SoCal Indo founder Michael Passage started 2023 by hosting a very well-attended Kumpulan, which is Indonesian for “gathering”. The event was attended by Indos and others with a shared history in the Dutch East Indies. Over seventy people from multiple California counties gathered on the evening of Friday, January 6th at the Indonesian Consulate in…
A look back at The Indo Project’s top stories and news articles of 2022. Did your favorite TIP articles make the top five lists? Top Five Indo Stories #5 Oma Moesje Read about how Robert Kaya’s Oma from Kota Raja, Aceh, ended up in the Statenkwartier, The Hague. #4 Indo Movie Highlight: Past Ended on…
by Astrid Berg, author of Mixed Bood: Reconciling My Colonial Family’s History in the Dutch East Indies. In August while visiting The Hague and riding my bike, I came upon the Indisch Monument in de Scheveningse Bosjes (large park in The Hague) near Madurodam. I had been there many times before. This time I had…
by Sheldon Krancher Discovering Indo Pride Through My Childhood Paper Route It was just after 4:00 AM on a brisk spring morning when I heard the rumble of the truck that dropped the Fresno Bee on our front porch. Just over 260 newspapers, four routes in total, between myself and my brother. I was only…
Hello to all who attended the Long Beach Holland Festival on September 5th, 2022 and especially to those that stopped by The Indo Project booth. It was an extremely hot day at 108 degrees fahrenheit, a new record since 1988 that was at 107! It was nice to meet all the Indos who participated in…
by Benjamin Jacobs The Story Behind the Indo Girl Logo Before the war, my father was an art and engineering student. He was also in the Dutch army. My father was an artist at heart and was creative in everything he did. More importantly, he was a husband and father. Here’s his story and the…
The annual Holland Festival in Long Beach has permanently moved to Labor Day Weekend and will be celebrated this year on Sunday, September 4th, 2022. For many Southern California Indos, Memorial Day weekend in May was synonymous with the Holland Festival. The Holland Festival is an annual event celebrated at the P.O.A. Gemmrig Park in…
The Indo Project asked its followers on social media, “How did your mother or oma instill Indo culture in you?” TIP is pleased to share some of its followers’ responses below. Look for the Good in People Look for the good in people, my mom said. ~ Nicky Thornton Guerrero Always Have Enough Food I learned…
Maria and Holland International Market With the opening of its doors, Holland International Market, Inc. started a new era of Dutch culture and specialty goods in Bellflower, California. The former local Dutch store, Holland American International Specialities closed for good in June 2014. It was the premier distributor of fine European and domestic specialty gourmet…
by Maureen Welscher The Bombing of Pontianak When I was 8 ½ years old, I lived in Pontianak, the capital of Borneo, Indonesia. On the morning of December 19, 1941, I visited a friend who lived opposite the military barracks. We sat in the lounge facing their barracks. We heard planes, which was a rare…