About us
Museum Maluku
Museum Maluku is a living archive, a knowledge institution and a community museum. We keep, research and share Moluccan history, culture and heritage, from Moluccan perspectives and in connection with the communities for whom this heritage carries meaning.
Why we exist
Why Museum Maluku exists
Moluccan heritage in the Netherlands was built up and passed on by people, across generations, largely outside the institutions that usually do that work.
Museum Maluku keeps and documents that heritage: objects, archives, photographs, recordings and the stories that belong with them. Without that work, material disappears, and with it the context that makes it readable.
We also make it usable. The collection is searchable, the library and archive can be consulted, and researchers, journalists, teachers and family members can request material. Heritage that cannot be reached is only stored, not kept.
And we keep asking questions of it. Research, exhibitions, publications and conversations open the collection up to new readings, including readings that were not obvious when the material first came in.
What kind of museum
More than a museum gallery
Museum Maluku is three things at once, and the three depend on each other.
Living archive
We keep collections and stories, and they stay in use. Material is researched, described, questioned and added to, including by the people it came from. An archive that is only stored stops telling anyone anything.
Knowledge institution
We build and share knowledge about Moluccan history, culture and communities, and we connect it to the work of researchers, other collections and other institutions.
Community museum
We work in relation with Moluccan communities. That is a plural, not a single voice: generations, families, regions and convictions differ, and the museum makes room for that difference rather than resolving it.
What we do
What we do
Collection and living archive
Keeping, documenting, digitising, researching and making accessible. The collection holds objects, archives, photography and audiovisual material, and it grows through donations and acquisitions.
Knowledge and expertise
Research, publications, the library and archive, and services for other institutions. Requests for material, loans and reproductions run through here.
Community and makers
Stories, participation and the work of makers. A large part of what the museum does is carried by people who are not on the payroll, and by partners who bring their own knowledge to it.
Education and public programme
Exhibitions, activities, school visits, podcast and video. This is where the collection and the research reach an audience.
How we work
How we work
From Moluccan perspectives
We start from Moluccan histories, experiences and knowledge, rather than describing them from the outside.
Many voices
There is no single Moluccan story. Generations, families and regions remember differently, and the museum shows that rather than smoothing it out.
Carefully
Collections, memories and sensitive histories need context. We say where something comes from, what we know about it, and what we do not.
Accessible
Heritage that cannot be found or understood is not really available. We work on findable, readable and reusable access.
In connection
We work with communities, researchers, makers, other museums, archives and partners. Much of what the museum knows, it knows through them.
Past and present
From Moluks Historisch Museum to Museum Maluku
Museum Maluku continues the work and the collection of the Moluks Historisch Museum, and Stichting Moluks Historisch Museum is still the foundation behind it.
The name changed because the work did. What began as a historical museum now also operates as an archive that stays in use, as a knowledge institution, and as a museum that makes its programme together with the communities it is about.
- Foundation
- Stichting Moluks Historisch Museum
- Status
- Cultural public benefit organisation (culturele ANBI)
- RSIN
- 8957447
- Chamber of Commerce
- 41182202
- Location
- Museum Sophiahof, The Hague
Organisation
Who makes Museum Maluku
The museum is made by staff, volunteers, partners and the people who bring in their heritage and their knowledge. These are the ways in.
Contact
Reach the museum, or find the right person for a specific question.
Vacancies
Work at Museum Maluku, and what we are looking for at the moment.
Volunteers
Where volunteers contribute, and how to put yourself forward.
Partnership
Working with the museum as an institution, a maker or a funder.
Support the museum
How gifts are used, and what the ANBI status means for yours.
Privacy Policy
What we record about you, why, and what you can ask of us.
