A piece of cloth

Sri Sunardi was the architect of the scouting grounds in Cibubur and was the holder of the highest honour of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM). He was married to a leftist lecturer of the Pedagogy Department at Gajah Mada University in...
Grandfather’s Book

Grandfather’s Book

For a very long time, all I wanted was an ordinary family. This is the family I was born into and the one I received. It’s extraordinary.Today, my kids walked into a bookstore and found their grandfather’s book, which is also dedicated to them.They may...
Where is Grandpa?

Where is Grandpa?

I spent my childhood in Jakarta. Sometimes, we went for a holiday in Yogyakarta – and we would visit our paternal grandma’s grave. There was only one gravestone there, and that was grandma’s. That was why one day I asked where grandpa’s grave...

Indonesia since ’65, Papua since ’63

Last year, in my home village, Bireuen, North Ache, we had a family gathering. My grandmother was ill at the time. I don’t feel too close to my family, especially this grandmother, the mother of my stepmother. I didn’t have any specific emotion when I...

When I go to Sleep at Night

Around 2009, when I was quite broken-hearted, I stumbled upon a book by the late Sulami and Sudjinah, two Gerwani leaders who continued their activism after 1965. I finished reading the book on my way from Bekasi to Jakarta. Their stories made my life problems felt so...