Table Of ContentGender, Violence and Power in Indonesia
This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to chart how various forms of violence –
domestic, military, legal and political – are not separate instances of violence, but rather
embedded in structural inequalities brought about by colonialism, occupation and state
violence. The book explores both case studies of individuals and of groups to examine
experiences of violence within the context of gender and structures of power. It argues
that gendered violence is particularly important to consider in this region because of its
complex history of armed conflict and authoritarian rule, the diversity of people that have
been affected by violence, as well as the complexity of the religious and cultural commu
nities involved. The book focuses in particular on textual narratives of violence, visuali
sations of violence, commemorations of violence and the politics of care.
Katharine McGregor is an Associate Professor in Southeast Asian history based in the
School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She
has written mostly about memory, violence, history making and women’s activism in
Indonesia. Her recent books include The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes,
Dynamics and Legacies (2018), co-edited with Annie Pohlman and Jess Melvin. She is
currently writing a book on transnational activism for Indonesian survivors of
enforced military prostitution during the Japanese Occupation of the Netherlands East
Indies as an outcome of her 2013–2018 ARC Future Fellowship.
Ana Dragojlovic is Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is
working at the intersection of feminist, queer, postcolonial and affect theory with a primary
focus on gender and mobility; violence, memory, and trauma. She is the author of Beyond
Bali: Subaltern Citizens and Post-Colonial Intimacy (Amsterdam University Press, 2016) and
co-author of Bodies and Suffering: Emotions and Relations of Care (Routledge, 2017, with
Alex Broom).
Hannah Loney is a Gilbert Postdoctoral Early Career Fellow in the School of Historical
and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include
women’s history, twentieth-century Southeast Asian and Pacific history, transnational
political activism, histories of violence, oral history, and human rights. Hannah’s book,
In Women’s Words: Violence and Everyday Life during the Indonesian Occupation of
East Timor, 1975–1999, was published in 2018 by Sussex Academic Press.
ASAA Women in Asia Series
WOMEN IN ASIA SERIES
Editor: Louise Edwards (University of New South Wales)
Editorial Board:
Hyaeweol Choi (University of Iowa)
Melissa Crouch (University of New South Wales)
Michele Ford (The University of Sydney)
Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University)
Tanya Jakimow (University of New South Wales)
Lenore Lyons (Independent scholar)
Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong)
Anne McLaren (The University of Melbourne)
Mina Roces (University of New South Wales)
Dina Siddiqi (New York University)
Andrea Whittaker (The University of Queensland)
Founding Editors: Susan Blackburn and Lenore Manderson
1 Young Muslim Women in India by Kabita Chakraborty 2016
2 Women's Empowerment in South Asia: NGO Interventions and Agency
Building in Bangladesh by Pranab Panday 2016
3 Women and the Politics of Gender in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste:
Between Heaven and Earth by Sara Niner 2016
4 Sex Trafficking in Southeast Asia: A History of Desire, Duty and Debt
by Trude Jacobsen 2016
5 Women, Work and Care in the Asia-Pacific edited by Marian Baird,
Michele Ford and Elizabeth Hill 2017
6 Marriage, Gender and Islam in Indonesia: Women Negotiating Infor
mal Marriage, Divorce and Desire by Maria Platt 2017
7 Comfort Women and Post-Occupation Corporate Japan by Caroline
Norma 2018
8 Women's Empowerment in Indonesia: A Poor Community in Jakarta by
Sri Wiyanti Eddyono 2018
9 Hong Kong Rural Women under Chinese Rule: Gender Politics, Reunifica
tion and Globalization in Post-colonial Hong Kong by Isabella NG 2019
10 Gender, Violence and Power in Indonesia: Across Time and Space Edited
by Katharine McGregor, Ana Dragojlovic and Hannah Loney 2020
A full list of titles in this series is available at: www.routledge.com/ASAA
Women- in-Asia-Series/book-series/SE0594
Gender, Violence and Power in
Indonesia
Across Time and Space
Edited by
Katharine McGregor, Ana Dragojlovic and
Hannah Loney
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Katharine McGregor, Ana
Dragojlovic and Hannah Loney; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Katharine McGregor, Ana Dragojlovic and Hannah Loney to
be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McGregor, Katharine E., editor. | Dragojlovic, Ana, editor. |
Loney, Hannah, editor.
Title: Gender, violence and power in Indonesia : across time and space /
edited by Katharine McGregor, Ana Dragojlovic and Hannah Loney.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019055737 | ISBN 9780367901974 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003022992 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Violence--Indonesia--History/ |
Political violence--Indonesia. | State-sponsored terrorism--Indonesia. |
Women--Violence against--Indonesia. | Indonesia--Ethnic relations--Political
aspects. | Indonesia--Politics and government.
Classification: LCC HN710.Z9 G46 2020 | DDC 303.609598--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019055737
ISBN: 978-0-367-90197-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-02299-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Taylor & Francis Books
Contents
List of figures vii
Series Editor’s Foreword viii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xiv
Glossary xv
Introduction: Gendered violence in the making of modern Indonesia 1
KATHARINE MCGREGOR AND HANNAH LONEY
1 Narrating intimate violence in public texts: Women’s writings in
the Sumatran newspaper Soenting Melajoe 19
BRONWYN ANNE BEECH JONES
2 Living in a conflict zone: Gendered violence during the Japanese
occupation of the Netherlands East Indies 39
KATHARINE MCGREGOR
3 Home at the front: Violence against Indonesian women and
children in Dutch military barracks during the Indonesian
National Revolution 59
SUSIE PROTSCHKY
4 The sexual and visual dynamics of torture: Analysing atrocity
photographs from Indonesian-occupied East Timor 84
HANNAH LONEY AND ANNIE POHLMAN
5 Memory on stage: Affect, gender and the performative in 1965–
66 survivor testimonies 101
WULAN DIRGANTORO AND BARBARA HATLEY
6 Commemorating gendered violence two decades on: Chinese
Indonesian women’s voices in the diaspora 119
MONIKA S. WINARNITA AND KEN M.P. SETIAWAN
vi Contents
7 Caring for the un-speakable: Coercive pedagogies, shame, and the
structural violence continuum in Indisch intergenerational
memory work 143
ANA DRAGOJLOVIC
8 The politics of care: A case study of domestic violence in Aceh 163
BALAWYN JONES
9 Gendered violence, gendered care: Nonintervention, silence work
and the politics of HIV in Aceh 181
ANNEMARIE SAMUELS
Afterword: Gender, violence, power: The pervasiveness of
heteropatriarchal moral orders in Indonesia across time and space 197
ANA DRAGOJLOVIC
Index 202
Figures
1.1 Soenting Melajoe contributor locations, based on a map from
Cribb (2010) 21
3.1 A European family with their babu, 1920s, Central Java 62
3.2 A household of servants in a Dutch army barracks 62
3.3 Soldiers with the laundry ‘babus’ 63
3.4 Soldiers with two young local boys 65
3.5 ‘Our piece [truck], and the work boys’ 66
3.6 ‘The late Sjef Kuppens with his babu’ 68
3.7 ‘Joop with the babu’ 69
3.8 Bivouac at Peudada during the Aceh War 69
3.9 Page showing soldiers relaxing in the barracks, and a babu
with puppies 71
3.10 Servant cleaning soldiers’ boots 72
3.11 ‘Sport and other entertainment’ 77
3.12 ‘Babus and other old rubbish by the garage’ 78
6.1 Poster for Rani Pramesti’s Chinese Whispers 2018 Jakarta launch 126
6.2 Dewi Anggraeni’s 2017 novel My Pain My Country 127
6.3 Elina Simbolon’s The Voice of Mockingbird art installation 2018 128
6.4 Rani as a twelve-year-old in a scene with her mother, from the
online digital graphic novel, Chinese Whispers 129
6.5 Rani’s discussion with young Chinese Indonesian women in
Melbourne, from the online digital graphic novel, Chinese
Whispers 130
6.6 Rani’s 2014 art installation, Chinese Whispers, at the
Melbourne Fringe Festival 131
6.7 Dewi’s experience meeting a survivor depicted in Rani’s online
digital graphic novel, Chinese Whispers 133
’
Series Editor s Foreword
The contributions of women to the social, political and economic trans
formations occurring in the Asian region are legion. Women have served
as leaders of nations, communities, workplaces, activist groups and famil
ies. Asian women have joined with others to participate in fomenting
change at micro and macro levels. They have been both agents and targets
of national and international interventions in social policy. In the perfor
mance of these myriad roles women have forged new and modern gen
dered identities that are recognisably global and local. Their experiences
are rich, diverse and instructive. The books in this series testify to the
central role women play in creating the new Asia and re-creating Asian
womanhood. Moreover, these books reveal the resilience and inventiveness
of women around the Asian region in the face of entrenched and evolving
patriarchal social norms.
Scholars publishing in this series demonstrate a commitment to pro
moting the productive conversation between Gender Studies and Asian
Studies. The need to understand the diversity of experiences of femininity
and womanhood around the world increases inexorably as globalisation
proceeds apace. Lessons from the experiences of Asian women present us
with fresh opportunities for building new possibilities for women’s progress
the world over.
The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) sponsors this pub
lication series as part of its on-going commitment to promoting knowledge
about women in Asia. In particular, the ASAA Women’s Forum provides
the intellectual vigour and enthusiasm that maintains the Women in Asia
Series (WIAS). The aim of the series, since its inception in 1990, is to
promote knowledge about women in Asia to both academic and general
audiences. To this end, WIAS books draw on a wide range of disciplines
including anthropology, sociology, political science, cultural studies, media
studies, literature, and history. The series prides itself on being an outlet
for cutting edge research conducted by recent PhD graduates and post
doctoral fellows from throughout the region.
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
The Series could not function without the generous professional advice
provided by many anonymous readers. Moreover, the wise counsel provided
by Peter Sowden at Routledge is invaluable. WIAS, its authors and the ASAA
are very grateful to these people for their expert work.
Louise Edwards (UNSW Australia)
Series Editor
