In recent years, there has been a trend of shrinking democratic space in Indonesia. The government is proposing some laws to mitigate this, but civil society still thinks these proposals will ultimately curtail freedom of expression and lead to confusion on issues such as land rights, among others.
To discuss and co-create solutions and strategies to address this, we at EngageMedia, as the Linking and Learning facilitator for Voice Indonesia, invited Voice partners to attend the second Linking and Learning Camp. The project is called Connecting Voice(s) in Indonesia.
“Voice is an innovative grant facility that supports the most marginalised and discriminated people.”
The Linking and Learning Camp took place in Yogyakarta from 22 to 26 August 2019. At the camp, we provided a platform for 60 groups in the Voice Indonesia community. Participants facilitated the sessions while EngageMedia recorded the process and agreements reached during this meeting among communities of practice.
The themes for breakout sessions were aligned with Voice Indonesia’s key rights-holder groups: people living with disabilities; women facing exploitation, abuse and/or violence; age-discriminated groups; and indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. The sessions helped EngageMedia and Voice identify new learning questions to enhance the previous outcomes of learning events in Jakarta and Bali.
On the third day, we visited Yayasan Bringin, a Permaculture initiative founded 14 years ago in Yogyakarta. The founder, Dwi Pertiwi, introduced us to the principles of permaculture design, also taking advice from participants on the accessibility of the space. The discussion inspired several participants to include their experiences in an evening session about interacting with persons with disabilities (PWD).
Facilitating Linking and Learning for Voice in Indonesia has been a valuable experience for EngageMedia. We are continuously enriched by learning from and exploring each other’s potentials, moving outside our comfort zones and growing together as a community.
About the Author
Pitra Hutomo is a project manager at EngageMedia and lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Before joining EngageMedia, Pitra worked for the Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA) as a coordinator of research for over 10 years, helping create the foundation of IVAA’s Online Inventory on Indonesian Modern and Contemporary Art. She engages in documentary filmmaking practices with collectives such as Video Report, Hyphen, and Uripurup, where she advocates land rights and rights to the city for marginalised communities.
