#because it erased his ethnic history and also his communities back in indonesia

[onceuponanaromantic]

yknow what, in hindsight I’m really grateful that when I took a course on the history of colonialism in Southeast Asia, the teacher drilled the exact geography of Indonesia into our collective heads before he even got to like the impacts of Dutch existence in Indonesia and the stages of it.

Like, now that I’m looking at the global focus on colonialism right, and its depictions in art in post-colonial societies and the construction of race and other identity categories within said societies, it’s actually really useful to have that basic understanding that most colonial societies were kind of cobbled together for ease of governance and do not have a monolithic understanding of the impacts of colonialism? Like, esp now that it’s Back with Lizzie’s death right like, it’s really really useful to have that understanding of how exactly colonial administration and military ventures went about grouping wildly disparate communities under the same categories for ease of governance and the economic impacts of colonialism.

And I’m just thinking about it because yes, it makes so much sense when you think about the different islands and the problems with governance today right and the ways the colonial powers continued to exert influence over their ex-colonies (and the way their methods of knowledge production and control remained) but you have to understand, first of all, where all the islands are and that geological basis forms a very good understanding of how people understand language and community and society at all.

[tackletofset]

NAGINI, an INDONESIAN

I was looking for stuffs Nagini in her tags and all I found was shit. You know the fact that Nagini was an Indonesian canonically, and that’s why I, an Indonesian, wants to make her a focus of my future arts and fics. But all I can found was all these not-even-slightly-Indonesian people making self-righteous political speeches how she should not be an ~Asian~ woman because she’s Voldemort’s “pet” snake??

NOW LET ME OFFER YOU AN OPINION FROM AN ACTUAL. INDONESIAN PERSON.

I know that the Nagini representation in the FB2 movie, is flawed, undeniably. But not because she’s revealed to be an Asian Indonesian woman, but because she’s supposed to be Indonesian, but yet was played by a Korean actress !!

A lot of Indonesians, even if we’re unheard of on Tumblr, was deeply disappointed by this.

We know that they tried to cast Acha Septriasa, one of our actresses to play Nagini but she had to refuse because she got pregnant at that time. Then why cast a Korean actress?? There are plenty of english-speaking Indonesian actresses (some of us recommending Tara Basro, f.ex), why must they cast a Korean?? THAT IS OUR CONCERN. (Even most of us still can’t let it go several months later, you can find plenty of “nagini” comments in Acha’s Instagram)

And yet, (most of) the Good & Noble SJWs™️ on Tumblr decided to erase our concerns entirely and replaced it with “asian woman being the pet of the white man”.

Here’s some reasons why I find that opinion lazy.

ASIAN PEOPLE ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE !!! 1000x. We have Filipinos, Singaporean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc and you should never lump it into one “Asian person/woman”. An Indonesian would likely have different experiences/thoughts from a Singaporean, they are not interchangeable, and that’s why Nagini’s casting is a bad idea! And yet the Good & Noble SJWs™️ of Tumblr decided to never mention Nagini’s identity as an Indonesian, they lump it altogether as an ~Asian woman~. We’re already being dicked over by the casting and now Good & Noble SJWs™️ are simultaneously erasing her actual ethnicity in their every posts.

Nagini isn’t just Voldemort’s “pet snake”. Saying she’s his pet is degrading itself. Yes, it might be so from the pov of other Harry Potter characters, including Harry himself. But we never even got to explore the dynamics of their relationship from Nagini’s or Voldemort’s POVs!! For all I know, even Dumbledore said that he’s FOND of her! The HP wiki said: “Voldemort had strong feelings for Nagini that he had not for anyone else; she was the one living thing that he had ever cared about”. Not even Bellatrix. He was never violent with her or punish her like he did with the Death Eaters, and in the movie he even referred to her as “my friend”, not my “slave/lackey/etc”. For her being a horcrux thing, we knew that he could communicate with her in Parseltongue, and I’m sure the entire time she knew what’s going on. Canon facts aside, I don’t think that Nagini “turned bad”. INSTEAD, I think that after the curse transformed her into a snake entirely, Tom Riddle/Voldemort was the only one who regards to her as an actual person. You know, as most of the “good guys” in Harry Potter series tends to demonize anything which associates to Snakes/Slytherin/Parseltongue. And perhaps she, too, was fond of him. Maybe they relate to each other for being called “freak”/equivalent in their earlier years. IF ANYTHING, it’s that circus guy who abused Nagini, NOT Voldemort. He kidnapped Nagini from her home in Indonesia (which clearly was under the Dutch colonization at that time) and brought her halfway across the world only to be used as a circus attraction!! If Nagini doesn’t want to deal with Voldemort so bad why not leave him when he’s defeated in his spirit form?? He was weak back then anyway.

Yes, the Nagini/Naga myth is related to the Hindu culture/religion, and Hindu originated in India. BUT DID YOU EVEN KNOW, that the Hindu religion had assimilated with the local Indonesian culture & religion since 100AD??? NO?? Yes, the Hindu-Buddhist religion has deeply rooted in Indonesia, we even have our own versions of Hindu mythologies such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc. Indonesians DID use Sanskrit in the past !! (Like srsly it’s a fucking elementary history class material). So you have no right to scream ‘cultural appropriation’ tumblr SJWs™️. Absolutely no right. I can only find one available video on youtube about the Indonesian Nagini Mythology, she’s a princess of a mythical snake kingdom, her father, the snake god-king also has Indonesian name. If a character is named “Kudo Shinichi,” should he not be Japanese?? Can’t they be a person once, should he be confined in the form of an animal, just because people OUTSIDE OF THEIR CULTURE believe they better off like that?? That is racist within itself. Besides, it’s not even the first time we have stories about female snake Siluman (Siluman is an equivalent of animagi). We have 1950s horror movies featuring female Snake Siluman so why are you screaming so hard that it’s “racist” NOW??? XDDD so fucking laughable.

INDONESIANS DO WANT NAGINI TO BE INDONESIAN. And we will still change the casting if we could. Indonesians are NOT offended with Nagini being Voldemort’s pet loyal friend snake. Let me repeat it again. It’s the CASTING we’re troubled about. “But voLDeMoRt!!” If you’re NOT an Indonesian and wants to be an ally, you should start by voicing out things that we’re actually concerned about. Ask around to the people who’s actually being represented in the media, and if there are no Indonesians available nearby you could start by simply doing RESEARCH. NOT by some flawed arguments based solely on your assumptions. And if you’re still not able to do any of those two then shut the fuck up. You have no business telling us about HOW should WE FEEL about a representation of someone of our own culture. Nagini’s said to be specifically Indonesian. An Indonesian can tell another Indonesian if they’re offended by it, then we can talk, but not you. Not when you don’t give a single damn to even ask or do a small research.

Therefore. Nagini IS an INDONESIAN and I’ll continue to treat her as one.

EDIT: Never really understood what White Feminism™ was about till the Nagini controversy. White Feminists™ and every other ethnicity-erasing Feminists™ being self-righteous while making political speeches about Nagini, an Indonesian character, while ignoring the voices of poc in question. And thus, making it about themselves.

I thought it was just sjws being assholes (well that too, but also) but in truth, it’s the complete manifestation of White Feminism™.