'Acehnese' stage their life story

'Acehnese' stage their life story

Christina Schott, Contributor/Jakarta

First it was just a letter, pinned to a tree in the center of a village somewhere in Aceh: "All inhabitants who are not Acehnese should leave the province immediately."

Then there were rumors about other nearby villages, where houses were burned down and people disappeared in the forest. In the end, the villagers were threatened, their children kidnapped, their possessions stolen. They became refugees and landed in camps on the border with North Sumatra.

"Who exactly is Acehnese?" asks actress Yani in her role as the village chief. "I was born in Aceh, my father was born in Aceh, but we are still called Javanese."

This is the fate of thousands of families living in Aceh, but who originally came from elsewhere or married someone not originally from Aceh. In Aceh, they are still seen as Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese.

This is the fate of 16 women standing on the stage of Teater Utan Kayu in Jakarta and playing out their stories for audiences who live far from the events in Sumatra's most northern province. The play, Perempuan-perempuan Pengungsi Aceh (Acehnese women refugees), is their life story.

Who dragged them out of their villages is not clear, some say it was the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), some say it was the Indonesian Military (TNI). What is clear is that the result was a long journey of suffering and struggle for the victims.

"Everywhere weapons, everywhere threatening -- the word 'peace' is just something written in the dictionary", moans a young mother caressing her starving baby, while the other women on stage sit trance-like in a circle.

The 16 amateur actresses from the Women's Theater Group of PIPA, between the ages of 16 and 60, left their families on the outskirts of the Gunung Leusser National Park -- not for political talks or to demonstrate in front of some ministry.

"We want to make the people here feel what we are feeling, to let them experience our experiences. This is only possible through an artistic medium like the theater," the secretary of PIPA, Suyatno, explained.

At first, the women, living in camps in Seilepan district in North Sumatra, never considered using the theater to get help and to communicate with people from outside the conflict area.

"But I told them again and again, you can do it," said Lena Simanjuntak, initiator and director of the group. "Other people make politics -- we make theater!"

The Medan-born Lena already had experience in amateur theater productions with women from marginalized groups: before working with the Aceh refugees, she worked with farmer and fisherwomen in North Sumatra and prostitutes from Surabaya. Both of these earlier projects are still continuing, under the guidance of the women themselves.

"That's exactly my aim: to let them discover theater as a media of self-education and self-empowerment," Lena said.

The German-based theater director went again and again into Gunung Leusser to make these women believe in their own capabilities -- assisted by the committee of PIPA and friends of Serikat Perempuan Independen (Independent Women Association), who she worked with before.

One of those who assisted Lena was Riyani, who now also assists in the production. "I hope we will not just stop here on the stage but become a voice for justice," she said.

When the women of the PIPA theater group arrived at the airport in Jakarta on Thursday, some of the women had tears in their eyes.

For all of them it was their first flight and the first time they had been to the Indonesian capital. "We never thought we would make it here," several women said.

Of course, what the group presents at Teater Utan Kayu and other venues is not an all-around professional and sophisticated play, but it is amateur theater at a high level, for all of the actresses play with a full heart and emotions. When one of the women, Nurhayati, sings a song of her people, it is difficult not to feel touched.

The play tells the women's story in three phases: First, the situation back in Aceh, where the families were threatened and terrorized until they finally left their homes. Second, the journey itself, living in temporary camps with poor or no sanitation, all the time afraid of being victimized again. Weak people get sick or die, children are stillborn. A man -- played by a woman -- raves when someone knocks over a pot with the ashes of his house: the only thing he was able to save of his home.

The third part of the play shows the refugees settling down in the forest, starting with almost nothing to build a new life, trying to find a new spirit. Still, they are able to sing. The most urgent questions for the mothers are: Will their children have a better future? Can they go to school?

"We are already crushed, so do not let our children be crushed, too!" Nurhayati, who followed her Javanese husband over the border, says. In fact, the people from PIPA have already founding their own elementary school and junior high school.

Ironically, after four years of slowly overcoming their trauma, the 830 refugee families still living around the Gunung Leusser National Park are now being threatened again: they are blamed for stealing wood from the protected forest. In fact, they could not be responsible for the massive illegal logging operations in the area, for they have neither chain saws or trucks.

Perempuan Perempuan Pengungsi Aceh, Refugee Women Theater, May 15 and May 16, Teater Utan Kayu, Jl. Utan Kayu 68H, East Jakarta; May 17, Jaringan Kerja Budaya, Jl. Pondok Gede Raya 40, Pinang Ranti; Institut Kesenian Jakarta, May 22, Jl. Cikini Raya 73 (Taman Ismail Marzuki)