Professor Nazry Bahrawi, AL&L’s resident specialist in Southeast Asian literature and cultures, was featured in the Northwest Asian Weekly, for organizing the 60th year commemoration event of Tragedi 1965, Indonesia’s mass killings of alleged communists and their sympathizers that resulted in the killing of at least half a million individuals. Titled ‘Truths and Narratives of Indonesia’s Tragedi 1965’, the well-attended public event was part of Prof. Nazry’s course ‘Decolonizing Authenticity of Southeast Asian Translation’. In the article, he outlines the importance of cultural forms as alternative pathways to historical knowledge, especially when the truth is controlled by the state.
It featured three Indonesian academic speakers – Baskara T. Wardaya (PRAKSIS Jesuit Center For Research and Advocacy in Jakarta), Sylvia Tiwon (UC Berkeley) and Rachmi ‘Diyah’ Larasati (University of Minnesota) – touching on issues of restitution, silenced literary narratives and dance as embodied archive. The event was funded by the Seattle Chinese Post Innovation in Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures managed by the AL&L department with logistical support from the Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas (CSEAD) at UW’s Jackson School.
Read about the event here (https://nwasianweekly.com/2025/11/bodies-remember-what-archives-erase-scholars-confront-indonesias-60-year-silence-on-genocide/).