Book talk: Living with the legacy of violence: Indonesia’s 1965-66 mass violence and its impact today

The 1965-66 mass violence in Indonesia has come to be regarded as one of the worst instances of genocide of the twentieth century. Half a million members and sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party were killed in the army-orchestrated violence in a matter of months, following which the Suharto New Order regime took over the country for the next 32 years. The fall of this authoritarian regime in 1998 led to new interest in Indonesia and internationally to re-examine the mass violence and its effects today. Such interest has been expressed in academic research, oral history, memoir and literature, artistic works and exhibitions, and cinema, with films such as the award-winning The Act of Killing being released in recent years. 

Australia has become part of a global research hub on the Indonesian genocide, involving a number of key academic institutions and scholars. One of these scholars is Charles Darwin University lecturer, Dr Vannessa Hearman. In this book talk, Hearman, historian and author of the book, Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018) will discuss the state of knowledge about the Indonesian violence of the mid-1960s and efforts to provide redress for the survivors. Join Mr Matt Garrick, journalist at ABC Darwin in conversation with Dr Hearman.

About the author:
Dr Vannessa Hearman is lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Charles Darwin University. A historian, she is the author of Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (NUS Press, 2018). Her research on Indonesian and East Timorese political history has been published in academic journals, books and other media. 

Copies of the books will be on sale for $35.00.

Text: Courtesy of Dr Vannessa Hearman. Image: Government monument, South Blitar, East Java