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View all search results'Reinha Boki Raja': Documentary revives story of an overlooked Ternate queen
Adapted from Toeti Heraty's lyrical prose, the documentary reexamines the life of a 16th-century Ternate queen whose resistance to colonial rule has received little historical attention.
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Reviving history: The official poster for Reinha Boki Raja, a documentary adapted from Toeti Heraty's lyrical prose about the 16th-century Queen of Ternate. The documentary was recently screened at the National Gallery in Jakarta as part of the IWA4: On the Map exhibition program. (Courtesy of Fendi Siregar/-)
L
ong held in the folds of history, the story of Reinha Boki Raja, a 16th-century queen of Ternate in present-day North Maluku, has emerged through a compelling work of lyrical prose by the late Toeti Heraty, one of Indonesia's leading philosophers, poets, academics, human rights activists and feminists.
Historical narratives have long centered on men, leaving women's stories largely overlooked. Toeti believes it is time to highlight extraordinary women from eastern Indonesia.
One of her philosophy students at Universitas Indonesia was the 48th Sultan of Ternate, an encounter that may have inspired her to search for historical documentation on women in the sultanate.
Her research drew heavily on Portuguese colonial archives, historical writings by researcher Paramita Abdurachman and even a personal journey to Goa, India, to trace historical evidence firsthand.
Originally published in 2010, the lyrical prose later inspired a documentary film. Based on her book Reinha Boki Raja: Sixteenth Century Queen of Ternate, the documentary, which bears the same title, was completed in 2020 and was recently screened as part of the contemporary exhibition program of IWA4: On the Map at the National Gallery in Jakarta.
Although the documentary has been screened on several previous occasions, its presentation at the National Gallery introduced many viewers to a little-known chapter of Indonesian history. While the IWA4 exhibition explored the intersections of art, science, technology and culture through women's perspectives, the story of Reinha Boki Raja reinforced the exhibition's shared objective of placing women firmly "on the map".
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