Intergenerational eco-craft, women's agency, and climate adaptation in Telaga Biru Coastal Village, Madura, Indonesia

This study examines how coastal women in Telaga Biru Village, Madura, Indonesia, use natural-dye batik as an everyday practice of livelihood adaptation, ecological knowledge transmission, and community sustainability. Rather than treating women only as vulnerable subjects of climate and coastal change, the article asks how women's craft labour enables them to negotiate socio-ecological uncertainty within unequal gender relations, unstable markets, and limited institutional support. Based on feminist ethnography, the study draws on participant observation, in-depth interviews with 15 women batik artisans, and supplementary interviews with the village head and a local batik business owner. The findings show that women's natural-dye batik work operates as intergenerational eco-craft: it sustains household livelihoods, preserves coastal motifs and natural-dye knowledge, supports small-scale waste management, enables limited digital marketing, and anchors community-based environmental care through women's informal and organisational networks. At the same time, the article cautions against romanticising women's resilience, as their adaptive labour remains under-recognised, poorly supported, and shaped by patriarchal household and community structures. By conceptualising natural-dye batik as intergenerational eco-craft, this study contributes to feminist climate scholarship by showing how women's craft labour connects ecological knowledge, livelihood adaptation, cultural continuity, and coastal sustainability in the Global South.