Our history 

ISSI was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization by a group of Indonesian historians in Jakarta. These historians, having led an oral history project that had started in 2000 to interview the victims of the 1965-66 violence, decided that they needed their own archive to house the recordings and transcripts of that research. At the same time, they pooled their separate book collections to form the core of ISSI’s library. Since then, ISSI has conducted further oral history research and acquired more books and documents. It now has special collections related to the writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the cultural organization Lekra, and the history of Timor-Leste (including the records of the Indonesian solidarity organization Fortilos). It also has a collection of photographs from c. 1950-65 taken by Oey Hay Djoen. 

ISSI has worked closely with school teachers and has published books for use in the schools. The researchers of ISSI have so far published biographies of five national leaders: Kartini, Douwes Dekker, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, Agus Salim, and S.K. Trimurti. 

ISSI researchers published the results of the oral history research with the victims of 1965-66 as the book Tahun yang Tak Pernah Berakhir (2004) and a report Rekonstruksi Sosial Korban Tragedi Nasional 1965 di Solo, Pati dan Bali (2017). ISSI researchers were major contributors to the book Pulangkan Mereka! (2012). 

ISSI led a campaign against censorship in 2009-10 and petitioned the Constitutional Court to review the law allowing the government to ban books. In a landmark decision affirming the right of free speech, the court agreed with ISSI’s petition and struck down the censorship law in 2010. 

Mission statement 

ISSI is meant to promote a greater awareness of history in Indonesia. It maintains an archive of oral interviews, photographs, historical documents, and books that are available for public access. It specializes in the history of social movements in twentieth century, such as the history of trade unions, peasant associations, political parties, women’s associations, and cultural organizations. ISSI aims to provide documentation on the lives of Indonesians who are often neglected in the political histories that are focused on the rulers and their officials. Social history is an approach that endeavors to capture the “everyday life” of “ordinary people”, even at times of revolution (such as the Indonesian Revolution of 1945-49) when the ideas of “everyday life” are radically changing and when “ordinary people” play extraordinary roles. 

While the national history of Indonesia is ISSI’s primary concern, the scope of ISSI’s collection is international given that our national history has always been an integral part of world history. ISSI’s collection also strives to be representative of the diversity of the Indonesian nation. Our national history has been made a great variety of people. ISSI recognizes the diversity of religions, ethnic groups, languages, and local identities of this archipelago. The collection is primarily oriented towards Indonesian-language materials but those materials pertain to all parts of the archipelago.