Kanya Pratita Wanaditya

How can I recall a collective memory of Chinese Indonesian people and develop historical empathy?

RETRACE’98 (Napak Tilas ‘98 in Indonesian) is a project aimed at preserving and recalling collective memory around the 1998 tragedy in Indonesia during the fall of the New Order dictatorship. All gender and racial based violence cases at the time were neglected and even denied by the government until today. 

Focusing on the narratives of several sexually assaulted women (narrated by the Ita Fatia Nadia, an activist who assisted them), I want to give back the voices that were taken away from these women.

Working on their narrative, I explore the use of imaginary roleplay to create connection between the women and much younger people who have no memory of this tragedy. The participants were asked to make visual reflections based on their experience.

The narrative about the assault is combined with daily life stories at the time, which I collected from every role play participant, and completed with several prompts about systemic racism and decolonisation to trigger critical contextualisation, especially for teenagers.

In essence, the project asks younger generations to reflect on who really paid for the democratic Indonesia of today.