Unearthing conscious intent in women’s everyday resistance to mining in Indonesia

• Published in: Ethnography Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 23 - 43
• Main Authors: Glynn, Tracy, Maimunah, Siti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-03-2023; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Exploitation; Farmers; Indigenous peoples; Mining industry; Resistance; Women; Indonesia; photovoice; everyday resistance; mining; gender; Indonesia
• ISSN: 1466-1381; 1741-2714
• DOI: 10.1177/14661381211039372

Resistance to nickel mining in Sorowako, Indonesia has existed since the operation started taking land from farmers in the 1970s. However, in Sorowako and beyond, little is known about the gendered nature of everyday resistance to mining. We conducted a photovoice study with women from two Indigenous communities affected by the same mine to uncover conscious intent in everyday resistance. Some scholars call for abandoning intent and consciousness in analytical frameworks for everyday resistance, but by pairing photovoice with a conjunctural exercise, we found women’s awareness of how dispossession and exploitation for mining affects them and their responses to mining as rural Indigenous women. The participants used photovoice to show that their everyday acts, such as accessing forbidden land, intend to lessen their domination and better their conditions, a kind of quiet encroachment of the ordinary theorized by Bayat.