In 2023 we began co-developing a comic that would weave together the lived experiences of transwomen and visualise an alternative inclusive and equitable future that is led by and enacted by these superheroes. The comic was brought to life by illustrator Leka Putra, and scriptwriter Yara, and the story was developed in collaboration between GENERATE and Sanggar Seroja.
While the superhero characters of Dana, Asih, Vei Lan and Tara are fictional, their life stories are inspired by real-life experiences shared with GENERATE by transgender women living across Indonesia between 2022-2023. They blur the boundary between research, art, and action – the characters are fictional, yet they engage in real-world transformation.
They offer a radical and visual retelling of the dominant climate narrative that women, especially those in the so-called ‘Global South’, are victims of climate change. Our superheroes draw on their beauty and femininity, creativity, and strength to highlight the disproportionate impacts of climate change and environmental injustice on women and sexual and gender-diverse people in Indonesia through visualising an alternative future: one of hope, inclusion, and power. Arts are used to promote leadership, not victimhood, to advance our understanding of how social norms can be challenged and reimagined.
As knowledge is co-produced it is put into service. The superheroes have shared research with academics and activists as well as policymakers, generated increased social acceptance in their local neighbourhoods, and promoted different ways of being and belonging that transcend the prisons of patriarchal and heteronormative orders. They offer their own community, allies, and detractors alike a new blueprint for relating to each other and leading work towards social, environmental and climate justice.
It has been printed in both Bahasa Indonesia and English.
(Text shared here is borrowed from our 2023 article: Hanya ada Satu Kata: Lawan! On decolonising and building a mutual collaborative research practice on gender and climate change, Gender & Development, 31:2-3, 575-595. link.)