Wiji Thukul’s daughter heals tragedy with poetry

At twilight on June 8 in Yogyakarta, Wani read out her poem titled Puisi untuk Ibu dan Adik (A Poem for My Mother and Little Brother), a 20-line message to her mother and younger brother to move on after her father went missing in 1998. Wani appeared at the launch of her poetry collection entitled Kau Berhasil Menjadi Peluru (You’ve Made It as a Bullet) in Yogyakarta on June 8. The new collection is the sequel to her anthology, Selepas Bapakku Hilang (After My Father was Gone), that was published in 2009. Puisi untuk Ibu dan Adik is one of 52 poems in the anthology, selected from around 270 written by Wani from 2010 to this year.