Kicking off the comparison at NIAS

On Monday April 1, five international scholars will join five Dutch historians to form the theme group Comparing the wars of decolonization: Extreme violence during reoccupation and counter-insurgency, 1945-1975 gathering at the NIAS for the coming three months. This project engages in comparative research in order to learn more about causes, forms and nature of (extreme) violence by Dutch military forces in their attempt to reoccupy the Indonesian archipelago (1945-1949). Project leader Thijs Brocades Zaalberg wrote a blog about the preparations.

Mature colonial memories

Memories exist in all shapes and sizes. This is also true of memories concerning the former Dutch East Indies, today’s Indonesia. They are not only painted in light, sunny tints. Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, a former senior lecturer at Utrecht University who specialises in the history of colonialism and decolonisation, wrote a column for Getuigen & Tijdgenoten (Witnesses & Contemporaries) about colonial violence and colonial memories, partly because of current discussion concerning Kester Freriks’ book Tempo Doeloe, een omhelzing.

How to acknowledge colonial injustice? An interview with Nicole Immler

How can or should colonial injustice be acknowledged? Anne van Mourik interviewed historian Nicole Immler, who wrote an article on the subject in BMGN. In 2011, the court in The Hague declared the Dutch state responsible for the mass executions that took place in 1947 in Rawagede (the present-day Balongsari) on West Java. The executions were carried out by Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949), and the court’s ruling was followed by apologies and compensation. Nicole Immler travelled to Indonesia to investigate the effects of the lawsuits in Balongsari. What are the possibilities and limits of official apologies and financial compensation as instruments of recognition?

Witnesses & Contemporaries network meeting: the power of the personal story

On 24 January 2019, a network meeting of the Witnesses & Contemporaries project was held in cooperation with Historisch Centrum Overijssel / IJsselacademie. The event was organised to present a website that contains interviews with fifteen veterans from of Overijssel, who fought in the decolonization war. The interviews were conducted by historian Ewout van der Horst. Stephanie Welvaart reports on the afternoon.

Conversation with subscribers open letter

On Thursday, January 31, a meeting took place between researchers and programme leaders of Independence, decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia, 1945-1950, and a delegation of the subscribers to an open letter. In this letter, drafted by Jeffry Pondaag and Francisca Pattipilohy, and addressed to the Dutch government in November 2017, objections against the research programme are put forward. The authors challenge the independence of the research, and accuse the three institutes of a one-sided approach. During the two and a half hour meeting at the NIOD, the most important objections against the set-up of the research programme were discussed.

De registratie van de bijeenkomst is hier te bekijken.

Colonial-era recollections in a different light

What is the relationship between history and memory? A blog by Eveline Buchheim and Stephanie Welvaart.