Bersama Project

We are an Indonesian foundation dedicated to confronting violence against women and achieving gender equality through music and the arts. Bersama means together. Gender inequality is a collective crisis. But together, we can stage a creative intervention for collective change. 

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Hey, folks! Here's the inside scoop on Bersama Project's next gig, Women Behind the Screen (https://www.facebook.com/events/193811207798095/):

In her research, including the annual Celluloid Ceiling Study, Martha Lauzen has found that, despite a recent rise in the number of female protagonists in film, the number of women behind the screen is disturbingly low. In 2016, only 7 percent of directors working on the world's top-grossing films were women (down 2 percentage points from the year before), and women only composed 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on Hollywood's top 250 grossing films (http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/…/2016_Celluloid_Ceiling_Repo…).

Why is this a big deal? Not only does Lauzen’s work reveal a limitation on women’s employment opportunities and any film's market reach; it also means that the storytellers of the big screen are feeding filmgoers a one-sided view of the world. And there’s a bigger problem here: A correlation exists between limitations on women’s participation in society and violence against them. Misogyny might be thinly veiled or fully flaunted, depending on the context. But wherever we find a gender gap, we also find a lack of respect and empathy towards women—the hallmarks of a society in which women are more likely to be victims of violence.

As our nearest and dearest know, Bersama Project was founded by two women friends and professionals in the music industry because of our shared restlessness with the sexism and marginalization that we often encounter in our own creative fields, as well as our outrage at the lack of action to prevent gender-based violence in our wider community. But we believe that the creative industries can be the solution to gender inequality, rather than a part of the problem. We are dedicated to confronting violence against women and achieving gender equality through music and the arts.

That’s why we're so excited to join Kinosaurus to take part in the film discussion and screening series, "Women Behind the Screen." We look forward to celebrating outstanding directors like Pritagita Arianegara, as well as critical dialogue on how we can encourage more women to follow her path.

Every human society cultivates music and the arts. They are vital components of human social life. They educate as they entertain, inspire emotional response and empathy, and have the potential to reach large audiences with a clear and repetitive call to action. So let’s create a call to action for Indonesia's film industry: Support gender inclusivity in film, in the name of equity, creativity, AND profitability!

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Folks in Jakarta! It's Take 2 for our talk with Bitch Media co-founder and awesome feminist author Andi Zeisler. Hosted by Bersama Project and Magdalene.co and co-sponsored by @america and Kinosaurus in Kinosaurus headquarters, Kemang. 

Don't just change the channel. Join us to single out no-good trends in music, film, television, and advertising that harm girls and women. Let's make pop culture work for us, not against us!

See ya there!

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It’s pretty hard to fight a form of sexual violence if it doesn’t even have a name in your native tongue. That’s the problem here in Indonesia: You’d be hard pressed to meet a girl or woman who has never been catcalled, groped, or otherwise sexually violated in public spaces. But most folks don’t know what street harassment is or why it shouldn’t be tolerated. The closest phrases we use to describe this unacceptable behavior, pelecehan di tempat umum (harassment in a public place) or pelecehan di jalanan (street harassment) are almost as foreign to most Indonesians as their English equivalents. But thanks to the creativity of Hollaback! Jakarta, we’ve got a plan to deliver a language lesson to the masses! Bersama Project is proud to team up with anti-street harassment coalition Hollaback! and rape and sexual abuse survivor support group Lentera Indonesia to take to the streets and literally scrawl on the pavement just exactly what street harassment is, and why Indonesian women are not going to take it anymore. Those in the Jakarta area: Join us this Sunday on car-free day, just in front of the Graha Niaga building on Jalan Sudirman. We’ll bring the chalk. You bring the message you’d like to deliver to thousands!

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Selamat Hari Perempuan Sedunia! Semoga semakin kuat persaudarian dan solidaritas kita. Saling dukung, saling menguatkan selalu.

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We cannot wait to meet all of our feminist friends in Jakarta this Saturday! This time, we’re sharing a platform with two media that have been huge influences on our own work to talk about the influence of pop culture to change society. BITCH is an American feminist magazine that was founded twenty years ago and defines itself as the "the feminist response to pop culture." We'll have a chat with the founder, Andi Zeisler, moderated by Devi Asmarani, founder of Magdalene, Indonesian’s own online platform to push the limits for girls and women through progressive journalism. After that, our own Founding Director, Kartika Jahja, will lead a workshop on how we can apply lessons learned from Andi’s talk to the Indonesian context. For all of our friends attending the Women's March in Jakarta: Don’t worry about bringing your marching gear—banners, instruments, etc. You can check them in at the entrance! See you at @america on Saturday!

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Finally, some good news! We are so proud that the music video for Jakarta's own Tika and the Dissidents, which Bersama Project co-produced, has received loads of national and international media attention. This time, AJ+, the pop culture-oriented platform for Al Jazeera News, helped to highlight #TubuhkuOtoritasku (My Body, My Right) for a global audience. May the spirit and the message continue to spread to all people who have been suppressed because of their gender or sexual identity and who are in need of strength. We are together, bersama, with you! And may we all be enraged, not disheartened, by the despicable remarks of trolls in the comment feed. They help to remind us why this work is so important—IN EVERY COUNTRY!

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Happy 2017 from Bersama Project, friends! We're ringing in the New Year with a challenge: Turn your resolution into a revolution. There are many things we can accomplish together this year. Simply acknowledging our power as women is a revolution. Building a strong support system among women is a revolution. Refusing to be objectified is a revolution. Loving our bodies and their every natural process is a revolution. Breaking free from the stigmas and stereotypes that restrain us is a revolution. Find your own New Year's Revolution, and let's dance it out together in 2017!

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We love it when artists and musicians openly embrace tolerance and diversity. But it’s important that the creative industries reflect that diversity as well. When we can see, hear, and sing along with people of all gender identities and sexual orientations, we get a little bit closer to achieving equality for all. In the meantime, Canadian indie pop sisters Tegan and Sara are working for economic justice, health, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women through the Tegan and Sara Foundation. In their own words, "Through the Tegan and Sara Foundation, we can be proactive with our support rather than wait to react to discrimination as it occurs. We will support the work of other organizations who have been fighting for LGBTQ and women's rights by raising funds and awareness for their initiatives. We will fight against the repressive legislation of the incoming Trump administration. We will fight against regressive homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic legislation. We will fight for economic, racial and gender justice. We started the Foundation to dismantle the systems of inequity that prevent LGBTQ girls and women from reaching their full potential. Together, we can make a difference.” Read more about the foundation here: https://www.teganandsarafoundation.org/letter-continued

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Wishing our founding director Kartika Jahja a very happy birthday! May the next year be filled with even more music, art, and collaborators in the struggle for equality!

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Happy World Human Rights Day! Finally, we come to the last day in our series of 16 episodes of #NyaliCewek. Ordinarily, Bersama Project highlights creative activists, such as musicians, artists, writers, and stage performers who capture the spirit of equality in their work. But on this particular day, we have elected to take a different path. We want to pay tribute to Yu Sukinah, a farmer and environmental warrior—a woman whom we very much admire for her courage and perseverance in protecting her homeland. It has been more than two years since the people of the Kendeng Mountains began struggling against a cement plant that will most assuredly cause environmental devastation and threaten their water source, livelihood, and children and grandchildren’s futures. One of the key figures behind the struggle is Sukinah.

Sukinah lived as a simple, but thriving farmer in the village Tegaldowo, Rembang, Central Java, until she heard about an initiative among her neighbors to halt the construction of a cement factory. She decided to join the struggle. In June 2014, she called a meeting to gather the women in her village in the middle of the night and formulate a plan of action. The next morning, the women set up a tent on the road leading to the location of the proposed cement plant, as a form of peaceful protest. Mothers from the village took turns on watch at the tent site. The tent is still standing to this day, and the struggle led by Kendeng residents continues.

For more than two years, Sukinah and the women of Kendeng have undertaken a number of actions to block the cement plant. They have engaged in lengthy legal battles, reconciliation efforts with plant representatives, traditional rituals, and dozens of forms of peaceful protest, including walking 150 kilometers from the village to the Governor's office and planting their bare feet in cement in front of the State Palace in Jakarta. Quite often, they have faced threats and violence from police. Last month, they clinched a significant victory, when the Supreme Court reached a verdict to revoke the cement factory’s operational permit. But recently, the Governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo, extended a new license for construction of the plant to continue. ‘

Despite the many challenges and risks, Sukinah has led hundreds of people from Kendeng to build dialogue and organize a movement. But the struggle for Sukinah and the people of Kendeng continues. Sukinah’s courage exceeds the expression of “nyali,” guts. But she—they—cannot fight alone. We should all do what we can to raise national and international collective consciousness on land and resource rights among the women farmers of this nation.

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The general public tends to shy away from topics considered to be “uncomfortable” in the mainstream. So in order to raise awareness about social and political issues, one must be creative. One effective and unique strategy is to deliver the message through comedy. Within Indonesia’s current stand-up comedy scene is a woman whose voice is critical, because her material is often infused with topics that other public figures wouldn’t dare to touch, such as the impact of religious conservatism on women. Sakdiyah Ma'ruf’s comedy is based on her personal experiences as a woman who grew up in a Hadrami Arab family in Pekalongan that was full rules and restrictions. Throughout her childhood, Dyah was forbidden to engage in activities outside of the house or hang out with male friends. She was encouraged "to marry one of her distant cousins" and to become the dutiful wife of a wealthy and respected man. But Diyah had other plans. She tried her hand at stand-up comedy in 2009, and has since performed in various events, from small, private functions to television shows. Several times, she has been asked by TV producers to censor her own material. But of course, Diyah has not complied. 

For Diyah, who has the impressive ability to joke in both Indonesian and English, becoming a comedian isn’t about fame or money: It’s about giving her audience an unforgettable experience and making them think about social issues and those who are affected personally by them—even after she leaves the stage. In May 2015, she was awarded the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent by the Oslo Freedom Forum. She performed her comedic material in Oslo, Norway at the awards ceremony. She was also a key note speaker at the prestigious Chaser Lecture in Sydney, Australia, which previously featured such speakers as Bassem Youssef and Barack Obama. Although she has been honored by the acknowledgements she has received, Diyah has also refused to reinforce stereotypes about Muslim women who are considered my some non-Muslims to be oppressed. She does not consider herself to be the face of the brave Muslim woman. According Diyah, she is simply a woman who believes that there is always a way to achieve one’s goals and who will never tire of trying again tomorrow, if today she doesn’t reach them.

Listen to Diyah share on her remarkable career trajectory here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZuUCMLPYWM.

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Janet, visual artist and musician, Indonesia. 

On 27 November 2016, just two days after the start of the global campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, harassment returned to the moshpit. Debby Selviana, who is better known as Janet, was assaulted while performing with her band, SLOST, during an event in Boja, Central Java. Janet is just one of many women who have suffered abuse in music events, a space that should be safe and open to everyone to express themselves—including women. Janet’s decision to publish a video that documented the incident became a form of resistance against sexual harassment that captured the public's attention in Indonesia—within the punk scene and beyond. Janet received lots of support from all over Indonesia and even from women and men in other countries. But even more people blamed Janet for the incident and even explicitly and repeatedly attacked her over social media. This is the real picture of a patriarchal society that tends to blame women and limit their self-expression—even to fight off an attacker—rather than ensure their security and foster an environment of mutual respect among fellow musicians, and between bands and their fans. But Janet has never been afraid to denounce sexual violence. 

Beyond her role in bands SLOST and HMMM, Janet is an artist. She is well known for her illustrations, collages, and as a zine creator. She has also played an active role in various collage workshops. Together with Yayasan Kesetaraan, or the Equality Foundation, she conducted workshops from village to village around Semarang, East Java and invited villagers to express themselves through the art of collage. She took part in collage workshops on literacy for children, as well as to educate on the positive and negative impacts of the Internet through a series of campaigns about violence against children.

Words of support from Bersama Project:  While we admire Janet's decision to open up about the abuse she experienced, we also understand the feelings of doubt and fear that victims of sexual violence may experience. We know you may not yet be ready to open up, and that is ok. Take your time, girl. Know that you are not alone. Hugs for you, from us.

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Eliza Vitri Handayani, Writer, Indonesia

Eliza's novel From Now On Everything Will Be Different (2015) has been published in numerous countries and was featured at the Frankfurt Book Fair and Asia-Pacific Writers & Translators Summit. But the launch of her novel here in Indonesia at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival was canceled under pressures from the police, because the content of her novel addressed the Reformasi era’s start in 1998. In an act of protest against that decision, Eliza came to the festival wearing a t-shirt printed with excerpts from the novel. At the book launches in Oslo and Jakarta, Eliza wore a dress she made herself from the pages of the novel’s corrections pages. 

Eliza has been writing and publishing since her adolescence. Her short works have appeared in both Indonesian and international media, including the Tempo newspaper, Jakarta Post, Asia Literary Review, Griffith Review, Words Without Borders, and Index on Censorship. In 2016, Eliza was selected as a fellow for the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange (WrICE), through which she participated in residencies in China and Australia. She has been a guest at various literary events, including the Northern Territory Writers Festival, Makassar International Writers Festival, and Melbourne Writers Festival. She has also led several writing workshops, including workshops on trauma. Recently, Eliza established InterSastra, a space for literary exchange through which she publishes series of works by writers who dare to express their vision and the truth, despite facing censorship threats. 

Check out an article in which the author poignantly and beautifully describes the experiences of a survivor of sexual violence http://australiaindonesiacentre.org/essay-series-eighteen-years-later-eliza-vitri-handayani/.

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Tanya Tagaq, Inuk Throat Singer, Canada

On Sunday, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a two-year struggle to block an oil pipeline that would threaten their water source and cross sacred land. Indigenous peoples and their allies across the globe celebrated the momentous victory and sign of the potency of peaceful resistance. Sometimes, we need to get loud, in order to be heard. That’s where musicians like Tanya Tagaq come in. The bold, unrelentingly independent, and proudly indigenous woman from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut has dedicated the last two decades of her music career to fighting for the self-determination of her people, the safety of women, and her own artistic autonomy. She has collaborated with her Northern sister, Björk, as well as San Francisco's Kronos Quartet. In 2014, Tagaq won the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for indigenous music for her album, Animism. At the awards gala, she performed with the names of 1,200 missing or murdered indigenous women and girls scrolling on a screen behind her. Her signature style of Inuk throat singing, provocative music videos, and unforgettable live performances have earned her as much critical acclaim as her sharp tongue and advocacy for indigenous and women’s rights have earned her condemnation from social media trolls and animal rights extremists.  In September, Tagaq was featured at the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles’ feminist performance series. Her latest album released in October, Retribution, takes on rape in all forms—of women, culture, and natural resources.

Check out her latest music video on the Canadian oil sands, a grim depiction of the future of our planet, if efforts are not made to curb human consumption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U20JGI7s3Qs

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Tere, Musician, Indonesia

Women who choose a career in music face some serious challenges, ranging from societal judgment on the appropriateness of the profession and the demands on their physical appearance to sexism and even harassment or violence. Many of us are indoctrinated into accepting all of this as the risks of the profession, even though we wish no one had to face them. Under such conditions, creating a space that is both positive and mutually reinforcing for girls and women musicians is key. Tere is one of the musicians who has created that space by initiating the Sisterhoodgigs Movement. Beginning in 2014, Tere and her cohort began organizing a monthly musical event that invited female musicians from various genres and generations to collaborate. Today, the concert series features dozens of women musicians who not only perform, but also actively support efforts to achieve gender equality on the stage and eliminate violence against women. Tere’s musical career kicked off when she released the album Beautiful Beginnings (2001). She remains active musically and has established a children's music learning center called Teraseni. Tere has also worked as a political change maker in her role as a member of Parliament between 2009 and 2014. These days, Tere’s working life is focused on consulting on intellectual property rights and continuing the Sisterhoodgigs Movement.

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Intan Paramaditha, Writer and Academic, Indonesia. 

Intan is a fiction writer and lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, with a PhD from New York University to her credit. Many of her works—both fiction and academic—explore the relationship between gender, sexuality, culture, and politics. Intan has published two short story collections titled Sihir Perempuan (Black Magic Woman, 2005), and Kumpulan Budak Setan (The Devil's Slaves Club, 2010). She has also collaborated with Teater Garasi (Garage Theater) to adapt the short stories Goyang Penasaran (The Curious Move) as a theater script that tells the story of a village dangdut singer who is both adored and slandered. Goyang Penasaran offers a critical view on issues of sexuality, religion, and politics after the fall of the New Order regime. Intan’s interests in gender issues were ignited at home, by frequently finding herself at odds with what she considered to be the oppressive views of her father. "Feminist theory initially helped me to understand why my parents are the way they are. It also became an important framework to identify various patriarchal constructions," says Intan. Her fiction and academic publications are available at intanparamaditha.org. Check her out!

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Hery Mary, Documentary Filmmaker, Indonesia

Hera fell in love with the hardcore/punk subculture as a teenager. Within that scene, she learned the values of both collectivism and a DIY ethos, as well as the concept of equality. But she also felt the need to assess the scene that had become her home with a more critical eye. After playing in bands D'Ponis, Kroia, and Oath, Hera began to recognize the prevalence of gender-based inequalities within the scene: Far fewer women were actively participating or being appreciated as performers, concert organizers, or zine writers and illustrators. Hera also observed many incidents of sexual assault. So in 2013, Hera committed to making a documentary about women’s progress in the Indonesian arena of hardcore/punk. Her film, released in 2015, is called Ini Scene Kami Juga, This is Our Scene, Too. Hera undertook the entire production, including its financing, independently. In the film, a dozen women from various cities across Indonesia share both their sweet and bitter experiences as women in a scene that has been dominated by men. They also shared on what they had brought to the scene. Ini Scene Kami Juga has been screened more than 50 times in dozens of Indonesian cities, from Bandung and Jakarta to Wonosobo to Batam, as well as internationally in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Barcelona. In addition to being busy promoting Ini Scene Kami Juga, Hera has set up a women's clothing line called Covin (Coven) and founded the Hungry Heart Project to shine a spotlight on the creative potential of her women peers.