Guided by objects: from the museum to Southeast Asia (and back)

Type

Single Panel

Schedule

Session 10
Thu 11:00-12:30 REC A2.04

Convener

Klaas Stutje NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

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Papers

Legacies of Lanfong Karwin Cheung Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
In 1886 the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies sent to the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (today: Wereldmuseum Leiden) a collection of objects from Lanfong Kongsi, one of the statelets founded by Chinese immigrants in Western Borneo. The Kongsi began in the 18th century as cooperatives of migrant Chinese gold miners but evolved into de facto independent political entities with territorial control. Lanfong, located at Mandor, was the last of the Kongsi. Two years earlier, in October 1884, the political authority had been transferred from the Kongsi to the Government-General of the Dutch East Indies. During this power transfer the Dutch authorities removed images and spirit tablets from Lanfong’s main hall. This act of religious desecration sparked a large rebellion, which lasted for months and prompted a Dutch military expedition.

In my presentation, I will follow the trajectory of the Lanfong Kongsi objects in Leiden, which are some of the few surviving examples of material culture from this community. By using these objects as a case study I will shine some light on the manner in which objects were collected and divided between museums in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. I will also touch upon the role of these objects in the current-day mythology of Lanfong.
Colonial Photography, Cultural Genocide and Digital Restitution Diana Miryong Natermann Hamburg University
This paper will discuss the long-term effects of colonial photography on concerened communities in former colonies. Whilst the focus originates from Euro-African perspectives, the methods and analytical tools can be applied to other former colonised contexts as well. Furthermore, this presentation will engage with the movement of photographs from the periphery to the metropole and possibly back to the former periphery by means of digital restitution.
The Great Commission: Catholic Missionaries and Collecting Practice in 19th – 20th century Dutch East Indies/Indonesia Dwirahmi Suryandari Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
This paper investigates how Catholic missionaries in the Dutch East Indies and early independent Indonesia, from the late 19th to mid-20th century, utilized scientific knowledge to navigate complex socio-political landscapes. The study emphasizes the significance of ethnographic and natural history objects in this context. It highlights the collecting activities of Dutch and German missionaries from various religious orders operating across different regions of colonized Indonesia, examining their collaboration with colonial and later national authorities to populate museums with artifacts from indigenous communities. This dual-purpose practice advanced scientific knowledge while negotiating the Catholic Church’s position within colonial and post-colonial power structures, thereby framing the act of collecting as a political endeavor
The long legacy of colonial violence: Banten’s looted objects, the ruins of the kraton, and cultural identity formation Adieyatna Fajri NIOD/Groningen Institute of Archeology, RUG
In this presentation, I will trace the history of objects taken from Banten by colonial troops during the demolition of the royal palace in 1808. The discussion will follow how these objects, considered spoils of war, ended up in museums in Indonesia and the Netherlands. By examining their acquisition by the museums, I will explore the underlying reasons and implications, which reflect the changing practices of museums influenced by new colonial circuits and state structures. Furthermore, this presentation will highlight the implications of removing these objects and demolishing the royal palace for the current formation of Banten’s cultural identity, shaping the ongoing discussion about restitution. Particular attention will be paid to efforts to create replicas of the objects and rebuild the kraton. The intersections of brutal colonial history, the removal and erasure of sacred objects, and the formation of new identities prompt us to gain a deeper understanding of the long legacy of colonial violence.

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Abstract

The call to restitute cultural objects acquired in a colonial context from European heritage institutions to formerly colonized countries in Southeast Asia is rapidly gaining momentum. Often, in Asian and European public and official discourse the restitution of ‘colonial’ objects is framed as a ‘return’ (pengembalian in Bahasa Indonesia) to the country of origin and to the context where they naturally belong. As such, the return is conceptualized as an endpoint, a formal undoing of a moral wrong in the past, and as the closing chapter of a book about looting, appropriation and dispossession in a colonial context.

In the panel Guided by objects, we propose to approach objects and their histories differently. Above all, we regard objects as micro-historical guides tying together a variety of locations and geographies, a diversity of perspectives, significations and meanings, multiple social stratums and intersections, and different epochs and regimes. The moments of (violent) acquisition in a colonial context and – potentially – post-colonial restitution are obviously significant turning points in the social biography of an object, but their histories stretch further back in time and have new trajectories into the future. We argue for a socially differentiated and politically conscious analysis of the position of objects in (pre)colonial and postcolonial societies, and the power to determine their trajectories.

This panel asks how objects and their micro-histories relate to grand histories and dominant narratives. Under what circumstances do objects, as heritage, become a mobilizing force in response to social and political challenges, and to whom? What role can objects play to decolonize museums and societies, in Europe and Asia, nationally and locally? And which objects and collections tell which histories?