Censorship in Yogyakarta; huge smuggling affair
Nieuwe Provinciale Groninger Courant, 22 September 1948, p. 2: wire items from the Madiun crisis (censorship and bans in Yogyakarta, Amir Sjarifuddin leaving Madiun, executions of two TNI/BPRI raiders who used kampong women as shields), a court-martial for thefts at Tanjung Priok, and a South Sulawesi-Singapore smuggli
Woman and the Changing Marriage Pattern of Indonesia (van der Kroef, 1957)
Journal article by Justus M. van der Kroef (American Catholic Sociological Review, June 1957) on women's status and marriage in Indonesia: adat versus Islamic law, polygamy, divorce rates, colonial and revolutionary change. Surveys women's organisations (Perwari, Kowani) and notes Kowani's early left turn and WIDF cont
Responsibility for the Fonds Kemerdekaan
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 27 Apr 1957, p. 3: Hatta's secretary and Sumanang explain that the Fonds Kemerdekaan became the Fonds Nasional under Sumanang, who took responsibility for its gold and silver jewellery used for guerrilla funding in 1948-49. S.K. Trimurti is cited as able to confirm that her husband Saju
Chronological Survey of Women's Position in Marriage, 1959 (Kowani Legal Commission)
Pamphlet by the Legal Commission of the Kongres Wanita Indonesia (22 Dec 1959): numbered chronology of the struggle over women's position in marriage from 1928, the 1937 draft ordinance, to post-independence marriage law debates.
Minutes of First Handover of Dioramas, Museum Pusat ABRI, 30 Sep 1975
Official record of the first handover, 30 Sep 1975, of 29 dioramas by Edhi Sunarso to the Armed Forces History Centre for the Museum Pusat ABRI. Documents the production of military-history dioramas that fed the 1965 narrative.
Minutes of Second Handover of Dioramas, Museum Pusat ABRI, Dec 1975
Official record of the second and final handover of 29 dioramas by Edhi Sunarso to Nugroho Notosusanto's Armed Forces History Centre, Dec 1975. Shows the Pusjarah project that produced official military history displays.
The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: Muhammadiyah in a Central Javanese Town (Nakamura, 1976)
Mitsuo Nakamura's 1976 Cornell PhD thesis, an ethnography and local history of the Muhammadiyah reform movement in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, arguing that Islamization of Java is an ongoing, internally generated process. Gerwani appears only in passing (p. 208), listed with Pemuda Rakyat and Lekra as PKI-influenced mass org
TAPOL Bulletin no. 28 (London, June 1978): arms sales and Mondale's visit, 1978 student crackdown (Yogyakarta), W.S. Rendra's arrest, conditions of the 1977 releases, psychotests of detainees, the Latief trial. A letter from an East Java ex-prisoner describes the 'bon' killings of 1966–69 and a Malang women's prison ho
The 30 September Movement: a political movement of the armed forces or an intelligence operation? (Holtzappel, 1979)
Journal article by Coen Holtzappel (Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1979) analysing the Untung and Njono trial records to argue the 30 September Movement was steered by Air Force and Army intelligence, with Sjam's Pringgodani group deliberately compromising the PKI and Aidit. Gerwani is mentioned only once, in a footnote
TAPOL Bulletin no. 52 (London, July 1982, 20 pp.): East Timor famine and the Nordland report, West Papua and transmigration, Dutch arms sales, Muslim political trials and torture, press bans (Tempo, Pelita), student repression, and an Atmakusumah book review noting that 46 of 163 newspapers were banned in October 1965.
Tempo, 6 October 1984: Stories of October 1965
Long Tempo feature (6 Oct 1984), New Order-era 'scattered stories' of 30 Sept-1 Oct 1965 told by witnesses: Catherine Panjaitan, Dewi Sukarno, Bambang Wijanarko, Mangil, Roeslan Abdulgani, Sugandhi, Salim Said, Syu'bah Asa. Frames events as a PKI coup and describes army/RRI takeover. Gerwani is not mentioned.
Draft Bank Guarantee Request, Pancasila Sakti Museum, 30 Nov 1992
Handwritten draft by sculptor Edhi Sunarso, 30 Nov 1992, asking Bank Niaga Yogyakarta for a 5% performance guarantee for the Paseban, diorama and pool renovation at Monumen Pancasila Sakti. Shows the commercial side of the state memory project.
The last night: after the headlights went out (Aidit's last night at home, Tempo, 2007)
Tempo piece (1 October 2007) reconstructing D.N. Aidit's last night at home, 30 September 1965, from his son Ilham and brother Murad. His wife Dr Soetanti Aidit angrily quarrels with him and urges him not to leave; he goes anyway. The article sets out the contested versions of where he went that night. Soetanti appears
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Burhan Zainuddin Rusjiman - 'I had a licence to kill'
Tempo testimony (1 Oct 2012) of Burhan Zainuddin Rusjiman, 72, 'Burhan Kampak', a former HMI/KAMI/Laskar Ampera member in Yogyakarta given a pistol and 'license to kill' from Nov 1965, who hunted PKI with Kostrad/RPKAD in Yogyakarta, Gunungkidul and Klaten. Motivated by anti-communism and CGMI conflict; Gerwani not men
Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (Stroud, 2015)
Martha Stroud's 2015 UC Berkeley/UCSF medical-anthropology dissertation, based on fieldwork in Yogyakarta (2010-12), examines how the 1965-66 killings shape daily life through propaganda, surveillance, stigma, silence and justice. Gerwani appears mainly as the object of New Order propaganda: the Lubang Buaya mutilation
Buru Island: Still Much More to Reveal (Hearman, 2020)
Hearman's review essay (Archipel 99, 2020) of the documentary Pulau Buru: Tanah Air Beta (2016), in which Hersri Setiawan and Tejabayu Soedjojono return to Buru, with Ita Nadia and Ken Setiawan. Context on Buru and its memory.
Forty Years of Silence: The Insanity of Society (Marching, 2020)
Film review by Soe Tjen Marching (Archipel 99, 2020, pp. 35-40) of Robert Lemelson's documentary '40 Years of Silence' (2009), following four families in Bali and Central Java affected by 1965-66, with attention to trauma, stigma ('child of communists') and the New Order propaganda film. Gerwani and the sexual slander
Ummah Yet Proletariat: Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959 (Lin, 2020)
PhD dissertation (History, University of Washington, 2020) by Hongxuan Lin tracing the confluence of Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959, through vernacular print culture; it genealogises Sukarno's NASAKOM. Gerwani appears only briefly: citing Blackburn, it says millions joined for
Mysterious poet and supporter of children's literature: Sugiarti Siswadi (Tempo, 1 May 2021)
Tempo article, 1 May 2021, by Isma Savitri and Hardian Putra Pratama, on Lekra writer Sugiarti Siswadi: Lekra central leadership member from 1959, children's-literature advocate, author of the banned Sorga Dibumi, and editor of Api Kartini. Researchers cannot trace her life; one suspects she was jailed in Semarang in 1
Tempo, 20 August 2022: Mia Bustam's third memoir (learning not to hold grudges)
Tempo feature (20 Aug 2022, Dian Yuliastuti and Seno Joko Suyono) on the launch of Mia Bustam's third memoir, 'Kelindan Asa dan Kenyataan'. It recounts her arrest in Yogyakarta on 23 Nov 1965, 13 years' detention without trial (Vredeburg, Wirogunan, Plantungan, Bulu) for Lekra membership, release in 1978, and her later
Fashioning Authoritarianism: Militarization of Society in Indonesia, 1930-1966 (Joshua, 2023)
PhD dissertation (Northwestern, 2023) by Norman Joshua on the militarization of Indonesian society, 1930-1966. It argues the Army intervened in non-military affairs through the 'twin logics' of emergency powers and counterinsurgency, culminating in the New Order. Gerwani appears only in passing: p. 428 gives its claime
Tempo.co, 10 December 2024: Mia Bustam's fourth memoir, portrait of a resilient woman
Tempo.co report (10 Dec 2024, Istiqomatul Hayati and Ihsan Reliubun) on the launch of Mia Bustam's fourth memoir, 'Mutiara Kisah Masa Lalu' (Ultimus, 7 Dec 2024), completing her tetralogy. It gives her biography, arrest on 23 Nov 1965, 13 years' detention (including Plantungan) as a Lekra member, and her children's acc
Tempo.co, 10 December 2024: Pearls of Mia Bustam's tetralogy - first love, divorce and prison
Tempo.co report (10 Dec 2024, Istiqomatul Hayati and Ihsan Reliubun) on Mia Bustam's four memoirs: 'Sudjojono dan Aku' (written from 1985, on her marriage and divorce, edited by Hersri Setiawan), 'Dari Kamp ke Kamp' (13 years' detention), 'Kelindan Asa dan Kenyataan' and 'Mutiara Kisah Masa Lalu'. Her children explain
Tempo, 16 November 2025: Rare archive of Lekra artist Mia Bustam (Biennale Jogja solo exhibition)
Tempo magazine report (16 Nov 2025, Shinta Maharani and Iwan Kurniawan) on the Biennale Jogja solo exhibition of Lekra artist Mia Bustam at Benteng Vredeburg (opened 6 Oct 2025), based on Astrid Reza's thesis. It covers her arrest, nearly 14 years' detention (Plantungan gardener), embroidery, paintings, Api Kartini mag