the waria of indonesia
- Episode 07- Transcript
Georgie Williams, voiceover: When you think of Indonesian culture, there is a high chance that you are not thinking about gender identity. If you have not spent much time in the country, there is an equally high chance that you are not aware of it being the home to tertiary gender identities- identities which have traditionally existed outside of a male-female gender binary, or even a five gender social system within which our very concepts of male and female do not exist.
Over the coming episodes we will be taking an in-depth look at what gender means for these communities in Indonesia- and for our first episode in this country, we have the honour of learning first hand from an award-winning, internationally-recognised activist about what life is like as not a man, not a woman, but a waria living in the heart of Java, Indonesia. Welcome to Episode 7 of /Queer. You’re here with me, your host, Georgie Williams.
There are- at this time- 26 different terms used around the world for what we in the West would consider to mean transgender. Etymologically we can understand how the word ‘transgender’ means to transition to one gender from another. The applicability of this term in different cultures depends on two prerequisites- 1) that an individual is identifying with a gender recognised in the West, and 2) a transition is occurring in the first place. The issue with applying this term to anyone who does not identify as one of these Western conceptions of gender is that this delegitimizes a whole host of other, non-western gender identities which do meet this criteria. There is, after all, no objective and globally-recognised “truth” behind what makes a person male or female gendered- maleness and femaleness are culturally subjective- as is what exists outside of those categories. So when identities exist outside of this framework, identities which require their own language to describe themselves instead of having the language of others imposed upon them, what does that look like? How do we begin to understand them?
I have talked in previous episodes about how fortune and opportunity have been on my side during this round-the-world venture as a wannabe queer pioneer- and my experiences in Yogyakarta on the island of Java were no different. It was by reaching out to LGBTQ+ research contacts in Indonesia that I was passed on to another researcher and worker at an NGO in Yogya, who was happy to put me in touch with some interviewees for my episode on Waria culture. As luck would have it, the person who sat opposite me at the table during that first meeting at the NGO was a face I recognised from some four years prior. At her behest, I was to spend three weeks sharing in the life and labour of award-winning activist and community leader, Shinta Ratri.
I had never met Shinta before, but back when I was studying my masters degree in Gender in 2016, I had taken a unit on the anthropology of kinship, sex and gender. It was arguably this unit that pushed me down the path of becoming a researcher of transnational gender and sexuality variant culture, and during those first few classes we learned about Waria in Indonesia. Shinta was, and still is, the face of the Waria rights movement. She is all over the internet and, not long after I completed my degree, I remember reading an article all about her work in The Guardian Newspaper. Back in 2008, Shinta established the only Islamic boarding school for Waria and transgender people- Pondok Pesantren Waria al-Fatah. Shinta and her associates work closely with a local Islamic university, but also facilitate non-muslim events at the local Christian university, as around 8% of Waria living in Yogyakarta are Christian. The culture of Indonesia cannot be disentangled from religion. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, with 87.2% of citizens practising Islam. So, as you will note in my interview here with Shinta, one’s’ relationship with their gender as waria is so often tied into their relationship with their religion.
As we proceed into this interview with Shinta, you are probably asking: what is waria? What does this term mean? I cannot tell you- all I feel comfortable telling you is that this is a traditional third gender identity found across much of Indonesia, which is often compared to or ‘translated as’ the western concept of a transgender woman. But beyond that, I am deferring exclusively to Shinta to explain this concept, in a bid to decentre myself from this narrative. Indonesia remained under Dutch colonial rule until 1945 and I have talked to a whole host of Indonesians who express discomfort at how Indonesian culture is continually exoticised by outsiders. Nobody needs yet another white tourist’s distorted and romanticised perspective. A decolonial practice to telling these stories involves, quite frankly, not making them about me and my worldview. Which is why I am grateful to have Shinta Ratri telling you what the Waria experience looks like.
For the following interview, Shinta spoke predominantly in Bahasa Indonesia and was interpreted by NGO worker Astrid Febriyanti, so if you have any issues following it, please refer to the transcript available on the /Queer website.
Georgie Williams, in interview: Shinta, how did you start doing this work? What is your story?
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Sudah sejak lama, jadi ketika saya masih kuliah tahun 1981, karena basic saya itu berorganisasi kemudian, saya melihat kawan-kawan waria hanya nongkrong-nongkrong saja kemudian saya dan kawan saya yang punya background pendidikan akademi kemudian membuat Ikatan Waria Yogyakarta pada tahun 1982. Jadi itu adalah.. kira-kira 38 tahun yang lalu saya memulai advokasi ini melalui Ikatan Waria Yogyakarta. Pada waktu itu isunya masih di bidang kesenian dan kesejahteraan saja, belum tentang penyakit kelamin. Tetapi kemudian ketika kita mulai bergabung dengan PKBI, kita mulai menambahkan isu IMS (Infeksi Menular Seksual).
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: Ya, STD… Sexually transmitted disease.
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Kemudian kita bersama-sama difasilitasi dengan PKBI, kita mulai mengembangkan bagaimana waria itu melakukan perjuangan identitas. Jadi, kami memperjuangkan identitas dan membangkitkan kesadaran kritis. Pada waktu itu belum ada yang namanya LGBT jadi the first struggling in identity is from trans woman- no gay, no lesbian uh… not yet. Jadi kemudian ketika mulai isu HIV-AIDS secara global dengan funding international, kita mulai bergabung dalam bagian dari LGBT. Kami memperjuangkan identitas waria di tengah masyarakat dan pemerintah. Kemudian bergabung dengan LGBT, ini seolah-olah langkah awal lagi. We start again from the beginning because we are in the back with LGBT people.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: So basically uh, she started this in college, a while back in college in 1981. She’s basically doing some organisations-thingy with her friend and that’s, she sees transgender or as we call it, as a waria- they see it as, “why do they only hang around? Why don’t they have their own community, why don’t they just be one?” She and her friend that has an [academic] background, uh, created this Waria community for like, 38 years ago… um the discussion was at first, the discussion was only about art and also their own wellbeing but after joining PKBI or uh...how do you say that in English? Basically this organisation that focus on reproduction uh, health reproductions- they talk about transmitted disease, they’re also talking about their uh, uh, the kind of disease that’s likely going to happen in all kind of genders that exists and also taught you about [reproductive health] also for Waria. And when they learn about transmitted disease with uh, PKBI they’re like bandwagoning them as well with the development of their fight for their own identity alongside with PKBI right now- and before then, before all this LGBT stuff happens inside Indonesia, the one who fight for this first is the transgender people, or the trans people or the Waria- and before the terms of LGBT exist in Indonesia, they’re the ones who first came up with these struggles, they’re the ones who created these organisations, their community, and they’re the only ones fighting for this identity before LGBT terms come in and become an issue- and that suggests that they’re the first ones who came up with this whole issue and make the discussions happen inside Indonesian society. And at the times when HIV is globally known, that’s where the fund from international communities comes to their trans community, which is the boarding school, that’s why they’re being funded by international [organisations]. They’re also being associated with LGBT but they think LGBT has created a step back for their uh, their own organisations because… because she says that she doesn’t want to be part of the LGBT.
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Kemudian pada tahun 2008, kami mendirikan pondok pesantren waria tujuannya untuk memberikan ruang nyaman bagi kawan-kawan waria untuk beribadah. Kami memperjuangkan hak waria untuk beribadah. Kami tidak hanya memperjuangkan hak beribadah tetapi juga kita berjuang dalam ranah sosial seperti bakti sosial, goes to campus, mendidik masyarakat untuk mengetahui tentang waria. Kemudian kami juga mengadvokasi pemerintah untuk memberikan hak yang sama kepada waria, seperti warga negara yang lain.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: So basically in 2008 she started to make this boarding school of Waria or transgender- it is basically to fight for their right to pray and also stay in their religion even if they are a part of their own religion, sometimes it wasn’t being acknowledged. So that was why she fights for their right to be accepted, at least. They also go to social services, and goes to campus to socialise about the Waria issues and other kinds of issues to make the understanding better towards all the society around it.
Georgie Williams, voiceover: For context, the PKBI or PKBI is the reproductive rights NGO where Shinta and I met. The services provided by the NGO are run out of a gallery space there- one of the workers explained to me that in Indonesian culture, when you first greet someone you often ask them if they’ve eaten and secondly, you ask ‘Mau kau mana’ which translates to “where are you going?”. The NGO worker explained to me that although this is often intended to convey concern and care for an individual, it can also double as an act of surveillance. For individuals wishing to access gendered or sexual services, going to a gallery is safer than going to a clinic.
Georgie Williams, in interview: I want to understand why it is that the Waria community might not want to be associated with the LGBT community- and also how being Waria is different to being transgender.
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Itu sama, waria adalah transwoman. Kenapa kemudian pada saat tertentu kami tidak mau digabungkan dengan LGBT karena secara identitas itu juga berbeda. Waria ini lebih diterima di masyarakat dan perjuangan lebih mudah. Masyarakat di Indonesia masih memegang erat dan ketika kita berjuang atas nama LGBT maka perjuangan itu lebih keras.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: So basically uh, the reason they don’t want to be associated is first, they say that the transgender is same but- Waria is a trans women, and at times the reason they don’t want to be associated with LGBT is because identity-based is different and Indonesian society is really, they really uphold their religions and that’s why in these kinds of terms, trans woman or waria is likely to be accepted in comparison to LGBT so they had a different start because, you know, the issues [came] up first for Waria and then there was LGBT so that’s why they have this different starting point that makes it harder if the trans women are associated with LGBT. But they, yeah, basically that.
Georgie Williams, in interview: Okay- so it’s more about how the Waria community was already established-
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: Yeah, beforehand, before the LGBT. That’s why um, they don’t wanna make- they don’t wanna be associated with LGBT because they’re really being rejected by Indonesian society because of the uh, religious issues, and they’ve also done a government advocacy- trans woman specifically-
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Pada saat tertentu saja kita memisahkan dengan LGBT, tergantung perjuangan apa yang sedang diperjuangkan. Kalau pada saat ini mau tidak mau, terpaksa kita tergabung dalam LGBT itu. Hal ini dikarenakan isu global.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: Basically it’s not always that they disassociate themselves with LGBT- basically it’s based on the issues they wanna talk about, so sometimes there’s issues specifically for trans women, that’s why they wanna fight for their own- but now, in the current status quo, because of the global um, [tension] about LGBT they like, they need to bandwagon with the LGBT because the issues are more spread and ya, basically it’s happening right now in society and they decided to sometimes bandwagon the movement of LGBT.
Georgie Williams, in interview: Okay so, if I understand this correctly, it’s kind of that, the specific needs and, and focuses of the waria community need to not be absorbed by the LGBT community? That there are individual experiences that aren’t represented by other LGBT individuals that need a focus with regards to kind of activism and advocacy, is that correct?
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: Yeah yeah yeah, true.
Georgie Williams, in interview: Okay. My final question is, how can communities outside of the Waria community and outside of Indonesia support you and this social movement?
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Perjuangan kami memang membutuhkan bantuan, apalagi peningkatan kapasitas dalam pengorganisasian, safe and security, dan kemudian di dalam melakukan kegiatan yang sifatnya untuk penerimaan masyarakat. Soalnya waria ini adalah suatu yang paling visible di antara komponen LGBT. Ketika LGBT dipakai dalam isu politik untuk menaikan elektabilitas, yang paling pertama menerima dampak buruk adalah waria. Kalau bantuan yang bisa diharapkan adalah bagaimana kita tetap eksis dalam melakukan kegiatan dan sambil menjaga keamanan, terutama shelter rumah aman, kemudian shelter untuk waria-waria lansia.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: Okay so basically, what they need help the most is that improving their capacity, especially in organisation strategy if it’s about campaigns and stuff and also about safety and security when they’re doing campaigns. And because they’ve also done a lot of activity about uh, how to make society acceptance around them, that’s why they really need help in terms of safety and security from other organisations that can help- example given like PKBI, they always trying to strengthen their movement in terms of organisational strategies, and currently, since trans woman is the most visible form of LGBT, they’re most likely the ones who kinda get the first impact the moment when there are bad issues about that. LGBT are used by politicians to increase their approval rate and most likely the one who get the bad impact when the politician did something bad or, yeah- the one who is in the front line who will defend them all, who will get the first hate and everything is the trans woman. That’s why they also need help in terms of safety and security from organisations that are likely to help them, and they also need safety during their own campaign because there is always a lot of hate, and if um, some people or some organisation or any kind of stakeholders who likely want to help, they can just come towards their own boarding schools and see what they really need there, they will explain to you… and apparently what they needed the most is shelter- especially shelter for people who is old, trans women- uh yeah, elderly- that’s what they really need right now.
Georgie Williams, in interview: Of course, of course, yeah.
Shinta Ratri, in interview: The elderly people need our help because they don’t have a job, they have weakness. They can’t afford house, food...yeah.
Georgie Williams, voiceover: One afternoon during my 3 weeks with Shinta, she invited me over to her boarding school. Riding on the back of Shinta's motorbike, her handbag still on her arm as we wove through the traffic, she invited me to attend the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian Government, to secure particular protections and local governmental support for waria. These protections are long overdue, as in 2016 Shinta was forced to temporarily close the school after continued threats of violence towards herself and her fellow waria by a local Muslim fundamentalist group. Having reached out to the police for protection, Shinta had been encouraged to create some form of dialogue with the fundamentalists. This dialogue proved unsuccessful and Shinta and the Al-Fatah boarding school were further targeted by locals who began to deliberately misgender and harass her and other waria. 2016 was a year when an unprecedented rise in conservative politics swept the nation and Shinta’s meeting with Indonesian government representatives was a means through which to secure the protections they needed to survive another wave of far-right resurgence if it happened again.
Shinta’s work is never done. When she wasn’t negotiating with government officials, she was personally funding blood tests for waria at the boarding school, ensuring that those at high risk of disease were being checked by nurses from the local hospital once every three months. Many waria struggle to secure employment due to gender discrimination, which leads them to turn to sex work. Of course, this is never an easy choice and many who do so struggle to balance their identities as a sex worker and as a practising Muslim. Shinta does her utmost to support them, as she is under no illusions that many waria simply do not have another choice. That said, she does also personally fund visits from make up artists and hair stylists, who train waria in these fields so that they at least have a chance at leaving sex work and gaining employment elsewhere if they so desire. There is a reason Shinta was awarded the Frontline Defenders award for the protection of human rights last year- she has devoted her whole life and everything she has to protecting her fellow waria, people who live on the absolute breadline without external help.
Georgie Williams, in interview: My final question is, is there anything else that you want to share? Um, my audience is mostly UK and US based, but is there anything that you think they should know in order to be more supportive and understanding?
Shinta Ratri, in interview: Di Yogyakarta ada sekitar 30 waria yang usianya 55 tahun ke atas. Kami ini punya mimpi agar mereka punya kesejahteraan di masa tuanya. Kami ingin mengumpulkan 2 hari dalam sebulan, ada pemeriksaan kesehatan, psikologis, siraman rohani, kegiatan hiburan seperti bercocok tanam, hobi, senam lansia, yang paling utama adalah bantuan uang untuk sewa rumah dan 1 paket makanan bergizi.
Astrid Febriyanti, in interview: So they had a dream for 20 trans women who exist in the current boarding school that age above 55 to have their own well-being and their own social security to survive when they are still alive- and they want to have an event together in two days to have their own check-up, health check-up and also their own check-up in terms of psychologies and their own mental health issues and also since this is a boarding school for religious space they also want to have a spiritual closure with them where this is needed and a warm-up for them. It’s one of, it’s one of the activities they want to have- to have fun together and also to do their own hobby based on their own liking, their own interest so they can, you know, be enjoying um, you know, old ages? Yeah. But the most important thing they want to prioritise is in the end they want to [get] helps in terms of money and finances and monitoring of funds in order to pay for rent and also um, have their own nutrition in terms of food, that’s what they really need the most in terms of funds, yeah.
Georgie Williams, voiceover: The experience of not identifying as one’s assigned gender of birth is so often presumed to be a new and western concept- the existence of waria disproves that. Shinta has been openly waria and aware of the waria community since she was in university, and she is now in her late 50s. Research yields articles claiming that to be waria is to be a third gender which has no western equivalent, and this is what I myself believed prior to meeting and working with Shinta. In Bahasa Indonesia, the word for woman is wanita, and the word for man is pria- waria is a combination of the two. Shinta often compares being waria to being a trans woman, and although I have liaised with workers at the PKBI who informed me that this comparison seems to be a means of translating the waria experience into terms that Westerners can understand, it is not my place or any non-Waria individuals’ to question the alignment of the two terms. What is evident is that waria continue to call themselves waria, not just trans women. That distinction is important, not only for the sake of cultural sensitivity but also for ensuring that the gendered histories of Indonesia are not absorbed and erased under the imposition of western language. After all, before the term transgender was even coined in 1965, Waria existed, congregated and created communities together here in Indonesia.
I am fortunate enough to now be able to call Shinta Ratri my friend. At one point during our discussions of her work, I asked Shinta if, aside from any of the occasional charity and NGO funding, if she received donations through any kind of crowdfunding service. She did not- there was in fact, no programme or campaign in place to collect donations for Shinta and her boarding school. Shinta offered so much to the /Queer project in the time I had with her and since my departure she has informed me that she has been working to provide safety and security for more vulnerable Waria, particularly elderly Waria and those without a safe place to shelter during the Coronavirus outbreak. Expanding the boarding school to keep these people safe is no mean feat, and she is doing it with very little external support. So if you feel like donating to Shinta and her incredibly important cause, you can visit slashqueer.com/funding and donate directly to Shinta. The Indonesian Rupiah is not a strong currency compared to British Pounds and American Dollars. You won’t believe how far your spare change will go in Indonesia, especially when it is paying for bare essentials like food, water and medical services. It goes without saying that this is undeniably a deserving cause, where measurable change is taking place. Your donations would be met with gratitude.
As my time in Yogyakarta drew to a close, Shinta and I unveiled our joint exhibition at the gallery in the NGO where we met three weeks prior. ‘Identitas Kaum Pinggiran’ which translates loosely to ‘identities at the margins’ was an exchange of sorts; Shinta showcased photographs and stories of the day-to-day life of the Waria community, and I shared transcriptions from previous /Queer episodes, translated into Bahasa Indonesia. During the opening ceremony, Shinta asked me many questions about the transcripts and informed me that hearing about alternately gendered experiences outside of Indonesia was important for Waria- and although one can appreciate this, the inverse feels important and overlooked. Understanding the international, transnational multiplicity of gender identity is essential if we are to deconstruct this idea of gender and sexuality variance as something that is white and Eurocentric. It is not about putting communities like Waria on a pedestal as exotic, unusual and controversial- it is about demonstrating that expecting a gender binary to exist everywhere as a default is culturally ignorant. Gender identity variance is not a trend nor a fashion- it is an inexpungible facet of the human experience. Shinta’s story is one that deserves to be heard, one of many that demonstrates that what makes us unique does not have to isolate us. No matter where you go in the world, you will find people who exist outside of the socially-determined norm- and in spite of bigotry, hostility and aggression, they thrive. The struggle of Waria for their rights and freedoms is far from over- but there is a drive and determination there that cannot be extinguished. We could all stand to learn from the unyielding fortitude and indomitable spirit of the Waria.
This episode of the /Queer Podcast was edited by Sam Clay and scripted and produced by me, Georgie Williams. A very special thanks to Beau Newham, Jamee Newland, Astrid Febriyanti and, of course, Ibu Shinta Ratri. Once again, I would like to ask my listeners to consider donating to Shinta’s cause. In the current pandemic, the needs of those that live at the margins of society such as the Waria of Yogyakarta are being overlooked. You can find the link to donate to Shinta at slashqueer.com/fundraising. Your money will go a long, long way in Indonesia and even your loose change can make a difference.
I want to take a quick moment to thank my Patreon subscribers, whose pledges are helping make this project happen- I feel immense gratitude for your generosity and you should take pride in the fact that your contributions are allowing these important stories to be shared around the world. If you’re not a Patreon and fancy lobbing a few pennies my way every month, you can find the /Queer Patreon at patreon.com/slashqueer. That’s S-L-A-S-H Queer. The link is also available on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Every time a new patron signs up I get quite obscenely emotional, so know that anything you can give means the world to myself and the rest of the team.
This episode was recorded on location in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Music in this episode was composed by Kevin MacLeod. If you enjoyed this episode or have any feedback, please get in touch on Instagram or Twitter at @SlashQueer or email us at slashqueer@outlook.com. Perhaps now more than ever, stay kind, stay radical and stay queer.