Apr 29, 2024 Last Updated 1:12 AM, Apr 19, 2024

Reviews Reviews Reviews Children

Film review: Tanah Mama

A new documentary about a Papuan woman’s daily struggle to survive opens debate on the grave issues affecting her society

Film review: Bitter Honey

Robert Lemelson’s latest documentary film takes his audience inside the lives of the women, men and children living in polygamous families in Bali

Film review: Daniel Ziv’s acclaimed 'Jalanan'

A film that takes the viewer deep into the lives of three people living on Jakarta's margins

Film review: From horror and porn stars…to Jokowi

KK Dheeraj’s unauthorised biopic is full of tears and belaboured symbolism

Review: Seeking peace without justice

The memoir of a former human rights commission official gives insights into handling of human rights in Indonesia in the late New Order and early reformasi period

Review: Coming to terms with 1965

Can the descendants of both sides of 1965 come together to help the nation achieve reconciliation?

Review: Surabaya-style football fandom

Junaedi gives a rare insight into Indonesia's football culture

Review: Money, power and ideology in Indonesia’s political party system

Marcus Mietzner argues that when seen in the context of other new democracies, Indonesia’s political parties are not so bad

Remembering Munir

A museum dedicated to the memory of the famous activist strives to promote human rights awareness among the younger generation

Review: Jokowi: From Solo to Jakarta and beyond?

Bob Lowry reviews the memoir of the current Jakarta governor and likely frontrunner for the 2014 presidential elections

Review: Voices from the unheard

Leila S. Chudori’s novel Pulang is an important addition to a growing literature examining the events of 1965-66 and its aftermath

Review: Julia’s jihad

The provocative Julia Suryakusuma on the rampage

Review: A tale of survival and resilience in modern Surabaya

Robbie Peters' new book brings the poor urban kampungs of Surabaya to life

Review: Justice, victimhood and remembering the violence in East Timor

Lia Kent’s study of East Timor’s attempts at transitional justice is an important contribution  

Review: Taking a musical journey in Sumatra

Margaret Kartomi’s life-long devotion to bringing Sumatran music to the world is revealed in her major contribution to analysing and preserving this musical heritage

Photo essay: Positive is negative

HIV/AIDS is posing an ever greater threat to the health and welfare of people in the highlands of Papua

Lives endangered

Three stories of people with HIV/AIDS in the central highlands of Papua show that both the government and community have a long way to go in confronting this major epidemic

Review: Suharto’s guardians and reluctant reformers

A new publication tells the story of the first graduates of the joint Indonesian Armed Forces Military Academy

Review: Lieutenant General Djaja Suparman tells his story

Editor’s note: For Indonesia-watchers the activities of the military and its leaders remain largely opaque and perhaps even menacing. In recent years the steady stream of memoirs and biographies by and about military leaders has, in some cases, assuaged some of this mystery and in others, added to the intrigue. As the public and judicial gaze has increasingly turned to the actions of military leaders with connections to the New Order, the memoir has been engaged by some as a form of testimony in an effort to ‘clear their name’. Whatever the motivation, with each new addition to this genre, we are offered new insights into the fractious and often treacherous ‘interior’ world of the Indonesian Armed Forces. Suparman holds the line but reveals some new insights into the transition of power after the fall of the New Order

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A documentary embraced by TikTokers is changing how young people understand Indonesia’s past

Indonesians call for climate action through music

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Self-education and lived experience of the impacts of climate change, are driving a grassroots environmental movement

Book review: Clive of Indonesia

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The Jokowi-Luhut alliance

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A business alliance forged in 2008 between Joko Widodo and Luhut Pandjaitan formed the basis for a major axis in his presidency

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