Memorykeepers: Gendered Knowledges, Empires, and Indonesian American History

Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. (1995) from Yale University in the Department of American Studies.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsNote on Orthography and NamesIntroduction: Daughter of a Daughter: the Labor of Memorykeeping1 Questions2 The ‘Indonesian American’ Context3 ‘Return’ and ‘Belonging’Part 1: Empire and Gender1 Empires:Interimperialism, Migration, and the United States1 Introduction2 When Empires Came to You: the Toba Batak3 Multilingualism and Interimperial Temporality4 The United States Cold War5 Conclusion2 Gendered Knowledges:Patriarchies and the Politics of Belonging1 Introduction2 The Toba Batak Culture as Political Location3 Colonial Domesticity4 Converging Gender Hierarchies5 Negotiation and Challenge6 ConclusionPart 2: Curating Time3 Stories and Silences: Telling the Past1 Introduction2 Searching for Archives3 What Is Said4 What Is Not Said5 Two Pictures6 Conclusion4 Artifacts and Memories: Representing Meaning1 Introduction2 Knowledge as Legacy3 Memorykeeping as Response to Precarity4 The Labor of Artifacts5 ConclusionPart 3: MemorykeepingPrologue to Part 3: A Journey and a Path5 Across Empires: The Narrative of H.L. Tobing1 Raja Pontas2 The Old Times3 Family4 The Adat5 Christianity6 Tarutung7 Living in the Village8 Dutch Rule9 Elementary School10 Salatiga11 Early Marriage12 Semarang13 Magetan14 Pearaja15 Bengkalis16 Japanese Occupation and World War II17 Kisaran18 Medan19 Progress20 Opportunities21 United States22 Homecoming6 For Those Who Follow: The Autobiography of Minar T. Rony1 Beginnings2 Bengkalis3 Siantar4 Return to Bengkalis5 Bukit Batu6 Pearaja7 Jakarta8 Return to Siantar9 Medan10 Teacher and Guide11 The United StatesConclusion: The Urgency of TimeTimelineGlossaryBibliographyIndex

"This book makes significant contributions to Asian American studies, studies of empire and colonialism, US Cold War history, women’s history, and gender studies. Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony marshals a wealth of evidence from personal narratives and material culture to reveal how women’s “memorykeeping” constitutes a practice of resistance and critique. Her study illuminates the workings of multiple empires in the everyday life of two Toba Batak women, H.L. Tobing and Minar T. Rony, making visible the intertwined forces of gender and empire." — Valerie Matsumoto, University of California, Los Angeles"Dr. Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony’s book, The Memorykeepers: Gendered Knowledges, Empires, and Indonesian American History, is an original and pioneering manuscript in the field of Indonesian American Studies. Particularly valuable is how the scholarship highlights women’s memorykeeping across time and space. A work of this importance is long overdue." — Shirley Lim, State University of New York at Stony Brook