1958 – 2026
Thirty-one production photographs from Edhi Sunarso's studio of life-size figures for the Lubang Buaya 'torture house' diorama, showing generals, bound captives and assailants in fatigues. Shows how the Lubang Buaya scene was physically fabricated.
Seventeen photographs of the sculptors' group Keluarga Arca installing miniature dioramas (Yani abduction, Lubang Buaya training, recovery of bodies) c. 1980-81, plus later life-size figures. Visual evidence of how the Paseban dioramas were made.
Typed layout sheet listing the 37 diorama titles of the Museum Pengkhianatan PKI ('Museum Ekstrim Kiri'), opened 1 Oct 1992, from Madiun 1948 through Aidit's capture, the Njono trial and 1974. Shows how the official PKI-treachery narrative was structured.
Eight photographs of dioramas and installation work at the Museum Pengkhianatan PKI, including a life-size Supersemar tableau with Sukarno and a woman in kebaya beside him. Visual record of the museum's making.
Official booklet issued by Pusjarah ABRI for the 1 Oct 1992 opening of the Museum Pengkhianatan PKI, with forewords by Brig. Gen. Idroes and Try Sutrisno framing 37 dioramas as warning about communism's 'latent danger'. State memory propaganda.
De Waarheid, 19 Sep 1958, p. 6: photo captions from the Buchenwald memorial inauguration (14 Sep 1958) attended by a Dutch delegation. One caption notes Sulami, the Indonesian representative to the International Women's Movement (WIDF), receiving gifts from the Dutch delegation at the farewell evening, alongside delega
Eleven damaged colour prints (June 1974) of dioramas made by Edhi Sunarso's workshop for the Museum Satriamandala, showing oath-taking, assemblies and possibly an exhumation scene. Uncaptioned visual record of the military museum's historical narrative.
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.
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.
Urgent memo no. 741, 22 May 1975, from Pusjarah ABRI asking Edhi Sunarso to send finished diorama figures to the Museum ABRI before a ministry inspection. Administrative record; no Gerwani or 1965 content.
Photograph, image 05 of Khastara item 582249 (Yayasan Idayu albums), captioned as a meeting of women fighters ('wanita pejuang') at Gedung Kebangkitan Nasional on 21 May 1977. It sits in the S.K. Trimurti photo series, so Trimurti may appear, but no one is identified in the caption data. Image content not described; ca
Photograph, image 01 of Khastara item 1114786, captioned as the opening of a carnival bazaar by Ibu Trimurti at Gedung Joang 45, Menteng Raya, Jakarta, on 13 August (1977 per the file name; the caption is truncated). From the Yayasan Idayu albums. Content not described. Image content not described; caption data only.
Photograph, image 07 of Khastara item 1114786, captioned as the opening of a carnival bazaar by Ibu Trimurti at Gedung Joang 45, Menteng Raya, Jakarta, on 13 August (1977 per the file name; caption truncated). From the Yayasan Idayu albums. Content not described. Image content not described; caption data only.
De Waarheid, 9 Mar 1978, p. 1: report that NVB women on International Women's Day wrapped the Van Heutsz monument in Amsterdam in white cloth marked 'Gerwani'. The item summarises Gerwani's pre-1965 work (clinics, crèches, kindergartens, courses, anti-polygamy campaigns) and the 1975 trials: Sulami life, Suharti, Sudji
Harian Neraca, 2 Oct 1989, p. 11: education-women page with Minister Fuad Hassan's speech making Hapsak Pancasila a national tradition, and a report on the Lubang Buaya ceremony that mentions Gerwani.
Fourteen prints from Edhi Sunarso's archive of Lubang Buaya dioramas, including 'Latihan sukarelawan P.K.I. di Lubang Buaya' and 'Penganiayaan dan pembunuhan di Lubang Buaya'. Titles match the Paseban dioramas opened in 1981. Visual material on the official narrative.
The Guardian (Weekend Guardian), 8 Sept 1990, p.A4, John Gittings, 'The black hole of Bali': long feature on the 1965 massacre (250,000 or more killed), how the killings were organised by the army under Suharto, the Aidit/PKI role, the US list of communists (Martens/Kadane) and US encouragement, survivors ('Tapols') an
Letter of 20 Nov 1992 from Brig. Gen. Bintarto appointing PT Tiga Hasta Kreatifa without tender to renovate the Paseban building, dioramas and pool at the Pancasila Sakti Museum for Rp 88,484,000. Administrative record of the Lubang Buaya memorial project.
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.
Three snapshots of President Suharto's visit to the Museum Pengkhianatan PKI at Lubang Buaya, probably at its 1 Oct 1992 inauguration. Shows him before dioramas made in Edhi Sunarso's workshop.
Berita Yudha, 28 Sept 1997, p. 12: tourism feature on the Lubang Buaya monument stating that in the 'torture house' four officers 'were cruelly tortured by Gerwani until they breathed their last'.
The Guardian, 23 May 1998, p.24, Martin Woollacott, 'Chaos at Crocodile Hole': comment on Suharto's fall, arguing it is no triumph and that his legacy of division (military vs Islamists, rich vs poor, ethnic and religious tensions) leaves the country fragile. It opens with the Crocodile Hole (Lubang Buaya) shrine, whos
Gerry van Klinken's 2001 article mapping the post-Suharto contest over the national past: statist New Order history (film, Lubang Buaya rituals, book bans), versus societal streams including Sulami's 1999 truth-seeking organisation and Pramoedya. Historiographical context.
Waspada, 7 Oct 2002, p. 11: feature on the 1 Oct 2002 commemoration at the Sudjono monument in Bandarbetsy, retelling the 1965 killing of Peltu Sudjono by BTI squatters joined by Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani and Lekra who 'sang and danced'.
Klaus Schreiner's 2003 chapter reading the Monumen Pancasila Sakti at Lubang Buaya as a 'site of memory' and founding shrine of the New Order, noting the 1998 end of the annual film broadcast; applies Halbwachs, Nora and trauma theory. Memory-studies framing.
2004 illustrated Grasena guidebook by M. Fahlevi to the Lubang Buaya complex, walking through the 34 dioramas of the Museum Pengkhianatan PKI and the Paseban hall, with captions taken from the dioramas. Official state narrative of the Lubang Buaya site.
Yosef Djakababa's 2009 Wisconsin dissertation on how the New Order built the official Lubang Buaya narrative (PKI sole mastermind, spontaneous people's response) via army history, Mahmillub trials, the monument, Hari Kesaktian Pancasila and the film. Key study of official memory.
Seven-page summary (LIPI journal, 2010) of Djakababa's dissertation arguing 1 Oct 1965 was chaotic and the New Order turned it into a good-versus-evil narrative via trials, the monument, commemoration and the film. Short companion to the full thesis.
Wieringa's 2011 article condensing her research: the army's sexual slander of Gerwani was the spark without which the genocide would not have happened; reconstructs the Lubang Buaya night (about 70 women and girls, mostly Pemuda Rakyat volunteers) and reads the monument mural. Programmatic synthesis.
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on Banyuwangi: the 'Gagak Hitam' force of NU/PNI members hunted communists after 62 Ansor were killed at Cemethuk (commemorated at the Pancasila Jaya monument, called Lubang Buaya Cemethuk). Testimony of Baidawi and ex-Lekra secretary Andang Chatif Yusuf; bodies thrown into Jurang Tangis. Gerw
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
KBR report (23 Dec 2016) on former women prisoners and a Komnas Perempuan team visiting the Plantungan camp site: testimonies of Sumilah (forced to admit Gerwani membership, stripped) and Debora Oni, and the Lubang Buaya slander. Memorialisation of Plantungan.
Anett Keller's German briefing (March 2016, Stiftung Asienhaus) on the neglected gender dimension of 1965: Lubang Buaya slander, the film and monument, tattoo hunts, sexual torture, forced marriages of widows, Plantungan and 'State Ibuism'. Written after the IPT 1965.
KBR radio feature (reposted by YPKP 1965, 9 Jan 2017) following ex-prisoners Sumilah and Debora Oni to the Plantungan camp site with Komnas Perempuan; they recount being accused as Gerwani, stripped and beaten, and their prison itineraries. Survivor testimony on Plantungan.
Merdeka.com feature (2012; YPKP repost 2017) visiting the demolished Bukit Duri women's prison: neighbours recall a 1975 escape by three alleged Gerwani women, and journalist Sri Sulistyawati describes eleven years held there without trial. Memory of a women's detention site.
Photograph (24 Nov 2020) of a museum diorama of the recovery of the generals' bodies from the Lubang Buaya well, with frogman figure, coffins and red-bereted soldiers. Visual record of the official Lubang Buaya display.
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.
Grace Leksana's 2023 open-access monograph on Donomulyo, South Malang, a 'red area' with a 'hamlet of widows', using army archives and 38 life histories to argue memory of 1965 is 'embedded' in local patronage and class. Local study of remembering.
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
MA thesis (University of Georgia, 2026) by Alyx L. Bontrager on how Indonesian artists Rangga Purbaya, Dadang Christanto and Leyla Stevens use testimony, embodiment and place as memory activism against the silencing of the 1965-66 genocide, theorised as 'counter-monuments'. Gerwani appears only in passing: ch. 2 (p. 7)