Power in creation Indonesian/Australian Artist Jumaadi’s work depicts the true story of 1200 anti-colonial political prisoners and their families, mostly Javanese, who in 1926 were exiled by the Dutch colonial powers to Boven Digul prison camp in Irian Jaya, now West Papua. In this hostile, remote place, they were given building materials, including nails, to construct their own shelter.
Instead, they melted the metal down to make a gamelan, their national musical instrument, using other scavenged materials such as wooden crates, cooking pots, sardine tins and animal skins in order to gain control emotionally.