In my first week as director of the Moluccan Historical Museum I set out my expectations here . And there was not much more I could report. That was in March. Corona put a spanner in the works for the programmes MHM wanted to offer in 2020. In Museum Sophiahof in The Hague, where we have our offices, it became impossible to organise live gatherings. So we had to be creative online. That resulted in more articles on the website and a more visible presence on social media. And a Moluccan exhibition in The Hague? Not yet. I will come back to that later.
Meanwhile a great deal was happening in Moluccan Netherlands. From solidarity videos to protests. From a *booming *Moluccan artists’ scene and high-quality video clips to disagreements in Moluccan neighbourhoods. More than once, organisations found their way to MHM for advice based on historical facts. Fortunately MHM has an excellent curator in Huib Akihary , and I could regularly refer people to professor Fridus Steijlen. And of course to the historians and heritage experts in my network. All my predecessors were even historians. I am not. So what is my role?
All my predecessors were historians. So what is my role?
To find an answer to that, let me rewind a little. I was in my early twenties and visited MHM, then still based in Utrecht, more than regularly. In that period I also worked for the National Support Centre for Moluccan Education. Always looking for good conversations about identity. I often found them. In fact, I found them more often when I was not looking for them. But that aside. They were valuable and I think of them more often now.
In a life that followed I worked in the media. As a journalist, editor, programme manager. That was long before I made theatre productions with my brother as a producer and got to performin sold-out venues all over the country. Trained in the editorial team of radio station FunX , I learned that diversity is the key to success. I have always taken those lessons with me wherever I worked. And so now here. I believe in the many colours and many voices of the Moluccan community. Worldwide, in the Moluccas and in the Netherlands in particular. It is precisely that variety of backgrounds that makes the community so beautiful. And in doing so we exclude no one. Inclusive thinking, then.
In the 1990s I could often be found at MHM in Utrecht.
In these two buzzwords I sum up my vision for MHM. Showing how diverse the Moluccan community is. And that there must be no exclusion. Differences in religion, political views, negeri or neighbourhood of origin — they are all part of a remarkable community. The resilience of that many-coloured Moluccan community in particular is something to make visible to a wider public. For that reason I fully agree with the recently published interview with my contemporaries Romy Rondeltap and Jeftha Pattikawa, with its telling title: ‘Time for new stories from Moluccan Dutch people’. You can count on MHM to carry that message.
For that reason we start the series Moluccan Dialogueson Sunday 6 December 2020, in which we discuss diversity and inclusion within the community. It is a livestream, so you can follow it online. Moreover, next year it will be exactly 70 years since the first large groups of Moluccans arrived in the Netherlands. In 2021 we will mark that with a commemoration and join many national and regional (Moluccan) initiatives. Of course we will also offer programmes. Online and/or offline. We are going to discover it together.
In recent times MHM has offered workshops on Moluccan history, in the absence of a Moluccan exhibition.
I also joined the (digital) table with other institutions that pay attention to the Moluccan story. Think of the National Archives and the Royal Library in The Hague and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among others. The Westfries Museum in Hoorn will also devote attention to Banda next year and is dedicating an online exhibition to nutmeg and, how could it be otherwise, to Jan Pieterszoon Coen and the Banda genocide. MHM is not standing still in this. That the link to Maluku is relevant in my work became clear earlier this year. For the international organisation Basudara Maluku GlobalI was able to give a lecture on the history of Moluccans in the Netherlands. Samangat samasekali!
Workshop Moluccans in the Netherlands for a group of university of applied sciences students, October 2020
I said I would come back to exhibiting, because after all we are a museum. From March to November 2021 we invite Moluccan artists to show their work in our spaces. This changing exhibition shows the wide range of disciplines within the Moluccan community. Artists of international standing such as Mirjam Manusama, Dominique Latoel and Suzette Huwae have already agreed to take part. Time for new stories, then. And a brand-new exhibition is coming in December 2021. We are going to discover it together.
Finally. With the MHM team and all the volunteers we are putting our shoulders to the wheel to preserve and expand Moluccan heritage and to give it a stage. Your support is indispensable in that, and we would love to see your support again in 2021. Many thanks for that.
Stay healthy!
Henry
Cover photo: screen during the preparation of the Moluccan Dialogues livestream
