Healing Past Wounds

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Ethnic, religious and political conflicts have plagued Indonesia time and again. In 2001, ethnic conflict erupted in Sampit, West Kalimantan. In 1998 and 2000, communal violence broke out in Poso, Central Sulawesi. In Papua, the Indonesian military and the Free Papua Movement fought causing citizens to suffer the consequences, including trauma and injuries. Many are still finding it difficult to forget their chilling history. Now, in Buyukatedo, a hamlet in Poso, residents of two neighboring hamlets have reconciled through horticulture. In Manda, Wamena, women survivors of past military operations find healing through weaving traditional Papuan bags, and cultivating plants. Tempo English reports to welcome World Humanitarian Day on August 19.

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Horticulture for Reconciliation

After years of trauma and suspicion, Poso residents are recovering from conflict through communal plant cultivation. Fraught relationships are improving.

Jusniati’s gardening routine has lasted one year. The 30yearold woman visits the Learning House, only tens of meters away from her home in the Buyukatedo hamlet in Central Sulawesi. Sometimes she goes there alone; other times, she is accompanied by her husba

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