Born in New Zealand on July 22, 1943, his love of Javanese culture began when he met Emmy Oey, an Indonesian woman of Chinese descent from Banyumas, Central Java.

“Although Chinese in ethnicity, Emmy’s family was very fond of Javanese gamelan music and preferred Javanese to Chinese in daily speech. I always felt comfortable in my visits to her family in Banyumas,” he told The Jakarta Post during a break at the fifth Javanese Language Congress, held from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30 in Surabaya.

Since those Banyumas visits, Quinn delved deeper into Javanese language and culture while lecturing on the subject at the Australian National University, the only university in Australia that offers Javanese courses. Monash University closed its Javanese class four years ago and Sydney University 10 years ago due to lack of interest among students.

In the course of the Javanese Language Congress, with 600 attendees from Indonesia, Suriname and Australia, Quinn communicated in Javanese. The man has become familiar to Javanese language activists due to his participation at previous congresses, the first held in Semarang. “I won’t do interviews in English,” he said to journalists.

Bonari Nabonenar, a Javanese literature expert in Surabaya, said Quinn had a very high command of Javanese, even a better grasp of the spirit of Javanese culture than some Javanese people who are proud of their English.

At the congress, Quinn presented a paper titled “Unggah-ungguh lan Bahasa Indonesia: Masalah Rong Werno sing Ngruwedeni Pamulanging Bahasa Jawa Marang Siswa Manca” (Courtesies and Indonesian: Two problems in Teaching Foreign Students Javanese).

“Javanese ranks 12th on the list of the world’s most widely spoken languages. But at present the zeal for Javanese study among students in Australia and America is waning. Globalization has prompted people all over the world to improve their English,” observed Quinn.

Quinn first arrived in Indonesia on Jan. 4, 1966, amid student demonstrations demanding, among others, the dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party. He had left New Zealand for Indonesia after an invitation by an activist from the Indonesian Students’ Action Front in Jakarta.  

“In Jakarta I got very confused witnessing the heated situation in Indonesia, which was unlike New Zealand’s peaceful circumstances. Despite the Indonesian crisis, I could still find taxi drivers who honestly gave me change for my fares,” he said.   

One day, Quinn was taken to a University of Indonesia student protest. “I repeatedly refused as I’m a foreigner, but several peers urged me just to see from a distance. It was my first experience watching a demo directly in Indonesia,” he said.

After some hours, a troop of presidential guards arrived to disperse the action in front of the campus by firing warning shots, forcing students to run to avoid stray bullets.

Frightened, Quinn sought cover. “I immediately hid myself in a ditch that stank,” he recalled. Several minutes after the troops left, Quinn crawled out of the sewer only to find students laughing at him as his clothes were soiled and torn and smelled bad. “The next day I decided to return home,” he said.

In 1967, Quinn again visited Indonesia as a member of Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA), an institute engaged in education in developing countries. He was assigned to teach English at Satya Wacana University in Salatiga, Central Java. “My honorarium was Rp 12,000 a month. It was small but I loved doing the job,” he said.

At Satya Wacana, Quinn met Emmy Oey, a colleague whom he married in 1973. “I married her not to learn about Javanese culture but because I fell in love with her, a beautiful lady,” he reminisced. He used to go to Emmy’s home every weekend before they got married.

After their marriage, Quinn tried to increase his income by teaching English at the Oil and Gas Academy in Cepu, Central Java, where his pay tripled. While in Cepu, he became interested in Indonesian literature after reading the works of novelist Motinggo Boesye on his way between Salatiga and Cepu by train.

Motinggo Boesye, born Bustami Djadid, was a literary man and artist born in Kupangkota, Bandar Lampung. He was also known as a poet, with 200 of his works kept at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Motinggo’s three novels that inspired Quinn are Tidak Pernah Menyerah (Never Giving Up, 1963), Tiada Belas Kasihan (No Mercy, 1963) and Sejuta Matahari (A Million Suns, 1963). “Motinggo’s books are exceptional. Regrettably, not many Indonesian youth know him. Actually he’s one of the Indonesian writers with novels that have circulated throughout the world,” he said.

While teaching, Quinn studied Indonesian literature at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1973. In 1974, he furthered his Indonesian study at the University of Sydney.

Quinn and Emmy now live in Australia and have become Australian citizens. They have a 34-year-old son and two grandchildren living in Western Australia.

“I’ve taught my grandchildren Javanese but they aren’t fluent yet because they live in a predominantly English-language environment,” he said. Although a resident of Australia, Quinn visits Indonesia frequently.

“I’m now studying the Javanese tradition of making pilgrimages to sacred cemeteries or those of the Wali Songo,” he said, touring different parts of Java for this purpose. “Foreigners often have to pay high becak fares but my Javanese proficiency guarantees normal rates,” he said.

Besides Javanese, Quinn has mastered Tagalog and also speaks fluent Tetum, a language of East Nusa Tenggara and Timor Leste. “Tetum is now rarely spoken by East Nusa Tenggara people but in Timor Leste it remains the language on TV, radio and in newspapers,” he pointed out.

Quinn expressed his hope that the Indonesian government would adopt measures to rescue regional languages so as to withstand the ravages of globalization, just like the language of one group of aborigines in Australia, a language now in crisis and vulnerable to extinction. 

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