Theater empowers and educates

Zora Rahman, Contributor, Jakarta

"If you want to change Indonesia, you have to go to the theater."

The wise words from famous late theater director Wahyu Sihombing found fertile ground in Lena Simanjuntak, and the advice changed her life.

Initially planning to study fine arts, the ambitious young Simanjuntak ended up becoming the first female student of theater directing at the Institute of Arts in Jakarta (IKJ) in 1975, after she met the director.

It was not an easy decision for the eldest daughter of an army officer then. Theater -- especially for girls -- was not yet seen as a respected profession, so her family was not very pleased about her choice.

Simanjuntak had to find a way to pursue her goal without her parents' financial and moral support. And she made it.

Born in Bandung in 1957 and given a real Batak soul, Simanjuntak is one of those powerful women of whom one has to ask from where their energy comes. The actor and theater director, human rights activist, housewife and mother is an extremely busy woman.

Defending human rights and fighting for the abolition of discrimination against the minority is her childhood passion.

As children of a military family, Simanjuntak and her seven sisters and brothers grew up moving from one region to another throughout Indonesia.

One thing that she will never forget was the time when the family was posted to Makassar, South Sulawesi, in the middle of the 1960s. They lived near a prison, where they could her detainees cry for mercy.

"Maybe this is why I became what I am today," says Simanjuntak, whose highest value is humanity.

Although she never finished her studies at IKJ, because she got married to a German documentary filmmaker in 1979 and moved abroad for almost 25 years, Simanjuntak keeps in mind the words of her former mentor, Sihombing.

Having been involved in different independent theater groups and communities, she has had enough experience to cultivate her own concept of art.

"Art should not only be for art's sake any more," she says passionately. "Theater has to become a medium for education and empowerment of the people."

In 1999, the German-based director got the chance to prove her theory in praxis. Two theater projects in Indonesia asked for her help in the same year: one with female farmers and workers from North Sumatra, the other with prostitutes from Surabaya's red- light districts. Both were meant to empower the situation of the involved groups.

By talking about their everyday problems on stage, the women were not only given a public voice but also obtained new self- understanding.

"Initially, the Sumatra farmers did not have the courage to speak in front of a few people," Simanjuntak says. "By being actors, they become public speakers. This is a kind of education in the basics of democracy."

Both projects became success stories and are performed every year. Recently, they were performed in Jakarta and other cities.

"This is very much their own achievement," says Simanjuntak, who always emphasizes that she is not the director but only a consultant to the theater groups.

"They learn from of their own mistakes and so do I in the course of our collective work."

But even if theater groups continue their work on their own, they still need Simanjuntak's advice. So the mother of two daughters, one still at high school, permanently commutes between Germany, where her family lives, and Indonesia every few months.

And she does it with full commitment: She lives, eats, sleeps and travels with the community members -- be it in the farmers' huts or in Surabaya's brothels.

"I need this live-in approach so that I can feel and see these women's real-life experiences," Simanjuntak says.

Sometimes, when she is tired, she will go back to her old hobby: painting.

"By painting, I can calm down and rediscover myself. It's a good way of taking a break from my collective work," she says.

Her newest project is Gerhana dan Gerhana (Eclipse and Eclipse) which is Simanjuntak's third collaboration with Hotline Surabaya, a foundation that works to improve the health and welfare of commercial sex workers.

The story is about illegal trafficking of women from villages in East Java, a problem most of the actors have experienced for themselves.

Not everybody understands this kind of work. Simanjuntak often has to face accusations that, for example, she advocates prostitution.

"I do not agree at all with prostitution. But I prefer working with real prostitutes and not 'political prostitutes'," Simanjuntak says.

"In my opinion it is the prostitutes themselves who are most competent to talk about the problem of prostitution. By the same token, only farmers and workers can speak in the name of farmers and workers."