Buried but Unforgotten: Nested-Contentious Memory of the 1955 Pulot-Cot Jeumpa Massacre in Aceh, Indonesia

Muhammad Thalal^1*Husaini Ibrahim²Asnawi Muslem³Effendi Hasan⁴Teuku Muhammad Jamil¹Yusri Yusuf⁵

• ¹Sekolah Pascasarjana, Department of Social Science Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
• ²Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Department of History Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
• ³Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Department of English Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
• ⁴Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Political Science, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
• ⁵Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Department of Indonesian Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

This article explores the seventy-year history of the 1955 Pulot-Cot Jeumpa massacre in Aceh, Indonesia, through the theoretical framework of nested-contentious memory. Adopting a micro-historical approach, the study triangulates archival analysis with oral history interviews involving nine participants, comprising four direct eyewitnesses and five descendants. The findings demonstrate a stalemate between the official state narrative of counter-insurgency and the vernacular memory of a massacre of civilians. The research reveals that the community preserves this contentious memory through unconscious history and cultural filtering, specifically by reframing victims as syuhada (martyrs) to process trauma. Furthermore, the study identifies that this memory has recently migrated from the physical ruins of neglected mass graves to digital spaces, where it functions as postmemory for the younger generation. The research concludes that the state's policy of forgetting failed to erase the vernacular memory, proving that nested-contentious memories persist by adapting to new social and digital environments.