in Australia.
The awards night announced winners across six categories: Early Primary, Upper Primary, Middle, Senior, Tertiary, and Executive. This year's competition featured a sports theme.
SBS Indonesian spoke with NAILA judge Ana Surjanto to learn about her views on the competition, the importance of NAILA in strengthening Indonesia-Australia relations through cultural diplomacy, and the competition's role amid declining interest in learning Indonesian among Australian students.
Listen to the full podcast.
