What came out of the boxes must never disappear back into them

Sometimes renewal does not begin with something new. Sometimes it begins with a box that has remained closed for years.

Over the past few years, we at Museum Maluku have worked to make thousands of photographs, slides and negatives digitally accessible again. Material that had been carefully stored in our archive for years gradually resurfaced.

Photograph after photograph passed through our hands. People, families, events and places in the Netherlands and Maluku. Some images were made during periods when much of our current team had not even been born. We looked at them with wonder and recognition, but they also raised many questions.

Who is this? Where is this? What happened here? And who still knows this story?

Redigitising our collection was not a straightforward process. An earlier digitisation project did not go as we had hoped. We therefore decided to do it again. Under the guidance of Yanise Zijlstra, the photographic collection was processed in batches.

During that process, it became clear that digitisation involves far more than scanning a photograph and putting it online. An image does not automatically tell us who someone is or what it means to a family. That knowledge is often found outside the museum: among families, researchers and generations who know their history or are rediscovering it.

A museum can preserve a great deal, but a museum does not know everything.

That understanding is an important foundation of our renewed website.

From collection to living archive

Since the beginning of this year, our collection has once again been accessible online. But the renewal goes beyond putting photographs, documents and objects online.

The new website was developed with a mobile-first approach and brings the collection, stories and historical context closer together. The navigation and search structure have been renewed, digital accessibility has been improved and the platform is ready to serve a broader, multilingual audience. The principle is simple: not only should you be able to find something, but a single photograph, object or story should also lead you to further discoveries.

In Eigen Woorden plays an important role in this. The idea behind the exhibition continues online. Do you recognise someone in a photograph, know more about an object or notice that important context is missing? You can share that knowledge with us.

This allows new knowledge to flow back into the collection. To us, that is a living archive: heritage that is not only preserved, but also researched, enriched and passed on.

Not one community. Not one story.

The new website also prompted us to take a critical look at how we present ourselves. On our old website, we regularly referred to the Moluccan community. That may seem like a small linguistic distinction, but to us it is not.

There is no single Moluccan experience, nor is there one measure of what it means to be Moluccan. As a museum, we place the Moluccan collective above personal views about who is or is not ‘Moluccan enough’. It is not for us to determine who belongs or who may participate.

Our collection specifically reflects different communities, generations, backgrounds and perspectives. That is why we now speak more deliberately of Moluccan communities and want to make room for that diversity.

365 days a year

Even in a special commemorative year, we continue to look at the bigger picture. Commemoration is important, but the work of Museum Maluku does not begin with an anniversary and does not end there either.

We work within and alongside Moluccan communities 365 days a year.

We have done so for decades: since the foundation was established in 1986 and the museum opened in Utrecht in 1990. With a team of six people, we manage the collection, conduct research, develop programmes and work with communities and partners.

Much of this happens behind the scenes. But what we preserve, document and pass on today helps determine what future generations will still be able to find. After all, we ourselves are a new generation of ancestors in the making.

What makes us a museum?

Museum Maluku is not a conventional museum. Our collection is spread across several locations, with objects in our depot and photographs and archives in Rotterdam. Most of our programming takes place at the Sophiahof in The Hague, where our office is also located, but we also work throughout the country. One example is the community crowdsourcing surrounding In Eigen Woorden.

Museum Maluku therefore does not exist in one place.

What makes us a museum lies not only within our walls, but in our responsibility for the heritage collected over generations and entrusted to our care.

That responsibility also means looking honestly at our own development. Not everything we attempted in recent years succeeded on the first try. The digitisation project is one example. We had to start again, learn and do better.

Museum Maluku, too, continues to evolve.

300 people came together

We saw how important gathering is during the first edition of Maluku Fest. Around 300 visitors came together to mark the end of the period surrounding In Eigen Woorden, meet one another and look ahead.

During Tatiana Wenno’s book reading, it became tangible how grief and old wounds can continue to affect people generations later. At the same time, a new generation is trying to find words for experiences that long went unspoken. Talking, listening and sharing can make room for stories that have been carried for many years.

Maluku Fest also looked towards the future. The festival raised funds for our next exhibition in 2027, and Henry presented our renewed website. In that way, the conclusion of one period also became the beginning of another.

Henry says farewell after seven years

This new phase coincides with the departure of director Henry Timisela, who will leave Museum Maluku on 1 January after seven years.

Together with the team, he worked to build a museum that had to find its place again. The dispersed collection was brought together, inventoried and further digitised. In Eigen Woorden took shape, collaboration with makers and communities grew, and Museum Maluku developed further as a museum that does not depend on a single building to be visible.

The renewed website now makes part of that development visible digitally as well. Henry leaves behind a foundation on which the next phase can be built.

What came out of the boxes must remain accessible

Making the collection digitally accessible is one step. Keeping it accessible requires a lasting commitment of people, knowledge and resources.

That is why, alongside grants and collaborations, we want to build a larger group of people who support Museum Maluku on an ongoing basis.

Becoming a donor means helping to pass something on.

With ongoing support, we can continue to invest in the collection, the digital archive and future exhibitions. We also want to show more concretely what collective support can achieve: what could 100, 250 or 500 regular donors make possible for Museum Maluku?

The renewed website is therefore not the end of a digitisation project. It is the next step towards a Museum Maluku where you can discover, research and contribute. A museum that makes room for different voices and works 365 days a year to care for the heritage entrusted to us.

Because what has once come out of the boxes must never disappear back into them.

Finally: we do this together

We take none of these steps alone. We therefore want to thank our partners, who share their knowledge, networks and trust with us. And especially our volunteers, who time and again contribute their time, experience and commitment to Museum Maluku. Often visibly during our activities, but just as often behind the scenes.

Thanks to you, we can continue to preserve, tell and pass on these stories. Terima kasih banyak.