Do you know where the largest feminist movement of the 1960s was originally based? Indonesia! Many European and Northern American feminists believe that their interpretation of liberty and equality was exported to the so-called Global South. The women’s* movement in Indonesia in fact had experienced its widest expansion between the 1920s and the early 1960s. With three million members Gerwani was the strongest organisation of this movement. It presented the largest and most progressive feminist movement in the world of that time. After acoup d’Etat that was supported by Western countries this feminist movement and all other critical or leftist networks were silenced. Critical ideas could only get communicated in hidden, translated and coded form. The following 30 years of oppression and propaganda left behind scars and stigmata that affect the public memory of the women’s movement up until today. Still trauma cannot heal, because memories are handled as family secrets. In this context art is a valued platform for voicing critique, initiating transformation and healing from trauma.
