Indonesian Imports, located on the corner of Washington and
Locust, is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11
p.m. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BANNER GRAPHIC
A liberal arts education from a school like DePauw offers the opportunity to gain exposure to many cultures outside the one where one was raised through studies, travel and conversations with fellow students. A new store in Greencastle’s downtown square provides another window into a different world through its variety of global wares.
Indonesian Imports, located at the corner of West Washington and Jackson, is owned by Barbara South and Kit Newkirk. The store offers hand-carved wooden pieces such as cabinets, jewelry boxes and teak wood lawn furniture, as well as brightly colored textiles, for decoration or to be worn as scarves, pottery, and eye-catching Indonesian puppets.
Indonesian Imports also provides its shoppers with culturally-significant items such as antique dowry chests that might have been once used by a girl’s family as a container of gifts for her betrothed’s family.
In addition, the store boasts a collection of ancient Chinese containers sold to the owners by Lee and Susan Stewart. These pieces, 75 to 100 years old and once used for bath water or to make tea, add another dimension to the store’s display of items.
South and Newkirk’s inventory once resided in a store owned by Pam and Joe Jeffries.
“Joe, with his job, got stationed in Indonesia for four years," South explained. "His wife, Pam, just fell in love with everything there, and so she started shipping things back. Her mother had a building in Roachdale, Indiana, and so they opened the store there in Roachdale.”
When the Jeffries family moved to Maryland, the store closed and the items were simply left behind. South, a frequent customer at their store, didn’t let this stand for very long.
But South and Newkirk decided to give the inventory the home it deserved.
“We approached the family and said we would like to start buying your inventory and see if we can make a go of it in Greencastle,” South said.
While South has a background in sales as the owner of a handmade clothing store, and Newkirk as the owner of several stores over the last 25 years, the establishment of the store also has roots in the owners’ community ties. The location downtown came easily to South, a social worker in Greencastle, and Newkirk, the director of the Putnam County Museum. As involved members of their community, the two saw that “a lot of things are going on downtown…and we wanted to be a part of that,” South said.
Greencastle resident Susannah Hardesty, a self-proclaimed “multi-purchase customer," called the collection at Indonesian Imports “unique and one-of-a-kind.”
Hardesty learned about rarity of the store’s offerings firsthand.
“The first piece I thought I wanted, I made the mistake of going home and thinking about it," she said. "You know, these aren’t things that you can just replace with the same thing again. And I came back and it was gone. These are just beautiful, individual works of art that once they’re sold, you can’t get them."
Indonesian Imports employee Mickey Mehan values having a store like this as a part of the Greencastle community, and DePauw students have agreed with her.
“There’s some student traffic, and they always tell me about stores that are sort of like this back home, and how they really like that there’s a store like that here," Mehan said.
South remarked that Indonesian Imports will be a "pop-up shop."
"We only have a three-month lease, but we would like to see if we can make a go of this business." she said. "We may close after Christmas and we may get more inventory and open up again another place, another time."
Indonesian Imports is located at 2 W. Washington St. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, or by appointment.