Marchio Gorbiano, Jakarta – The government's plans to issue new history books have sparked fears that mention of deadly riots in 1998 targeting mostly ethnic Chinese in the country will
History & Anthropology
Displaying 1 - 50 of 80 Documents
July 14, 2025
Adrian Perkasa (The Conversation) – The government's plan to rewrite its official national history was initially met with positive responses, particularly for its goal of better serving
July 9, 2025
Eka Yudha Saputra, Jakarta – Minister of Culture Fadli Zon announced that the draft of the rewritten Indonesian history, prepared by the Ministry of Culture's team, will be published on
July 7, 2025
Responding to the government's project to write an 'official history' led by Minister of Culture Fadli Zon, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, said:
July 2, 2025
Max Lane – On June 23, 2025, the Editorial Board of Indonesia's premier English language newspaper, the Jakarta Post, published a sharp criticism of Minister of Culture, Fadli Zo
Dian Rahma Fika, Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition Against Impunity disrupted a working meeting between the House of Representatives Commission X and Minister of Culture Fadli Zon o
June 30, 2025
Sultan Abdurrahman, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP, is urging Prabowo's government to halt the Indonesian history rewriting project, led by Culture Minis
June 19, 2025
Defara Dhanya, Jakarta – The installation of a stairlift, or a device to facilitate going up and down the stairs at Borobudur Temple in Indonesia some time ago was carried out without i
Antara, Jakarta – The Indonesian Consulate General in New York has secured the return of three smuggled cultural artifacts from US authorities, including items from the Asmat, Dayak, an
June 17, 2025
Dinda Shabrina, Jakarta – Indonesian Minister of Culture Fadli Zon has called on the public to interpret the dark history of human rights violations including the mass rapes of 1998 wit
June 13, 2025
Jonathan Tehusijarana – The Prabowo Subianto government's plan to make wholesale changes to Indonesia's national historiography feels like it was inevitable.
June 7, 2025
Yerica Lai, Jakarta – A group of historians and human rights activists have raised concern over a draft of the government's "updated" national history books, which they say selectively
June 2, 2025
Daniel Ahmad Fajri, Jakarta – Academics, experts, activists, and members of the Alliance for the Openness of Indonesian History (AKSI) have voiced strong opposition to the government's
Imagine if Indonesian history was only written from the perspective of and for the benefit of those in power.
May 27, 2025
Jakarta – Perhaps President Prabowo Subianto is making use of Winston Churchill's popular quote: history is written by the victors.
May 26, 2025
Ervana Trikarinaputri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ministry of Culture plans to conduct a public review of its revised history manuscript.
May 23, 2025
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has highlighted the government's plan through the Ministry of Culture to rewrite Indonesian history.
May 22, 2025
Jakarta – Culture Minister Fadli Zon's plan to launch a newly rewritten history of Indonesia by Aug.
May 21, 2025
Jakarta – Speaker of the House of Representatives Puan Maharani has warned Culture Minister Fadli Zon, who currently leads the job of rewriting Indonesia's national history, against wha
Radhiyya Indra, Jakarta – Rights activists and historians gathered at the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday to demand lawmakers reject the government's con
May 19, 2025
Jakarta – The Indonesian government's plan to release new history books has sparked concern that some of the country's darkest chapters could be recast to show President Prabowo Subiant
May 16, 2025
Radhiyya Indra and Maretha Uli, Jakarta – A government project to rewrite parts of Indonesia's history has prompted concern that it might discourage scientific discourse and close off a
May 9, 2025
Jakarta – The project to rewrite Indonesian history initiated by the Ministry of Culture has attracted the attention of a number of historians.
May 7, 2025
Jakarta – Minister of Culture Fadli Zon said that an official project to rewrite Indonesian history would not change the history of the 1965 massacre, often referred to as the G30S/PKI
Jakarta – National University (Unnas) historian Andi Achdian is questioning the government's decision through the Ministry of Culture to revise the history of the Republic of Indonesia.
March 2, 2025
Nivell Rayda, Singaraja, Bali – Before sunrise every morning, Mangku Borden Cahyadi walks from his home to the nearby Mas Penyeti Temple in Singaraja, a waterfront city in northern Bali
Bill Birtles – Standing silently, a 2.4 metre tall statue of four-headed Hindu god Brahma could tell an extraordinary story of adventure and intrigue over its seven centuries of existen
January 27, 2025
Jakarta – Culture Minister Fadli Zon has appointed Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the younger brother of President Prabowo Subianto, as the chairman of the Museums and Cultural Heritage Truste
December 31, 2024
Chandni Vatvani and Calvin Yang, Jakarta – Hundreds of Indonesian artefacts that were in the Netherlands for more than a century – the bulk of which were looted by the Dutch during thei
December 15, 2024
Dian Yuliastuti, Jakarta – Several artifacts or Objects of Suspected Cultural Heritage (ODCB) from the United States have returned to Indonesia.
Antara, Jakarta – The Indonesian government will revise Indonesia's historical records, Minister of Culture Fadli Zon said this after meeting with the Indonesian Historians Society or M
September 28, 2024
Jakarta – While we welcome the recent agreement of the Netherlands to repatriate hundreds of Indonesian artifacts taken during the 300 years of the Dutch colonial era, we are calling on
August 12, 2024
Alif Ilham Fajriadi, Jakarta – As many as 24 Papua's cultural agencies and observers rejected the move to relocate some original Papuan archaeological objects to the National Research a
July 4, 2024
Will Dunham, Jakarta – On the ceiling of a limestone cave in South Sulawesi, scientists have discovered artwork depicting three human-like figures interacting with a wild pig in what th
April 30, 2024
Will McCallum, Simon Wilmot – Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led
April 27, 2024
Heru Andriyanto, New York – District prosecutors in Manhattan, New York, announced Friday that they have returned three antiquities to Indonesia and 27 others to Cambodia.
January 10, 2024
Jayapura, Jubi – Made Sudayasa, an expert cultural officer from the Cultural Heritage Preservation Center of Region XXII in Papua, expressed his concerns regarding the escalating develo
December 16, 2023
Robin McKie – It was one of the most sensational science stories of 2023.
September 21, 2023
Jakarta – There is an excuse that is often invoked to justify the refusal by Western museums to return cultural artifacts looted from their former colonies.
September 18, 2023
Adam Bobbette – It is well known that Scots played crucial roles maintaining the British empire. This extended even to Java. The British ruled there for a short time from 1811-1816.
July 11, 2023
Leiden – The Netherlands and Indonesia on Monday hailed the return of hundreds of cultural artifacts taken – sometimes by force – during colonial times as a major step forward in restit
May 26, 2023
Jayapura, Jubi – According to Grace Linda Yoku, the Head of the Culture Division at the Jayapura City Education and Culture Office, Mount Srobu is an ancient civilization in Papua that
Wuryanti P, Kenzu, Jakarta – The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated the archive of the first Indonesian President Sukarno's speech
March 10, 2023
Kate Newsome, Jakarta – As Indonesia's historic newspapers perish in the archives, the country risks forever losing the voices of its past.
February 15, 2023
Yohana Belinda, Jakarta – Though people in the area think of it as a haunted house, the building plays a vital role in preserving a part of Indonesian history and culture through its re
December 18, 2022
Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – Archaeologist Candrian Attahiyat remembered feeling anxious when construction for the second phase of Jakarta's underground mass rapid transit (MRT) network bega
December 7, 2022
Tunggul Wirajuda, Jakarta – To keep the iconic Indonesian dagger relevant today, kris experts carried out the age-old puja rahayu ningrat ceremony at Jakarta's Bentara Budaya cultural c
October 19, 2022
The Hague, Netherlands – Indonesia has asked the Netherlands to hand back at least eight art pieces and natural history collections that were acquired during the colonial era, including
February 15, 2022
Nur Janti, Jakarta – An ancient inscription on an andesite slab presumed to be from the time of the Mataram kingdom in the 10th century was found during a recent excavation of an unname
February 14, 2022
Senay Boztas – On the walls and counters, like portraits in blood, are the stylised images of eyewitnesses to four years of horrifying violence in Indonesia.