The Festival presents artworks and research findings from GENERATE’s Resep Keadilan Bencana project, a six-month community- and arts-based initiative locally led by Lalu Faris Naufal Makhroja and Maulani Furi Fajarini. We have been collectively exploring and creatively documenting community experiences of injustice and disasters across the island of Lombok, engaging communities including women, people with diffabilities, farmers and fishers, former migrant workers, teachers, child marriage and gender-based violence survivors, sexual and gender diverse people, older people, and informal workers.

We have co-created ‘Recipes for Disaster Justice’ – inclusive, community-led visions for intersectional disaster resilience and risk reduction. Combining local arts with reflection and discussion, we position all members of each diverse community as knowledge holders and experts. To date, our research team have hosted 14 community-led workshops with more than 158 participants from diverse backgrounds, worked with over 18 civil society organisations, and co-created more than 130 artworks and counter-maps.

All artworks focus on the theme of disaster justice – ensuring there is equity in how people can prepare for, survive and sustainably recover from disasters. They explore the lived experiences, innovations, and injustices of diverse communities across the island, while also setting out new community-led visions for disaster justice. Featured local arts include wayang puppets, masks, batik, hand embroidery, collage, paintings, sculptures, pottery and Lelakaq (creative writing).

At the centre of the exhibitions are counter-maps created by communities that document multiple forms of environmental, social, health and economic hazards and disasters, demonstrating there is no such thing as a ‘natural’ disaster.

“I was and still am touched by our dialogues with each participant and by their incredible strengths and initiatives despite the injustices that the community face. It is important that we show them in this exhibition as part of their resistance,” Faris explained.

The opening Festival gathered 134 participants, including activists, representatives from 15 civil society organisations in East Lombok, Chiefs of the Regional Disaster Counter Measures Agency and East Lombok Red Cross, Heads of East Lombok Planning Agency, Department of Women’s Empowerment, Child Protection, and Family Planning, ⁠Department of Social Affairs, Department of Environment and Forestry, ⁠ Department of Community and Village Development and Department of Labour and Transmigration. It was opened by speeches from Associate Professor of Gender and Climate Katie McQuaid, the Head of the Department of Library and Archives of East Lombok, and the Vice Regent of East Lombok.

Dr Katie McQuaid, who leads the GENERATE project, emphasised the disproportionate impacts of disasters and the importance of addressing injustices as a part of disaster risk reduction and management. She stated: “These burdens are disproportionately borne by women, children, and people with diffabilities. The gender pay gap, high rates of child marriage, gender-based violence, and discrimination against women and people with diffabilities must be tackled as part of any meaningful disaster risk reduction. And that is why we are here, so we can collectively explore new ways to think about, prepare for, and collaborate on disaster risk reduction and management.”

In the first panel, the First Assistant of the East Lombok Regional Secretariat, on behalf of the Vice Regent, outlined actions the administration has taken to mitigate the risks and hazards Lombok, particularly East Lombok, is facing. Included in his speech were statistics by the West Nusa Tenggara’s Disaster Counter Measures Agency, revealing the region was hit by 136 disasters in the past year, while the island recorded 578 disaster events, making East Lombok the region with the highest frequency of disasters on the island for five consecutive years. We then provided opportunities for activists, civil society and community members to raise and discuss issues of injustice and disaster directly with policymakers. One example was devastating flooding in the southern part of East Lombok on 24th December 2025. A traditionally drought-prone region that rarely experiences heavy rainfall, neither communities or authorities were prepared for flooding. While 44,000 houses were submerged and around 5,600 houses experienced varying degrees of damage, participants reported that social protection and aid have yet to reach the communities impacted.

The second panel included speakers such as Khadijah, a member of the Indonesian Women with Disabilities Association, Suhupawati, Head of local organisation Gema Alam, the Chief of the East Lombok Disaster Counter Measures Agency, and the Head of the East Lombok Regional Planning Agency. This session explored the strengths and initiatives taken by women and women with diffabilities despite entrenched ableism and patriarchal inequities. Importantly, this session served as a platform for policymakers, civil society organisations, and communities to discuss best practices and pathways to inclusive disaster risk reduction and management.

The Festival concluded with a collective pledge to work collaboratively between decision-makers, civil society organisations, the private sector and the public to address injustices as an integral part of disaster management.