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A collection shaped by donations
A box of Betamax video tapes with recordings of music and dance from Tanimbar in the 1980s. Silver cutlery with the 'Mena-Moeria' logo belonging to ir. J.A. Manusama, president in exile of the RMS. Some thirty academic anthropological publications about the Moluccas. A clove boat and a photograph album of the Pasanea – Platenkamp family. This is a short list of gifts Museum Maluku has been able to receive over the past period. All these gifts have been taken into the Museum Maluku collection, as has been happening since the museum opened in 1989.
GIFTS
When a gift is taken into the collection, it becomes part of the great museum heritage of the Moluccas. That secures those gifts for the future. Our museum's task is to manage this heritage with great care for the generations to come. We offered that care in the past and we will continue to do so now and in the future. Our collection is large and diverse. It has mainly been shaped by gifts from our own Moluccan community in particular: everyday objects, clothing, medals of honour, furniture and army chests, but also personal archives of Moluccan leaders and Moluccan institutions.
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Clove boat
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Silver cutlery with Mena-Moeria
Since the museum building in Utrecht closed (2012), the entire collection has been stored at two locations. As a result the museum collection is not (yet) on view at our location in The Hague. But not being on view certainly does not mean the collection is no longer there. Now and then we are asked what has become of a gift. The request to return a gift is sometimes put to us as well, because the collection is not on view. We understand the question, of course, but you can be sure that we are doing everything we can to make the museum collection accessible to everyone again soon. Director Henry Timisela already wrote in his column that the collection is the priority in 2022 and that the museum's work is being geared entirely to it.
The museum collection as the priority in 2022
What does that mean in concrete terms? Museum Maluku will focus on five points:
Unpacking the entire museum collection;
Checking the physical condition of the objects and sub-collections;
Checking and updating old registration data in the new museum registration system;
Digitising large parts of the collection;
Making the collection visible.
The unpacking of the museum collection will take place in Museum Maluku's new museum depot. Checking the physical condition of the collection is badly needed after years in storage. In September the museum will start using a new collection registration system. Part of this system will also become accessible to the public. In addition the museum can take part in several large projects through which the collection can be digitised to the latest quality standards and norms. That will allow us to make the collection more accessible and more visible online.
A loan becomes a gift
Last year the temporary exhibition IKAT could be seen at Museum Sophiahof, where Museum Maluku is based. That exhibition can now be visited online for free. In the seventh and final part of IKAT – Rituals around marriage – two dishes of gold leaf were on view. These objects did not come from our own museum collection. The two dishes had been requested on loan especially for the exhibition. One dish was on loan from the Museum van Wereldculturen in Leiden, the other a private loan from Amsterdam.
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Piring mas
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Piring mas
The private lender has let us know that she wants to give the golden dish, or piring mas, to the Moluccan community. She wants to convert the loan into a gift to the museum. In her eyes Museum Maluku is the most suitable institution for the preservation of Moluccan heritage. We are particularly glad of this remarkable gift. Like all other gifts, the Piring Mas will be taken into our museum collection.
Huib Akihary Curator
Collection
The Museum Maluku collection is currently stored in a number of depots.
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