"Culture as a Precursor to Augmented Trade Relations": Indonesian Musics, Multicultural Festivals, and Vancouver's Changing Transpacific Identity, 1984–1986.

This article examines the sudden rise of Indonesian gamelan music performances in mid-1980s Vancouver within the context of the city’s strategic economic reorientation toward the Asia Pacific region. It highlights how large-scale events like the 1985 Asia Pacific Festival and Expo 86 used multicultural arts presentations, including gamelan, to promote Vancouver as a transpacific hub for trade and investment, reflecting neoliberal political and economic agendas. Concurrently, local artists and institutions, notably Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the artist-run Western Front, leveraged these developments to establish a sustained community focused on the study and performance of Indonesian musics, emphasizing cultural exchange and artistic engagement beyond economic instrumentalization. The gifting of a Javanese gamelan ensemble from the Indonesian Pavilion at Expo 86 to SFU catalyzed this community’s formation, which continues to thrive as a distinct cultural presence in Vancouver. This case illustrates the contested and multifaceted nature of cultural production amid shifting transpacific political economies and multicultural policies in 1980s Vancouver.