The Indo Project (TIP) is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this month! We want to express our sincere thanks to our loyal supporters and incredible all-volunteer TIP team without whose collective efforts we would not have been able to reach this important milestone. To think that when the founders started the organization, all they had was…
Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other names for the figure include De Sint (“The Saint”), De Goede Sint (“The Good Saint”), and De Goedheiligman (“The Good Holy Man”) in Dutch. The feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on 6 December. The…
Indonesia has a small Jewish population. In the 19th century, most of the Jews in the Dutch East Indies (now called Indonesia) were Dutch Jews from the Netherlands. The rest of the Jews in Indonesia were mainly immigrants from Iraq and Aden. The memories of wartime Indonesia (formerly known as the Dutch East Indies) were overshadowed by…
by Sjoekje F. Sas(a)bone, LCSW, EMHA Loving an Indo Parent with Borderline Personality Disorder I consider myself lucky to have loving, talented, hard-working, and attentive parents. They ensured I had the best opportunities for a solid education to establish a career and secure a future. They fostered a creative environment by extending their artistic and…
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…
When the Dutch government eventually granted independence to their former colony, the Dutch (Netherland) East Indies in 1949, a large community of some 200,000 Indos were forced to find a new homeland. They were the offspring (descendants) of former Dutch and other European settlers, who often intermarried with women of Indonesian or other mixed ancestry. …
By Dr Kathryn Pentecost, edited by Sierra Jacobs The series is based on PhD thesis (2013) entitled: Selamat Jalan, sampai jumpa lagi (Farewell, until we meet again): Transcultural family stories from colonial and postcolonial Indonesia Section One: INTRODUCTION We live our lives in the shadow of other people… Conversely, other people are shaped by our…
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…
The former Netherlands (Dutch) East Indies is present-day Indonesia. The Japanese military occupied the Dutch colony in 1942 during the Pacific War, then placed Dutch nationals in internment facilities and prisoner-of-war camps (90,000 civilians, 40,000 military personnel). Some officials of the Japanese military forcefully transferred Dutch women and women of mixed race from the concentration camps…