Standing for Kendeng | Suryo Wibowo

In 2016, the people of Kendeng, Central Java, were not only fighting against a cement factory. They were fighting for water, farmland, and the right to decide the future of their own land.

The Kendeng Mountains are a karst landscape. For local farmers, the mountains are not empty rocks waiting to be mined. They are water reservoirs, rice fields, memories, and a source of life. Many residents believed that limestone mining and the cement factory would damage springs, reduce water supply, and slowly destroy farming livelihoods

At the front of this struggle were women. They became known as the Kartinis of Kendeng. In April 2016, nine women travelled to Jakarta and sat in front of the State Palace with their feet encased in cement. It was a quiet but powerful image: bodies held still, feet trapped, voices still moving. Their action symbolized what they feared would happen to their lives if the factory continued — being locked inside a future they did not choose.

The women were not acting as victims. They were farmers, mothers, organizers, and guardians of daily life. They understood water not as an abstract environmental issue, but as something needed to cook, plant rice, raise children, and survive. Their protest showed that environmental defense can begin from the home, the field, and the kitchen — and still reach the gates of power.

One of the Kendeng farmers, Sukinah, explained the fear clearly:
“We are the residents of the villages in the vast landscape of Kendeng, who will lose our livelihoods as farmers if the PT Semen factory and cement mining goes ahead in Rembang.”

Their struggle received national attention. In August 2016, President Joko Widodo met with the Kendeng farmers. After the meeting, the government ordered a pause and planned a Strategic Environmental Assessment, known as KLHS, to study the Kendeng area. For the farmers, this was an important moment, but it was not the end of the struggle.

In October 2016, the Supreme Court sided with the Kendeng residents and ordered the cancellation of the environmental permit for the cement project. But soon after, in November 2016, the Central Java governor issued a new permit or addendum for PT Semen Indonesia. Many residents saw this as a betrayal of the court decision and continued their protests.

The movement also gained moral support from religious and cultural figures. KH. Ahmad Mustofa Bisri, widely known as Gus Mus, visited the Kendeng struggle tent in Rembang in late 2016. He criticized the expansion of the cement industry as an expression of greed that threatened nature. In another statement cited in research on the Kendeng movement, Gus Mus said that the struggle against the cement factory should also be fought “with simplicity,” because a greedy and hedonic way of life is destructive.

The Kendeng people also carried their own words of resistance. During the December 2016 long march, Sukinah demanded that the governor revoke the environmental permit for mining and the cement factory in the Kendeng Mountains. Her words were direct:
“Pak Gubernur wajib cabut izin lingkungan pertambangan dan pembangunan pabrik Semen Indonesia di Pegunungan Kendeng, Rembang.”
In English: “The governor must revoke the environmental permit for mining and the construction of Semen Indonesia’s factory in the Kendeng Mountains, Rembang.”

The photographs from this struggle are not only images of protest. They are images of endurance: women sitting with cement around their feet; farmers walking long distances; mothers singing together to keep their courage; banners held under the heat and rain; faces tired but still firm.

The Kendeng movement reminds us that development is not only about factories, permits, and investment. It is also about who bears the risk, who loses water, who loses land, and whose voice is heard last.

In 2016, the women of Kendeng made their bodies impossible to ignore. They showed that standing still can become a form of resistance. They turned silence into pressure, farming into politics, and care for the land into a public demand:

Kendeng must live.