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Spaces of Protest: Workers’ Narratives from Sulawesi and , In the context of a project on gender and labour migration that began in 1995 in West Java monitoring young women’s sexual against women. There are also in-depth Research > and South Sulawesi, in-depth interviews with migrant factory workers have increasingly behaviour. While these two forms of studies of the gendered division of Indonesia raised the issues of women’s labour rights, their interest in labour activism, and the surveillance can be understood to sup- labour and resources within house- inseparability of their spatial mobility experiences from the challenges they confront as port similar, national- and internation- holds, and this research develops ana- workers. Two women workers’ narratives in particular capture the struggles central to al-scale forms of gendered social con- lytical linkages between domestic nego- understanding the regional distinctions in gender and labour issues. Both narratives reveal trol, they help explain why Risa’s tiations and the gendered dynamics of the gender- and place-specific challenges facing labour activists and factory workers as narrative refers more to questions of factory employment. But further ethno- these play out across the scales of the body, the household, the region, the nation-state, sexual morality, while Mina’s refers graphic work can extend these founda- and the international political economy.1 While space constraints preclude a full reading of more to moral concerns about labour tional findings to develop deeper under- the rich narratives themselves, the following brief discussion reveals some ways in which policy. Interviews with the two women standing of the relationships between these two women’s individual experiences give voice to commonly neglected dimensions of flesh out their particular experiences of the local gendered struggles of women regionally differentiated gendered migration and labour dynamics. the broader distinctions between the such as Mina and Risa and the broad- two workers’ local communities. er-scale processes that shape the possi- By Rachel Silvey them to West Java and stay until she the normalization of single women’s Mina and Risa’s place-based experi- bilities open to them. Situating found a job and a place to live. mobility in West Java and the continued ences of migration are not representa- women’s stories in the context of an ina’s narrative raises themes Mina’s strong social networks link- widespread stigmatization of it in tive for the experiences of all women inter-scalar political-economic analysis Mcommon to many migrant work- ing her family members from Central Sulawesi distinguishes women’s expe- workers in the two regions. Rather, can contribute to the goal of under- ers in West Java. She was born and Java to those in West Java distinguish riences of migration and work at the their experiences provide insight into standing gender in multiple spaces and raised outside of and is the her experience from that of most scales of the region and the household. the ways that women’s subordination across scales as a crucial pivot around youngest daughter in a family of six migrant women workers in South The basic differences in women’s in the workplace is intimately inter- which geographic distinctions in work- children; she now works in a footwear Sulawesi, where women’s labour migration between the two regions woven with women’s marginalization ers’ agency is organized. < factory in Cicalong, approximately one migration and participation in factory have implications for labour organiz- across spaces and spatial scales. There hour southeast of .2 It is the work is more limited. ing as well. Both Mina and Risa’s is rich literature that examines the ways Dr Rachel Silvey is Assistant Professor at third factory in which she has worked Risa, who was born in Jeneponto, employers have underpaid and over- in which the global economy relies on the Department of Geography, University of since she first arrived three years ago. approximately four hours from Ujung worked them, as is commonplace and contributes to gendered inequali- Colorado, Boulder. She is presently an IIAS After finishing junior high school, she Pandang in South Sulawesi, had run among factory management through- ties in the labour market, and research Affiliated fellow (13 August 2002 – 31 wanted to leave her village, where there away from an arranged marriage. She out Indonesia. But Mina, with greater on Indonesia has provided insight into December 2002) whose research is entitled were few employment options other had in common with many of the support from local NGO activists and the complicities of the New Order state ‘Migration under Crisis: Household Safety than local trade activities and rice farm- migrant women workers in Sulawesi, a in a context within which women’s in determining gendered structures of Nets in Two Regions of Indonesia’. ing, neither of which appealed to her. sense that her mobility was stigma- labour itself is not stigmatized, has inequality and perpetuating violence [email protected] She did not have plans to marry soon tized, whereas in West Java, most responded by becoming a labour after school, as her older brothers and women felt that their migration was a activist herself. By contrast, Risa, Notes > sisters had done, and at 16 years old, normal, indeed often-undertaken activ- despite facing similar abuses, has kept neither she nor her parents felt that she ity with the support and consent of fam- her struggles largely to herself. In addi- 1 I would like to thank the International Institute for Asian Studies for provid- should continue to depend on the fam- ily members. This difference came tion, the village heads of their commu- ing institutional support crucial to the analysis and write-up of the workers’ ily’s income for her basic needs. Many through in many of the narratives, nities have monitored their activities in life narratives. This project benefited from the contributions and insights of of her peers, both male and female, had showing its importance in shaping different ways. In West Java, the village Popon Anarita of AKATIGA and Ratna Saptari of CLARA. Funding was provid- moved away to work in factories, and women’s subjective, place-based expe- head collaborates in the surveillance ed by the National Science Foundation Grant. Finally, and most importantly, this seemed to Mina to be a way, among riences of gendered mobility. Census activities of the factory management, I thank the women themselves for sharing their stories and generously allow- the very limited options, to improve her data have determined that young letting Mina know that she will be pun- ing me into their lives. lot in life and gain some new experi- women’s mobility is more widespread ished if she is found to be active in 2 In order to protect respondent confidentiality, all names and place-names ence. So, when her aunt and uncle in Java than in Sulawesi. Mina and labour organizing work in the village. have been changed, except the large cities mentioned to provide a sense of came home to visit Central Java from Risa’s narratives extend the census find- By contrast, in South Sulawesi, Risa’s the geographic context. Bandung, she decided to return with ings by illustrating the ways in which village head is more concerned about

[advertisement] South(east) Asian Art Products and Services & Archaeology at Kediri Information Carriers Arthur Probsthain Oriental Book- Tamarind Books Fifth ABIA Workshop sellers Books about Southeast Asia 41 Great Russell Street P.O. Box 49217 The annual conference of the Association of Indonesian Archaeologists at Kediri, in the London WC1B 3PL Greensboro, NC 27419 USA Report > heartland of the former East Javanese kingdom of , proved to be a perfect setting United Kingdom T +1-336-852 1905 General for the fifth workshop of the ABIA Project. At this occasion the progress of the work on the T/F +44-20-7636 1096 F +1-336-852 0750 online ABIA database on South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology (www.abia.net) [email protected] [email protected] 25-26 July 2002 and the publication of the bibliography in print were discussed. The delegates found that Http://oriental-african-books.com www.abebooks.com/home/tamarind Kediri, Indonesia the project is progressing well. In recognition of the ABIA’s contribution to the We produce regular lists of new publi- Regular free lists of books (old and advancement of mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples and to the free flow of cations on China, Japan, Korea, South new), ephemera, antique prints & ideas through word and image, the project has reached an Agreement on Cultural Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia maps on the countries of Asia, (also Cooperation with UNESCO. and can send these on request. the Middle East and Africa) issued by email and post. Join our mailing list! By Ellen Raven taining 2,050 records selected from the ABIA databases. By Asian Rare Books mid-September volume 2 has indeed been released. Its 1,145 175 W. 93rd Street The Old Bookroom eanwhile, the bibliographic network shows a gradual pages (in two parts) present bibliographic data, keywords, and Suite 16-D Unit 1, 54/60 Weedon Close Mexpansion and consolidation, e.g. through a new office annotations disclosing recent publications (1997—2001) on New York, NY 10025-9344, USA Belconnen in India represented by Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan of the Indi- arts and archaeology, material culture, inscriptions, coins and T +1-212-316 5334 ACT 2617 ra Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi. seals from the region. Alongside the actual business meeting, F +1-212- 316 3408 Australia Establishing an office for ABIA in under the guidance the ABIA delegates participated in an ABIA seminar focus- [email protected] T +61-2-6251 5191 (24-hours) of professor Sedyawati was also discussed. With a firm ing on the ‘limits of interpretation’. < www.erols.com/arbs/ F +61-2-6251 5536 foothold in Indonesia, the presence of Indonesian archaeol- [email protected] ogy and arts in the ABIA database, already strong from the Dr Ellen M. Raven is a specialist in Gupta coins and is general editor of Short Courses and Customised www.Oldbookroom.com early days of the project onwards, will thus be guaranteed. ABIA, the Netherlands. [email protected] Training Programmes for Professionals The ABIA project is eager to extend its bibliographic cov- in Development-related Topics Advertise in the Products & Services erage to countries of South and Southeast Asia other than Information > 3 placements (1 year) for only USD 100 those already represented through an office and hopes to find The Training Office (PP) Please contact: support from scholars, from centres of expertise and funding The Fifth workshop of the ABIA Project on 25 and 26 July Overseas Development Group Maurice Sistermans & Natasja Kershof institutions in that endeavour. Especially in Southeast Asia, 2002 was hosted by professor Edi Sedyawati of the Research University of East Anglia P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden with its many ongoing archaeological programmes, excava- Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences, Jakarta. Dele- Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK the Netherlands tions, and publications on cultural heritage, the presence of gates from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, participate in the [email protected] T +31 71 527 2227 / F +31-71 527 4162 ABIA is still underdeveloped. Ellen Raven reported on the conference and the Netherlands. See www.abia.net www.odg.uea.ac.uk [email protected] final work on the second printed volume of ABIA Index con-

52 IIAS Newsletter | #29 | November 2002