Performing Resistance in Indonesia

Pramoedya Ananta Toer is without doubt Indonesia’s greatest novelist. The most memorable and important character in his renowned novel This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia) is a young Javanese girl, Sanikem, who is taken as a concubine by a Dutch colonial businessman. As a concubine she becomes known as Nyai Ontosoroh – Nyai being the title for concubines.

The character of Nyai Ontosoroh has now entered the public mind in Indonesia as the prime symbol of the strong, fighting, determined woman – perhaps more written about now than any real, historical figure of similar kind.

In 2006, Faiza Mardzoeki wrote and produced a play based on the story of Nyai Ontosoroh. Two women’s emancipation groups, the Institute Ungu and the Jaringan Perempuan Mahardhika (Freedom Women’s Network) and also the Free Peoples Forum (PRM) supported the production of the play which brought together a high profile film actress, professional theatre actors, grass roots theatre activists as well as political and feminist activists. Faiza will tell the story of how performing This Earth of Mankind on stage has inspired the formation of a new feminist art and culture group in Indonesia.

Max Lane, author of Unfinished Nation and translator of Pramoedya into English, will briefly explain the process of the development of a Pramoedya ideological community in Indonesia and its potential future. He will relate the recent event that was organized for the 80th birthday of Pramoedya's publisher.