On the road with Marjinal

On the road with Marjinal:

Campaigning to remove the stigma of punk

Ian Wilson

Marjinal performs to a huge crowd at the Hellprint music festival in Bandung. Ian Wilson

Marjinal and Taring Babi (‘Pigs tusk’) are a punk band and punk arts collective based in Srengsengsawah on the outskirts of Jakarta. Formed in 1997, for the past 15 years they have created a uniquely Indonesian brand of punk, combining music, art and activism. Building a large and enthusiastic following and networks of like-minded punks, Marjinal have stayed committed to the punk ethic of ‘Do It Yourself’, avoiding the traps and temptations of commercialism and encouraging others to create and distribute their own music and art through free ukulele, silk-screening and woodcut workshops.
In recent times, and particularly since the much publicised arrests and forced ‘re-education’ of 65 punks in Banda Aceh in December 2011 Marjinal have made frequent appearances in the Indonesian print media and television, even playing shows at Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren, in an attempt to counter some of the prevailing negative stereotypes about punks.
The Banda Aceh incident was just one case of many throughout the past 18 months in which local governments have targeted punks. Since February 2011 there have been repeated ‘anti-punk’ raids in at least 40 cities and towns spread throughout the country, including Jakarta, with hundreds if not thousands of punks detained and subject to various forms of humiliation and ‘re-education’. The

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