Haryo Sukmawanto, My Mirror Is A Pitiful Thing

Following the failed coup of 1965 in Indonesia, my grandfather was incarcerated and exiled to a prison island for fifteen years due to his political leanings, enstranging him from his family. I never knew him as he passed away nine years before I was born, and my family rarely spoke about him. I only found out about this several years ago when I was starting my master’s.

Since then, I have been trying to find out more about my grandfather and his life. Even after I was told about it, it is still never spoken about in my family, driving me to find other sources to learn about his life. This project is the result of my research and the struggle I dealt with while working with the fragmented narrative and the withheld history of these events.