Linking the Individual and the Movement: Artist-Activism in Indonesian Resistance

Abstract

This research examines the ways that Indonesian artists and activists resist authoritarianism through organized and everyday acts of resistance. Using a multidisciplinary approach, it explores how artists challenge dominant narratives surrounding the 1965 killings, patriarchal influences, and corporate-driven environmental degradation. While collective and individual resistance efforts are often studied separately, this research seeks to highlight the connections between them through artistic communities of practice. By integrating ideas from resistance studies, the arts, and peace and conflict studies, it provides insights for scholars and activists seeking to better understand the dynamics of resistance as it works for social change. The ethnographic nature of this study focuses on the repertoires of contention that artists employ, including humor, subversion, storytelling, support for women, and intentional human connection. This research shows that everyday forms of resistance are critical to the emergence and endurance of collective action over time in Indonesia. The practices used at individual and collective levels build trust and shared meaning-making, creating a flexible infrastructure within the Indonesian arts community that develops the support and energy necessary to continue resisting authoritarian and harmful socio-political systems.