Hamish McDonald

Indonesia, a nation of thousands of islands and almost 250 million people, straddles the junction of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The world's biggest Muslim nation has long been one of Australia's important strategic partners, and the relationship has become closer—if occasionally fraught—under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. As Indonesia approaches its 2014 parliamentary and presidential elections, its future direction is...

An immersive journey through the tumultuous past and fascinating present of Australia's nearest neighbours. "We are the original people of the region ... This is a black region, it's not a white region." — Ralph Regenvanu, Ni-Vanuatu anthropologist and politician Stretching from Fiji in the east to New Guinea in the west, Melanesia is astonishingly diverse. Its islands are home...