About

the archipelago rewrites the map through new perspectives on migration, decolonisation, and more. We make space for writers and artists who create transnationally, reflecting fluid connections across place, and working in multiple languages.

This space is funded by you, our readers, through memberships. We need your support to grow our work, please consider subscribing today. 100% of membership funds are paid directly to the creatives we publish and to editors who are currently displaced individuals, primarily in Indonesia and Afghanistan.

the archipelago was founded between West Java and the stolen lands belonging to the Durramurragal people of the Eora nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and future, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and colonial violence continues today.

We publish new writing and art every month. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see our latest content.

Our team

Warsan Weedhsan

Warsan Weedhsan is a writer. Warsan focuses on women’s empowerment in Indonesia. Her writing aims to uncover the social and cultural problems facing marginalised people and to support women to stand against discrimination.

Kieren Kresevic Salazar

Kieren Kresevic Salazar is a Latinx writer. He is a former Pforzheimer Public Service Fellow and holds a degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

JN Joniad

JN Joniad is a Rohingya journalist. He is a student of political science and human rights activist. He was formerly an Engineering and Physics student in Myanmar, before being forced to flee to Indonesia. Joniad contributes to film and publishing accounts of refugees searching for a safe and durable solution.

Raha Azadi

Raha Azadi is a writer from Afghanistan. She is a volunteer teacher and a health science student. Raha works with writers globally who want to share their ideas and fight until they ensure their rights.

Erfan Dana

Erfan Dana is a Hazara writer from Afghanistan. He is an activist, volunteer and interpreter for refugees in Indonesia. He has lived in constant uncertainty in Indonesia after being compelled to flee Afghanistan since 2015.

Our name

“When the smugglers told me I will be travelling to Indonesia a few hours before I arrived to Khartoum airport, the word ألأرخبيل archipelago jumped to my mind.

Geography lessons in high school emerged on my view. I thought they were taking me to the edge of the globe, not only in the east, but the east itself. I understood that, in this archipelago, I will get back my life and my dreams, and I did. It’s become the heart of my world.

This archipelago is my lifeline, it’s as great as my ambition, it’s as unique as my destination. I suggested the archipelago as a name for our magazine for it will be the icon that illuminates my road to free my thoughts and achieve my dreams to be a writer. I picked this name for it can unify us as writers with different goals, countries, attitudes, as it unifies its islands.” Mahdi Zain, Darfurian writer.

 

“Archipelagos are ways of thinking spatially about entangled relationships. They show relationships across islands, reorganising space away from static divisions like nation and continent, and instead creating fluid networks of interconnection.

Archipelagos unravel the fictions that construct contemporary borders. To give just one common example, the longstanding trade along the Malay Road between Yolngu people in Northern Australia and Makassans in Indonesia reveals how the present day separation of Australia and Asia that animates the exclusion of refugees forms part of the same colonial violence that continues to exert itself on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

I had just spent the last year studying islands and archipelagic thinking. When I asked our writers to name our group and Mahdi Zain suggested archipelago, I knew we had our name.

Our writers collective is itself a series of archipelagos. Our intention is to bring you into relationship with the archipelago, forging proactive connections together across islands and space.” Kieren Kresevic Salazar

For graphic design projects reach out to Hazara designer Mahdi Graphist who completed the graphic design for our logo ([email protected]).

For web design projects reach out to SMART (Skilled Migrant & Refugee Technicians) who completed our map and website.