With this teach-in, Rizqita Naherta’s installation: ‘Merawat Api dari Penyihir-Penyihir Militan Kami - Nurturing the Fire of Our Militant Witches’ will be activated.

On Api Kartini and Combating the Revolutionary Void in Post-Reformation Indonesian Women’s Movement
As an activation of the repurposed archival pages from Api Kartini and the installation itself, the teach-in will look into the socio-political history of the Indonesian militant women’s organization Gerwani and their role of women’s emancipation during feudal, Dutch colonial, and Japanese imperial times in Indonesia.

The CIA-backed destruction and genocide of leftist movements during Suharto’s regime had forced Gerwani to dispersed themselves, and in doing so, womanhood was domesticated by the state through state-funded programs that enforced the ideals of a nuclear family (coined by scholars as state “ibuism”). This left a void after reformation, as amnesia lingers in the Indonesian women’s movement where tricontinental solidarity was once loudly advocated by their militant elders.

What does it mean to have a revolutionary void in the women’s movement of contemporary Indonesia? In what ways has it been filled? What are the responsibilities of diaspores in the Netherlands in maintaining the knowledge of exiled elders? How does this fragment of history influence tricontinental solidarity?

Rizqita Naherta a cultural worker, organiser, and archivist-researcher working collaboratively to nurture archival knowledge of Indonesian queer-marginalized communities and women’s resistance movements that are prone to be forgotten, misapprehended, and lost. Their practice manifests in the assemblage of various living archives built from old scattered media and the stories told in the everyday. Giving homage to their elders that came before them, and recirculating their spirit in the contemporary to counter historical amnesia.

Dewi Sofia (She/Her) is a cultural worker. She holds an MA in Arts and Culture at Leiden University and primarily works as an exhibitions and research assistant at Framer Framed. 

Her interests are mostly found in the intersections of contemporary culture and politics, working within themes of gender, queerness, and anti-imperialist resistance. As a cultural worker, her experience is in curating, writing, and research, integrating collective processes and social-justice driven perspectives in her practice. She is also involved in community-based projects which seek to (re)connect members of the diaspora to the history and political realities of Indonesia and the Philippines. Her projects are often centred on the imaginative possibility of reclaiming space and forming South-South solidarities to shake the matrices of coloniality.

You can reserve a spot via the sign up button on this page.

When | Tuesday, December 9th 19:00 - 21:00h
Location | Plaatsmaken
Access | Free