By Heather Sutherland
We would very much appreciate any information on similar existing or planned oral history programmes, in particular -but not only - concerning decolonization. Now in the Netherlands, the last "Indische generatie" is dying out, and with them their memories; such losses are universal and inevitable, but something can be saved for following generations, if historians move swiftly.
Description of the project
Conserving the life histories of a representative population is quite different from
interviewing for a limited project to obtain specific data on selected topics. Creating the
archive demands careful preparation and consultation, awareness of the debates on memory
and representation, and thorough training of personnel.
Perceptions of the Dutch colonial presence in Indonesia have been formed by writers,
bureaucrats, politicians, autobiographers, creative authors. The result is a set of powerful
images reflecting their ideas, experiences, and priorities. These are not, however,
representative of the socio-economic complexity of 1930s Indies, let alone of the turbulent
1940s or the ambiguous 1950s.
While it is true that two archetypical figures of late colonial Indonesia, the official and the
planter, came from groups comprising c.40% of the working population, the remaining
c.60% are surprisingly absent from our collective memory. They worked in transport,
technical services and government enterprises, in trade, in professions and in industry.
When we consider other differentiating factors, including class, gender, religion, personal
identity, and ideology, then the limitations of the conventional images becomes even more
apparent.
We are too late to reach a large cohort of respondants from the 1930s, although there are
some survivors with invaluable information. But time is of the essence. While there have
been valuable individual efforts and publications we still know little of the experiences of
"Indo-Europeans" (many of whom were not interned), and even the military in the late 1940s
is still poorly documented. We know even less of those who remained after independence
(c.50,000 Netherlanders in 1957), although for these later periods potential interviewees are
more numerous.
As our use of the term "life histories" indicates, we will be seeking narrative texts reflecting
the perceptions, experiences, and activities of informants, over their entire life-span. This
does not mean that the interviews will be unstructured: on the contrary, a panel of advisors
will guide the co-ordinator in preparing interview protocols. This creative tension between
freedom and direction is central to the project: hence our need for expert support, trained
interviewers, and input from other projects.
We hope to provide the basis for a reassessment of Indies professional and personal life,
including seldom recorded details, and less documented social groups, such as businessmen,
semi-skilled workers, and housewives. However, the collection will not merely provide
supplementary factual information, but will also cover contextualised commentaries.
Organization
Any such project needs broad support. The KITLV in Leiden provides the project's centre,
in co-operation with the RIOD and the International Institute for Social History (IISG) in
Amsterdam, and the Historical Section of the Royal Dutch Army in The Hague. Individual
historians are involved in specific programme sectors: business and the economy (Thomas
Lindblad, Peter Post, Emile Schwidder); security forces (Petra Groen, Elly Touwen);
professions and missions (Elsbeth Locher, Henk Schulte Nordholt); and government (Vincent
Houben, Gerrit Knaap). A working committee consisting of Heather Sutherland, Gerrit
Knaap, and the project coordinator, Luc Nagtegaal, is responsible for
implementation.
However, more is needed: the cooperation of other academics and institutes active in the
field, of agencies working with those still affected by the events, and of the interviewees
themselves. Fortunately, the plan has been very well received, both in the press and at a
one-day workshop. We will extend our contacts with social and business organizations,
drawing on the support of the Forum Indonesia mediating network.
Given the urgency, this project emphasizes collection, and not transcription; however,
accessability will be guaranteed by detailed catalogues. We will use digital technology (DAT)
in order to obtain high quality sound, conservation, and access. This will also facilitate
future development, including preparing multi-media presentations.
Cooperation
The scope of Indonesian history in the period is of course far wider than that of our
primarily Dutch interviewees. Our project has developed in consultation with Indonesian and
Japanese scholars, in the hope that each country will create its own project, and cooperate in
exchanging ideas, experience, and material. Considerable added value would come from
juxtaposing Indonesian, Japanese, and Dutch perspectives on similar situations and events,
both public and private. This should open the way both to reassessments of written material
(connecting to debates on "post colonialism" and cultural studies), and to the generation of
new topics for further exploration.
The creation of a national platform for the archive is under way, and we will be looking for
inspiration to various European institutions, the Singapore Oral History Project, and the
Australian War Memorial and National Library. Information about and contact with other
oral historians and projects is necessary and welcome!
Dr G. Knaap
Oral History Project
KITLV
Postbus 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Fax: +31-71-527 2638
Professor Heather Sutherland lectures non-Western history at the Faculty Cultural Anthropology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
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