Paper Short Abstract:

Feminist, ethnographic, and arts methodologies can foreground knowledge, perspectives, and art forms traditionally excluded in climate action. We highlight two creative projects engaging women in Indonesia: Madihin, a Banjarese form of comedic musical storytelling, and Trans Superheroes for Climate.

Paper Abstract:

We borrow our title from a famous line of Wiji Thukul’s poem Peringatan (translated as Warning), about the everyday lives of the working class and their struggles to be heard, resonating with our experiences in working with marginalised communities to decolonise climate knowledge production and challenge the inequalities shaping climate impacts. As in Thukul’s words: ‘There is only one word: Fight!’ In this paper we critically reflect on our recent experiences in Indonesia working with artists, communities, activists, and practitioners to better understand and address the gender–age–urban interface of climate change: how climate impacts and responses are shaped by gender and age, intersecting with wider systemic injustices, in urban settings. We frame our presentation around two different examples of our creative practice that have engaged with women’s responses to climate change: Madihin, a Banjarese tradition of comedic musical storytelling and Trans Superhero Perubahan Iklim (Transgender Superheroes for Climate). We centre these two different forms of knowledge and voice to invite researchers and practitioners to think creatively about the languages we use, the creative methods and arts we draw on, the collaborations we build, how we apply and disseminate ‘academic’ knowledge, and push at institutional barriers and the boundaries of what practicing ‘inclusion’ can truly mean at each stage of our research processes.