attention to the sensory nature of memory remind us, oral historians too often
focus on the disembodied "voice," a move which edits out inarticulate forms of
remembering. In our interviews, gestures often evoked what language could
not, as when Ibu Kilah suddenly cringed, her body unmistakably adopting the
curled posture of a scared child, as she described witnessing her mother yelled
at by an abusive employer. Pak Hardjo demonstrated how, as a young errand
boy, he rocked the Dutch children in his arms and carried them on his back.
When we asked how he felt when his employers left Indonesia, he was silent
but used his hands to show how the tears ran down his face. Ibu Patmi frequently
patted herself firmly on her head to show how her Nyonya showed approval
and affection, saying "goed, goed as she performed the gesture