We need your help! What is YOUR favorite book that captures the Indo experience?
We have all been there—our Indo Dutch and Indies Dutch culture is strong, but some of it we cannot share with our children and/or grandchildren because it is… in Dutch!
The Indo Project is well aware of this conundrum and hopes to work on translating those sources into English, so that our legacy can be shared rather than vanish from our cultural landscape.
As a pilot program, we hope to start a crowd-funding campaign to translate one book into English and use this as an incentive of many other books (provided we can secure funding) and authors.
So… do you have a favorite book (literature, history etc) that hasn’t been translated yet? Leave your suggestions here, or submit them at inezhollander@theindoproject.
If we can’t get a consensus, we will go by writer: what is your favorite Indo writer? Leave your suggestions here, or submit them at inezhollander@theindoproject.
Thank you for your help!
I want to thank everyone who sent me suggestions via FB: here’s a list of authors and titles that we received:
Reggie Baay
Alfred Birney – River Trilogy
Peter van Dongen – Rampokan serie
Griselda Molemans
Tjalie Robinson – Piekerans van een straatslijper
Pans Schomper – Indië Vaarwel
Eveline Stoel – Asta’s ogen
Beb Vuyk
The Indo Project is looking into possibilities of eventually starting an institute/fund for translation of important works, but as of yet, we are underfunded and understaffed. Also, since the enthusiasm for this project was limited, we will shelve the translation of a single work for now, to make sure that we’re not going to be spread too thin in this important year of the 70th anniversary. We do hope to make a list/bibliography of works that have been translated into English, for your perusal, in the future.
Thank you for your interest in The Indo Project,
Inez Hollander Lake
The “Rampokan” series by Peter Van Dongen. I’ve been a huge fan of Hergé’s “The Adventures of Tintin” since I was a kid, and from my understanding, “Rampokan” is sort of the Dutch East Indies version of Tintin. I wouldn’t know though because they are only available in Dutch and Bahasa Indonesia.