LIVE YOUR DREAMS, LIVE YOUR PASSION, TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF AND OF OTHERS, AND NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM, WHO YOUR ANCESTORS WERE, HOW THEY CAME TO THE NETHERLANDS AND WHAT IDEALS THEY HAD.
As a social entrepreneur, I have been able to fight for the personal development that my father was not given. It seems no coincidence that in Amsterdam I took the initiative to set up the neighbourhood organisation Gastvrij Oost, which welcomes refugees and offers them shelter. Because family is important. Wanting to be there for one another and wanting to look after one another. Especially when you have to flee your own country.
My grandmother Janse was a strong, colourful woman. I thought of her as a bird of paradise who had ended up far too far from her native soil. As a small child I marvelled that she came from an island with the inspiring name Saparua. A tropical island with the most beautiful birds, snakes, bamboo, coral, palm trees, beaches and people. I would so dearly have loved to grant grandmother a life on her own island.
In 1998 I went to the Moluccas with my father. I immediately felt a wave of recognition. Saparua appealed to me enormously. With a child's sense of wonder, I suddenly stood there, in the flesh, on the island my ancestors came from. How special is that!
When I was young I wanted to shape my ideas as an artist, but a degree in cultural anthropology turned out to be the next best thing. The study of how people (sur)live in their socio-cultural habitat. I'm always fascinated by how people move around in a city and what connections they form with one another. Now I'm going to combine my passion for visual arts education and cultural anthropology. I'm working on setting up a weaving studio in Amsterdam. The beautiful ikat weavings of Tanimbar are a source of inspiration.
Loes is second generation and daughter of father Leatemia and mother Silahooij. Village of origin is Ihamahu on the island of Saparua.
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Person portrayed
Loes Leatemia
(1964, Delft)
Cultural anthropologist and
social entrepreneur
(Loes Leatemia Creative Connector)
Lives in Amsterdam - Photographer Ed Leatemia
