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CME Festival: giving voice to women perspectives
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Closing in style: Sylvia Saartje, an Indonesian rocker, sings an Aerosmith song at the closing of the Cipta Media Ekspresi Festival in Yogyakarta on April 28. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
A
recent festival presented a plethora of women’s perspectives on various issues that can sometimes be overlooked by the contemporary mainstream feminist movement.
Dozens of photos depicting the life of the Korowai ethnic group in the jungles of Papua graced the Yogyakarta Cultural Center (TBY) at the end of April. They showed a man carrying a little child while men and women worked on their farms or built khaim (tree houses) together.
Rhidian “Dian” Yasminta Wasaraka took the photos as part of research she began in 2013.
After delving into the survival of the group that is often stigmatized, Dian said Korowai women were very powerful and in a position to reject a marriage proposal, seek a divorce and choose to have a child or not.
In feminist language, the women uphold the principle of “my body is my authority”.
Dian has written about her research results in a book titled Perempuan Perkasa, Belajar Praktik Kesetaraan dalam Budaya Suku Korowai (Powerful Women, Practicing Equality in Korowai Ethnic Culture).
