JAKARTA – In a forested area outside Palembang, a dancer dressed in Aesan Paksangko, the intricate ceremonial attire of South Sumatra, performs the tari tanggai, a traditional welcome dance. The scene shifts abruptly: she now stands amid charred trees. She reaches for a full-face gas mask and continues her dance.
The scene is part of a performance art project titled Tarian Kehancuran Budaya (The Dance of Cultural Destruction) by the Palembang-based art collective Jaga Api, which has gone viral on Indonesian social media.
Pebri Yansyah, 33, a visual artist and member of Jaga Api, told The Straits Times: “In South Sumatra, it feels like the fires keep happening every year. So the idea that I had was: Is the haze our culture now?”
As smoke from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan once more spreads across South-east Asia, driving up respiratory illnesses, causing school closures and disrupting flights, individuals are responding with more than just complaints.
From creating memes and works of art to implementing practical measures such as providing masks and healthcare, people both within and outside Indonesia are coming up with various ways to express their concern and show solidarity.
Laughing and dancing through the smoke
For many, the initial response has been humour. In Singapore and Malaysia, content creators and netizens have taken aim at the Indonesian government’s handling of the haze crisis in various ways.
Singaporean content creator Calvin Chua, for example, posted a video repeatedly asking “Who do we fine?” for the smoke enveloping many parts of the island.
Malaysian content creator @isawkwardguy, who routinely makes videos poking fun at the friendly rivalry between South-east Asian countries, made a video mocking Indonesian government spokesman Syahganda Nainggolan’s claim that the country also sends oxygen to Malaysia. “Thank you for the oxygen,” he says sarcastically.
Instead of taking offence, many Indonesians joined in. “Fine our government, you have the people’s blessing,” one reply to Chua’s post read.
For Jaga Api, social media turned out to be an unexpected amplifier. The group drew inspiration from Tarian Kehancuran Budaya, a 2024 painting by Pebri, which was part of a series of works featuring masks.
They adapted it into a performance, video and photo series, which was shot on Sept 7. The group premiered the video at a public forum in Palembang in October, where civil society groups encouraged them to post the work online.
The response surprised them. “We used local symbols from South Sumatra, so we thought only people from South Sumatra would relate,” Pebri said.
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