In Memory of Ibu Yohanni Johns
On Saturday 24 October 2026, our dear friend, colleague, mentor and inspiration, Ibu Yohanni Bey Johns OAM, passed away. Ibu Yohanni is survived by her children, Gregory, Francis, Monica, Michael and David Johns, their partners and her many beloved grandchildren. She was predeceased by her equally luminary husband, the late Professor Anthony Johns AM (1928-2025). Ibu Yohanni will be remembered and missed also by the many scholars, diplomats, civil servants, defence personnel and students of Indonesia whom she guided through her exceptionally influential academic career, and by those who carry on her work today.
Born in West Sumatra on 15 January 1931 in what was then the Dutch East Indies, Ibu Yohanni was witness to the enormous historical changes that swept through the region during her youth and early adulthood. Educated in both Dutch colonial and Japanese occupation secondary schools, she went on to tertiary training as a teacher in the new nation of Indonesia. After graduating, she was selected in 1954 for a specialist course on language teaching methodology and linguistics, sponsored by the Ford Foundation, where her future husband, Dr Anthony H. Johns, later worked as an English teacher.
Yohanni and Tony Johns arrived in Canberra in 1958, where Tony was tasked with establishing Indonesian and Malay at Canberra University College. After a short time, the College joined ANU, and in 1963 Tony and Yohanni established the first Indonesian Language program at ANU. Described by Professor Virginia Hooker as a “born communicator,” Yohanni encouraged her students to speak only Indonesian in the classroom, and she trained many of those who went on to become a part of Australia’s growing cohort of deeply engaged educators, scholars, diplomats and volunteers involved in bilateral relations between Australia and Indonesia. Her influence spread far beyond her own classroom through three graded Indonesian language textbooks, published in 1978, 1981 and 1996, from which most Australians who learned Indonesian from the 1970s through to the 2000s studied.
Ibu Yohanni’s brilliance shone beyond the language classroom and informed her writing on various aspects of Indonesian culture and society. Introducing her 1971 book Dishes from Indonesia, Tony Johns remarked that it was “her special gift to be able to see two styles of life clearly and fully, and interpret one in terms of the other’ (Johns 1971: vii).” In a style Professor Hooker describes as Yohanni’s hallmark, the book brought Indonesian recipes to life with descriptions of their socio-cultural significance and personal anecdotes.
Remembering many meals shared with Ibu Yohanni and Tony, Emeritus Professor Jim Fox related that “For Yohanni, proper spoken Indonesian and proper Indonesian cooking were closely related.” He went on to describe a favourite memory, sharing transport to see a wayang orang performance in Solo, Central Java.
“I cornered a becak and spoke to the driver as Yohanni got in. The driver’s reply, saying he would take us to our destination, shocked Yohanni.
‘Jim, did you hear what he said? That was not Indonesian!’ I replied: ‘Yohanni, did you understand what he said?’ She replied: ‘Yes, of course.’
To which I could only console her that that would have to do, while we were in Java.”
Among her many influential students, Ibu Yohanni taught Betty Gorton, wife of then Prime Minister John Gorton, and Sam Mostyn, the 28th Governor General of Australia. In 2024 she was awarded an Order of Australia medal for service to tertiary education. Listed alongside her books and teaching positions are Ibu Yohanni’s roles as a founding Member of the Faculty of Asian Studies at ANU, Cultural Advisor to Prime Minister John Gorton and, just as importantly, Matriarch of the Canberra Indonesian Community. This year it was our privilege to host Ibu Yohanni and the extended Johns’ family for her last visit to our campus, attending the Tony and Yohanni Johns Annual lecture delivered by Dr Intan Paramaditha. The lecture is supported by the Tony and Yohanni Johns Endowment, made possible by the generosity of the late Emeritus Professor Anthony Reid, as well as friends and family of Tony and Yohanni Johns – a testament to the deep esteem in which they are held.
Ibu Yohanni’s legacy, like that of Tony Johns, will carry on for many generations, but her service, spirit and intellect will be deeply missed. Our hearts and minds are with the Johns family in their time of loss, and we express our deepest condolences to them.
* This text draws on a range of sources, most importantly Professor Virginia Hooker’s chapter “Friendship, Partnership, Action: Women and the Bilateral Relationship,” in Strangers Next Door? (2018, Hart Publishing).