Gerwani Archive
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GA-02923 2017 rel B

Sexual Violence as Torture (Pohlman, 2017)

Pohlman (2017), lead investigator on sexual crimes for the IPT 1965, argues rape and sexualised torture in 1965-70 detention were crimes against humanity, summarising fifty-eight case files (72% female victims, 85% naming soldiers or military police). Legal framing of sexual torture.

GA-02949 2017 rel C

Der Völkermord von 1965 in Indonesien geht uns alle an: Das Ringen um Gerechtigkeit nach Menschenrechtsverletzungen (Wieringa, 2017)

The 1965 genocide in Indonesia concerns us all: the struggle for justice (Wieringa, 2017)

Two-page south-east Asia magazine piece (südostasien 1/2017, German) translating Wieringa's statement as IPT 1965 chair on the July 2016 verdict: crimes against humanity, 400,000-600,000 killed, sexual violence, hate propaganda, complicity of the US, UK and Australia. Gerwani not named.

GA-02941 2019 rel B

Purifying Indonesia, Purifying Women: Komnas Perempuan and the 1965-1968 Anti-Communist Violence (van Doorn-Harder, 2019)

Purifying Indonesia, Purifying Women: Komnas Perempuan and the 1965-1968 Violence (van Doorn-Harder, 2019)

Nelly van Doorn-Harder's 2019 article on how Komnas Perempuan took up 1965 women survivors (2006 delegation, 2007 report), arguing the violence and stigma were justified as 'purification' and Gerwani women were cast as 'the most impure of all'. Gender and religious logic of impurity.

GA-02973 2019 rel B

Mit Musik das Schweigen brechen (Anett Keller, südostasien, 2019)

Breaking the silence with music (Anett Keller, 2019)

Anett Keller's 2019 südostasien feature (German) on music breaking silence about 1965: Genjer-genjer and its composer Muhammad Arief, Lekra composer Subronto Atmodjo, New Order policy, and post-1998 projects. Context on music and memory.

GA-02858 2020 rel A

Zulbainar, Perempuan Pejuang Masyarakat Marjinal sebagai Aktivis Gerwani (1961-1977)

Zulbainar, a woman fighter for marginal communities as Gerwani activist (1961-1977)

Journal article (2020) by Agustina and Fatimah, a biography of Zulbainar (b. 1939, West Sumatra), who joined Gerwani c. 1954, became treasurer of Gerwani Padang Pariaman, lost her husband to a mob in 1965 and was held 12 years without trial until 1977. Regional Gerwani life history.

GA-02874 2020 rel A

Feminismus als Klassenfrage, Teil II (Ita Fatia Nadia, südostasien 2020)

Feminism as a Class Question, Part II (Ita Fatia Nadia, 2020)

Part II of Nadia's essay (südostasien 3/2020): how the army and paramilitaries used sexualised violence to destroy Gerwani after Oct 1965, the Lubang Buaya slander and film, 1966 tattoo 'searches', and New Order redefinition of women's roles. In German.

GA-02898 2020 rel B licensed

From Indonesia with Love: Friendships between Political Prisoners and their Pen Pals (Hearman, 2020)

From Indonesia with Love: Political Prisoners and their Pen Pals (Hearman, 2020)

Hearman's 2020 article reconstructing the 1982-92 letters between ex-Gerwani militant Pudji Aswati, imprisoned for subversion, and English Quaker author Patricia Cleveland-Peck, showing how befriending became a transnational activist network. Rare transnational Gerwani prisoner correspondence.

GA-02908 2020 rel B

1965, L'Heure de l'histoire (Margolin, Archipel 99, 2020)

1965, the hour of history (Margolin, Archipel, 2020)

Jean-Louis Margolin's 47-page review essay (Archipel 99, 2020, in French) on the 'new historiography' of 1965 through eight books, summarising findings on army-militia cooperation, NU/Ansor, sexual violence and prisons, and critiquing Melvin and Robinson.

GA-02966 2020 rel C

Filmed Memories of 1965 (Elsa Clavé, Archipel 99, 2020)

Filmed Memories of 1965 (Elsa Clavé, 2020)

Elsa Clave's introduction (Archipel 99, 2020) to a dossier on 1965 and cinema, arguing memory remains institutionalised in museums and monuments and stigma of communism is easily manipulated, as in the 2017 attack on LBH Jakarta. Context on film and memory.

GA-02989 2021 rel B

Bentuk Perlawanan Perempuan melalui Penulisan dalam Album Dunia Milik Kita dan Salam Harapan (Saraswati dan Subono, 2021)

Women's resistance through writing in the albums Dunia Milik Kita and Salam Harapan (Saraswati and Subono, 2021)

2021 article by Saraswati and supervisors on Dialita's albums Dunia Milik Kita (2016) and Salam Harapan (2019), arguing songs by women prisoners are 'penulisan perempuan' and a form of resistance, with an account of Dialita's origins. Companion to the 2022 thesis summary.

GA-02977 2022 rel B licensed

Dialita: Collective Memories of Former Women Political Prisoners during the New Order Era in Java (Lestariningsih and Sunarti, 2022)

Dialita: Collective Memories of Former Women Political Prisoners in Java (Lestariningsih and Sunarti, 2022)

Memory Studies article (2022) on the Dialita choir of former women political prisoners and relatives as a vehicle for identity and 'cultural reconciliation', drawing on interviews with Uchikowati, Utati and others; co-author wrote a book on Plantungan Gerwani prisoners. Key study.

GA-02925 2024 rel C

Patterns of New Order Torture: The IndoTorM Dataset (Pohlman et al., 2024)

Patterns of New Order Torture: the IndoTorM dataset (Pohlman et al., 2024)

Pohlman and colleagues' 2024 article presenting the IndoTorM dataset of 4,072 torture victims (1965 onward), with heat maps showing beatings and forced stripping constant over time and rape dominant for women and children. Quantitative context on New Order torture.

GA-02899 2025 rel C

I Don't Want to Die for Nothing in Prison: A Life Experience of a Former 1965-1966 Political Prisoner in Indonesia (Hidayat, 2025)

I Don't Want to Die for Nothing in Prison: life of a former 1965-66 political prisoner (Hidayat, 2025)

2025 single-case phenomenological study of an 86-year-old male former political prisoner (interviews via KontraS, 2024): union worker, arrest in 1966, torture, forced labour at Tangerang, Nusakambangan and Buru, later Aksi Kamisan activism. Male testimony; context only.

GA-02904 2025 rel B

Marriages between Political Prisoners' Wives and Army Officers: Victimization of Women (Kochi Kaoru, 2025)

Marriages between political prisoners' wives and army officers (Kochi Kaoru, 2025)

Kochi Kaoru's 2025 article using second-hand-market documents to show that wives and widows of leftist men, including former Gerwani members, married or became concubines of officers and soldiers, and the army banned the practice; also covers 'bersih diri' certificates and disenfranchisement.

GA-02931 2025 rel A licensed

From the Men They Took Their Labor, from the Women They Took Everything (Sarbinatun, trans. Nancy Florida, 2025)

From the Men They Took Their Labor, from the Women They Took Everything (Sarbinatun, transl. Florida, 2025)

Nancy Florida's annotated English translation (Indonesia, Oct 2025) of Sarbinatun's testimony: Lekra dancer and IPPI president, married at 17 to a PKI Special Bureau man, tortured in Solo and Semarang, held at Plantungan until 1979 and accused as Gerwani though never a member.

GA-02894 2026 rel A

Slave Labour and Silence in Plantungan Camp (Głąb, 2026)

Katarzyna Głąb's open-access article (June 2026) on Plantungan, the women political prisoners' camp in a former Dutch leprosarium, using 2018 interviews with survivors aged 81-89 and Mia Bustam's memoir; argues it worked through forced labour, sexual violence and memory erasure. Recent scholarship on Plantungan.