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Review of 2022
I begin this review of the year with the weather. Although it is December and it ought to be wintry, it looks rather autumnal as I look out from my office over the Sophialaan in The Hague. The leaves are still on the trees and turn my room brown in the sunlight. In that room I see archive boxes, books from our museum collection, trunks and a number of works of art. And this is exactly the work Museum Maluku revolves around.
Headlines of 2022
Over the past year we defined a number of main lines of work: collection management, being a centre of knowledge, fulfilling an educational role and offering a platform for artists with a Moluccan affinity. And that museum collection will play the leading part in the period ahead. More about that later.
Highlights of 2022
At the beginning of this year we opened the exhibition ONS LAND at the Sophiahof in The Hague. This collaboration with our colleagues at the Indisch Herinneringscentrum resulted in an exhibition centred on the afterlife of colonisation through eight family stories. And it invites people to have the conversation about decolonisation. I warmly invite you to visit this exhibition with friends, with family or on your own.
And there is more to be proud of. Online we realised a number of projects over the past year, including the series Maju Mundur, in which pairs of people from the Moluccan communities talk with each other about museum objects. We also share photographs from our archive via Instagram together with Moluccan Archives. The responses we receive give our work as a heritage institution much more substance. Many thanks to everyone who shares their comments and so adds depth to the images. To top it all, the Wyldemerck project reached a high point: theGrote Archeologie Prijs was won. We look back on a successful collaboration with our partners at Moluks Erfgoed.
More depth
We also sought that depth by organising an afternoon of conversation around the resistance fighter Thomas Matulessy, also known as Pattimura. There we talked about the multiple perspectives that exist around the uprising of 1817. And how his legacy works through in the new generation of Moluccans in the Netherlands. And they are making themselves heard! In 2023 we will in any case be offering young artists the space to exhibit in one of the rooms of Sophiahof in The Hague. The first artist I can announce is Sebastiaan Boot, also known as Sebastiaan Utju, whose work is currently at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.
And our workspace is now in Rotterdam, where the team will work on, among other things, digitising parts of our archive. We have had help with that from volunteers from various parts of the country. In person, online, sponsorship – you name it. Would you like to contribute to our work too? Then you know where to find us. Slide into the DMs , I would say.
A year of ups & downs
I am glad to share that this year has had many highlights. That there are difficult periods too I am not going to deny. From the preparatory conversations with prominent figures from the Moluccan communities ahead of the meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, to sharp criticism directed at me and securing our organisation for the future. It means I still see my work as a challenge, one I keep pursuing with great enthusiasm. And I do not do that alone, so a big compliment to my team and volunteers. They make Museum Maluku what you know today.
The museum collection
This museum's right to exist consists mainly of our collection. The gifts we have received from the various Moluccan communities are due for re-inventorying, reassessment and ultimately for being opened up. That includes deaccessioning. And as I said at the start, that is where the emphasis will lie in the period ahead.
We literally, physically began that in November, after a long period of preparation. The curators can tell you more about it. What it comes down to is that the containers with our museum objects are being opened and there is a great deal of work to do. You may have seen something of it on social media. I would therefore like to end with an appeal. Would you like to contribute to the preservation of Moluccan cultural heritage? Let us know, because Museum Maluku can put your help to very good use. In 2023 I will tell you more about the state of play around our museum collection. And what we are going to do with it. I promise.
From my office I wish you happy days and all the best for 2023.
Henry Timisela Director of Museum Maluku
Now on view: ONS LAND
An exhibition about Dutch colonial history in the East Indies and how it still works through the present.
Vodcast: young Moluccans in the 90s
Have you seen the vodcast yet?
