by Astrid Berg, PhD During childhood, I had little connection to my Indonesian roots. I rarely heard Maleis (Malay) or Javaans (Javanese) spoken. I only had a slight relationship to Indo/Indische customs and culture. Both my parents appeared European. My mother is Dutch, and the Indonesian influences were subtle in my Indo father. I was…
Lost History of the Depokkers; A Review of the Book ‘The Christian Slaves of Depok: A Colonial Tale Unravels’ by Dr. Kathryn Pentecost Overview The Christian Slaves of Depok: A Colonial Tale Unravels (2021) by Dr Nonja Peters is a highly readable and thoroughly researched book which details the little-known history of a group of colonial…
by Ingrid Dümpel My name is Ingrid Dümpel and I was born and raised in Indië or the Dutch East Indies. Both my parents are ‘Indisch’—with paternal ancestors from the west and maternal ancestors from Indonesia. I realized what a privilege it was to have grown up there, when I started interviewing Indisch children who…
by Saskia Rossi-van den Broek Marsini’s Gift – the Story of An Indo Family When Saskia Rossi left California in 2018 to return to Holland where she was born, she did not know that her life – she was already in her sixties – would take a staggering turn. First of all, her new home,…
The First of its Kind in the English Language by Inez Hollander OK. I am biased. When Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and food writer, Jeff Keasberry, asked me to proofread his Indo Dutch Kitchen Secrets manuscript, the first cookbook for Indo Dutch cuisine in English, I said yes and found myself quickly immersed in his interesting family history and the…
Notes by: Willem ten Wolde Readers are encouraged to freely copy the .PDF file in whole or in part for their own informational, educational, and/or other non-commercial purposes, and for unlimited non-commercial redistribution, provided the following credit line is included: Used with permission. Copyright 2013, Antoni Harting. All rights reserved. Toni (Antoni) Harting was born…
By Willem ten Wolde I was researching books written in English about the Japanese prison or internment camps in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, when I found Annelex Hofstra Layson’s autobiography Lost Childhood: My Life in a Japanese Prison Camp During World War II. I was intrigued because it was—so far—the only one…
by Inez Hollander. Elizabeth Pisani, author of another great book on Indonesia that recently came out, gives us some staggering statistics on Indonesia: not only is it the home “to one in every thirty of the people on this planet,” Indonesia is also the 4th most populous country in the world. In addition, though most Indonesians live on no…
A Book Review of Op klompen door de dessa by Hylke Speerstra (Amsterdam: Atlas, 2015) When growing up in The Netherlands, I never realized that part of my family history ran parallel with the rise and demise of the Dutch East Indies. I explored the colonial part of that history in my book Silenced Voices…
© 2015, Inez Hollander, Ph.D. Er ligt een roofstaat aan de zee tussen Oostfriesland en de Schelde! There is a pirate state, bordering the sea, between the Scheldt and Eastern Friesland ~ Multatuli, Max Havelaar Book Review Opgevangen in andijvielucht van Griselda Molemans…