Name: „Care, Ancestral Connections, and Jewelry-Crafting” – Workshop with Nelden Djakababa Gericke
Start: 2026-09-19T16:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-19T18:00:00+02:00

(Image: Book cover of Southeast Asian Lives: Personal Narratives and Historical Experience ed. Roxana Waterson (2007) and author’s private collection).

Care, Ancestral Connections, and Jewelry-Crafting”

– A workshop with Nelden Djakababa Gericke

Saturday September 19,

4-6 pm

What is your relationship with your ancestors, and which aspects of care got handed down from your ancestors to you? Which of these gifts you’d choose to own, which ones would you rather let go of, or alter? Or have something in your family histories bother you? How would you choose to come to terms with these?

We will explore these questions in a secure and supportive circle with the tools of guided meditation, reflective-writing, (optional) story-sharing, and identify the symbols of the gifts from your ancestors you’d choose to carry with you. We will then make these symbols into jewelry-pieces you will take home.

Please note:

This workshop is designed with the principles of psychological care and reflective writing in mind, among other influencing concepts. However, it should not be seen as a substitute for professional therapy, nor does it equate to the personalized care provided by a licensed therapist.

This event is part of the “Caring Histories: Asian Caregivers in Berlin (1950-present day)” project at Mental Health Arts Space. Funded by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.

Open to all, QTBIPOC to the front! Places limited. Please register below!

Nelden Djakababa Gericke is a Berlin-based Indonesian-Filipina fiction writer, crafter, and trained-psychologist. Her practice focuses on stories, trauma, coping strategies, intergenerationality, ancestral connections, culture, and mental health.

With extensive experience in trauma-and-community-work in post-conflict and post-disaster situations in Indonesia, Nelden has an M.A. in Culture and Development Studies from the Catholic University of Leuven, and was a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Nowadays, she designs workshops with elements of (jewelry-)crafting, psychology, and writing, to recreate the communally caring effects of crafting and story-sharing. She contributes to Tempo Magazine Indonesia, and was part of the core editorial team for an edition of the online magazine Südostasien on “Koloniale Kontinuitäten.” Nelden is a recipient of the Literature Stipend for Writers Writing in Non-German Languages (2025), awarded by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.

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