The two reading sessions will take place at Page Not Found, Boekhorststraat 102.

“(…) the past is never really finished. It keeps appearing in the present through family memory, inherited fear, myth, oral stories, local cosmologies, and histories that are often excluded from official archives. (…) In my work, I often try to approach the past not as something to preserve neatly, but as something to reanimate, contaminate, and speculate with.”

– Natasha Tontey – fragments from the Email Conversation with Rocher Koendjbiharie for Macho Mystic Meltdown: Subtracted Anthology

As part of the program for STONEWALL Festival, 1646 has teamed up with PAARD and Page Not Found, and invited Amsterdam-based queer Asian collective Eastern Playgrounds to react to Natasha Tontey’s exhibition Macho Mystic Meltdown: Subtracted Anthology.

In a Silent Reading Club, consisting of two reading sessions, you will engage with some of the present-histories activated through Natasha Tontey’s work. Together with other participants, you will jointly delve into texts focused on two groups that were active during this period: Permesta (Perjuangan Semesta, meaning universal struggle) and GERWANI (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia, or Indonesian Women’s Movement). As you read, you are invited to sit with your imaginations of ‘Indonesia’: reflect, unlearn, and discuss.

Appearing in Tontey’s video work Monster; She Wrote, Permesta was a Sulawesi-based organization who criticized the Java-centric Indonesian government and in turn advocated for regional autonomy alongside economic equity. The CIA funded Permesta for a period of time with the interest to weaken Soekarno’s government.

GERWANI was a Java-based organization led by and for working women who advocated for land rights, labor rights, and women’s rights. They held transnational anti-imperialist and anti-feudal values. During the CIA-backed genocide in 1965, GERWANI became one of the operation’s main targets.

The two reading sessions will take place at Page Not Found, Boekhorststraat 102 in The Hague:

Thursday 29 October 2026, 19:00 – 20:30

This session will focus on Permesta and GERWANI origins and ideologies, naming their different struggles, the CIA’s involvement in both groups’ trajectory. The silent reading time is 45 minutes followed by a moderated discussion and mapping.

Saturday 7 November 2026, exact time TBA (STONEWALL Festival date)

This session will focus on revisiting the map produced in the first session, connecting the past to the present context.

Participation is free of charge, but we do ask you to sign up in advance (due to capacity of the space). We recommend joining both sessions, but this is not obligatory. This session is crafted with fellow Asian diasporas in mind, especially those who are Indonesian. Because of this, the event centers Asian folx but is open to comrades and allies.