As a community archive, GerakIngatan’s primary objective is to counter archival silences. It is dedicated to collecting, curating and activating various records of the Indonesian leftist movements. Since 1965, the Indonesian state has systematically dominated the country’s historiography, and most recently, the current Prabowo Subianto administration has embarked on a controversial plan to rewrite the national history.

Seeking to nuance history, and telling it from the vantage point of the Indonesian Left, we align our work with growing movements that resist the Indonesian state’s continuous attempts at silencing alternative voices. At Watch65, we believe that expanding our understanding of leftist movements in the past can help us imagine various possibilities for progressive movements in the present and the future. The primary tenet of GerakIngatan lies at the interplay of two components: movement and memories. Its philosophy is that of moving memories—in order to be meaningful and to inspire, the memories preserved in otherwise ‘still’ documents must be put in motion through narration (arsip bercerita). One of the platform’s foci is the documentation of narratives, life works and stories of Indonesian exiles in the Netherlands and Europe.

About the speakers

GerakIngatan’s initiator, Dr. Rika Theo, Information Specialist of Political Science and Media Studies at Universiteit van Amsterdam and archivist at Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis (IISG), will introduce the archives. Dr. Theo will elaborate on GerakIngatan’s digital curation and storytelling, the politics/practice of community archives, and their potential to propel progressive activism. Ita Fatia Nadia, an Indonesian historian and feminist, will share her experiences with Ruang Arsip dan Sejarah Perempuan (RUAS), an independent community that works in archiving archival sources of the history of the Indonesian women's movement . As she has also been involved recently with the Alliance for Indonesian Historical Openness, she will provide an update on the current situation in Indonesia in relation to the government’s attempt to re-write history, and an interim prognosis on challenges that lie ahead for those doing memory work on/in Indonesia. Dr. Yatun Sastramidjaja, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, will moderate.