Women and Agency in Colonial Indonesia: Case Study of the Wanar Dance of Banda Genocide

Abstract

The Wanar dance originated from Banda Ely Village in Kai Islands, Southeast Maluku, and tells the story of the ancestors of the Banda people who migrated there as a result of the Banda Genocide in 1621. The VOC, led by Jan Pieterszoen Coen, executed 44 of the rich (the heads of the villages) and thousands of Banda people. The remaining hundreds—the majority of whom were women—were taken to Batavia to be enslaved and later established what’s currently known as "Kampung Bandan" in Jakarta. Wanar dance is accompanied by a song called Onotan which means the Song of Sadness. Onotan is the medium preserving the ancestral story of the Wandan society, narrating the events that befell their Banda ancestors. The unique point is that this song can only be recited by women. Subaltern theory by Gayatri Spivak is used to look at the relationship between the collective memory of the people of Banda Ely and colonialism. Studies on collective memory itself often discuss traumatic conflicts. This study tries to reveal how the Wanar dance presents the collective memory of the ancestors of the Banda Ely people. A qualitative approach through observation and interview was used as the data collection methods. Observations were carried out during the Spice Route Cultural Muhibah initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology in 2022, where the dance was performed at Istana Mini, Banda Neira. Interviews were conducted with the dancers and show crew. It was revealed that this event succeeded in resurfacing the collective trauma of the Wandan people 401 years after they left their ancestral land as a result of the 1621 Banda Genocide. Collective memory emerged in the form of trauma experienced by the Banda Ely people during the performance. The trauma that has been living side by side with Wandan society was visible, proving the role of Wanar dance as the medium for maintaining local knowledge consisting of collective memory, history of colonialism and trauma about the 1621 Banda Genocide tragedy.

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Author Information
Ramdani Rachmat, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Vissia Ita Yulianto, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
G. R. Lono Lastoro Simatupang, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia