Dyah Pitaloka | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)
Papers by Dyah Pitaloka
Waiting is the most boring thing to do in the world, especially if you have been waiting for more... more Waiting is the most boring thing to do in the world, especially if you have been waiting for more than 50 years. You can choose to do nothing and give up, or you can choose to disrupt the silence by telling your story. Dialita choir members choose to tell their stories by singing, and together, co-initiate social change, co-constructing new meanings of health and resilience. In coming to work with the women who bear the mark of 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia, we have been humbled by their resolve to tell their stories. When Uchi started to talk about her painful past, tears dropped from her eyes. At that moment, one of us interviewing her thought that Uchi is a fragile woman, whose life was destroyed by the unbearable trauma and indescribable stigma she has suffered. It was wrong. With a voice full of hope, Uchi said that singing heals her trauma. Together with the other members of Dialita choir, Uchi challenged the stigma that had torn her life apart for more than fifty years. Dialita choir (Dialita is the abbreviation of Di Atas Lima Puluh Tahun or Above 50 Years Old) is a choir that is made up of women whose parents, relatives and friends were captured, tortured and exiled during the 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia. In their late sixties, the members of Dialita co-initiate social change through singing performances. Their performances challenge the dominant style of communicating about 65 and co-create alternative narratives filled with melodious dialogues and joyful hopes for the future. This communicative approach is contrast to the sufferings they have experienced after the 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia that wiped out their family members and took away their freedom and decent lives. In their voices, singing improved their health. " We have to be brave and must not stay silent. Look at us! We're old now. Young people must know the truth, and it is important for them to know the truth, to listen to different stories and make sense of what had happened in the past. They need to learn about 65 from different sources " , one of them said. For these women, singing is an act of bravery. Brave in a way that they have to battle their own fear – to share the truth with the public; to battle their fear of rejection and sense of hatred that could easily erupt due to anti-communist phobia that remains strong even after more than fifty years. The ability to battle the fear, as expressed by one of the choir members, is an entry point for crafting meanings of health and resilience. Singing the songs that had been erased from the nation's memory for so long, the members of the choir embark on their trauma healing journey not as victims, but as survivors (penyintas). " If you still look at yourself as a victim, it means you allow the past to control your life. You will live in a constant fear, feel isolated, and miss a chance to have your stories heard. Being a victim means you are haunted by the past, always feel scared and depressed. My life changed, singing does make me feel healthier. I make friends and I stop crying " , one of the members said.
Qualitative Health Research, 2015
By examining women's experiences with type II diabetes, we explore how il... more By examining women's experiences with type II diabetes, we explore how illness can provide resources to construct meanings of everyday life in Javanese culture. We conducted in-depth interviews with 30 female participants in Central Java, Indonesia, and adopted grounded theory for data analysis. We identified four themes that diabetes serves as resources for women in Indonesia to (a) normalize suffering, (b) resist social control, (c) accept fate, and (d) validate faith. We concluded by noting three unique aspects of Javanese women's illness management. First, through the performance of submission, our participants demonstrated spirituality and religiosity as essential elements of health. Second, diabetes empowers individuals in everyday suffering through two divergent processes: embracing submission and resisting control. Finally, diabetes provides opportunities for individuals within a social network to (re)negotiate social responsibilities. In summary, diabetes provides unique resources to empower our participants to obtain voices that they otherwise would not have had.
Understanding providers' expectations and needs for medical interpreters can provide important in... more Understanding providers' expectations and needs for medical interpreters can provide important insight into the dynamics and process of interpreter-mediated medical encounters. This is one of the first mixed-methods studies on the similarities and differences of providers' views of interpreters across five specialties (i.e., obstetrics/gynecology, emergency medicine, oncology, mental health, and nursing). The two-stage studies include interview data with 39 providers and survey data with 293 providers. We used principal component analysis to identify three components in the survey data that represent providers' views of interpreters: Patient Ally, Health Care Professionals, and Provider Proxy. We then used the interview data as exemplars to illuminate the quantitative findings. Patient Ally was the only component that reached significant differences between different specialties. Providers from different specialty areas differ significantly in their expectations on interpreters' ability (a) to assist patients outside of medical encounters and (b) to advocate for the patient. In particular, nursing professionals place more importance on these two abilities than mental health providers and oncologists. Based on our findings, we proposed three research directions necessary to advance the field of bilingual health communication: to reevaluate and reconceptualize interpreters' appropriate performances with special attention to the Patient Ally dimension, to examine the commonly held attitudes for all providers and the potential tensions within these attitudes, and to identify contextual factors that influence participants' perceptions, evaluations, and choices of interpreters and their corresponding impacts.
Waiting is the most boring thing to do in the world, especially if you have been waiting for more... more Waiting is the most boring thing to do in the world, especially if you have been waiting for more than 50 years. You can choose to do nothing and give up, or you can choose to disrupt the silence by telling your story. Dialita choir members choose to tell their stories by singing, and together, co-initiate social change, co-constructing new meanings of health and resilience. In coming to work with the women who bear the mark of 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia, we have been humbled by their resolve to tell their stories. When Uchi started to talk about her painful past, tears dropped from her eyes. At that moment, one of us interviewing her thought that Uchi is a fragile woman, whose life was destroyed by the unbearable trauma and indescribable stigma she has suffered. It was wrong. With a voice full of hope, Uchi said that singing heals her trauma. Together with the other members of Dialita choir, Uchi challenged the stigma that had torn her life apart for more than fifty years. Dialita choir (Dialita is the abbreviation of Di Atas Lima Puluh Tahun or Above 50 Years Old) is a choir that is made up of women whose parents, relatives and friends were captured, tortured and exiled during the 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia. In their late sixties, the members of Dialita co-initiate social change through singing performances. Their performances challenge the dominant style of communicating about 65 and co-create alternative narratives filled with melodious dialogues and joyful hopes for the future. This communicative approach is contrast to the sufferings they have experienced after the 1965/1966 anti-communist purge in Indonesia that wiped out their family members and took away their freedom and decent lives. In their voices, singing improved their health. " We have to be brave and must not stay silent. Look at us! We're old now. Young people must know the truth, and it is important for them to know the truth, to listen to different stories and make sense of what had happened in the past. They need to learn about 65 from different sources " , one of them said. For these women, singing is an act of bravery. Brave in a way that they have to battle their own fear – to share the truth with the public; to battle their fear of rejection and sense of hatred that could easily erupt due to anti-communist phobia that remains strong even after more than fifty years. The ability to battle the fear, as expressed by one of the choir members, is an entry point for crafting meanings of health and resilience. Singing the songs that had been erased from the nation's memory for so long, the members of the choir embark on their trauma healing journey not as victims, but as survivors (penyintas). " If you still look at yourself as a victim, it means you allow the past to control your life. You will live in a constant fear, feel isolated, and miss a chance to have your stories heard. Being a victim means you are haunted by the past, always feel scared and depressed. My life changed, singing does make me feel healthier. I make friends and I stop crying " , one of the members said.
Qualitative Health Research, 2015
By examining women's experiences with type II diabetes, we explore how il... more By examining women's experiences with type II diabetes, we explore how illness can provide resources to construct meanings of everyday life in Javanese culture. We conducted in-depth interviews with 30 female participants in Central Java, Indonesia, and adopted grounded theory for data analysis. We identified four themes that diabetes serves as resources for women in Indonesia to (a) normalize suffering, (b) resist social control, (c) accept fate, and (d) validate faith. We concluded by noting three unique aspects of Javanese women's illness management. First, through the performance of submission, our participants demonstrated spirituality and religiosity as essential elements of health. Second, diabetes empowers individuals in everyday suffering through two divergent processes: embracing submission and resisting control. Finally, diabetes provides opportunities for individuals within a social network to (re)negotiate social responsibilities. In summary, diabetes provides unique resources to empower our participants to obtain voices that they otherwise would not have had.
Understanding providers' expectations and needs for medical interpreters can provide important in... more Understanding providers' expectations and needs for medical interpreters can provide important insight into the dynamics and process of interpreter-mediated medical encounters. This is one of the first mixed-methods studies on the similarities and differences of providers' views of interpreters across five specialties (i.e., obstetrics/gynecology, emergency medicine, oncology, mental health, and nursing). The two-stage studies include interview data with 39 providers and survey data with 293 providers. We used principal component analysis to identify three components in the survey data that represent providers' views of interpreters: Patient Ally, Health Care Professionals, and Provider Proxy. We then used the interview data as exemplars to illuminate the quantitative findings. Patient Ally was the only component that reached significant differences between different specialties. Providers from different specialty areas differ significantly in their expectations on interpreters' ability (a) to assist patients outside of medical encounters and (b) to advocate for the patient. In particular, nursing professionals place more importance on these two abilities than mental health providers and oncologists. Based on our findings, we proposed three research directions necessary to advance the field of bilingual health communication: to reevaluate and reconceptualize interpreters' appropriate performances with special attention to the Patient Ally dimension, to examine the commonly held attitudes for all providers and the potential tensions within these attitudes, and to identify contextual factors that influence participants' perceptions, evaluations, and choices of interpreters and their corresponding impacts.