Dear reader,
Welcome to our quarterly newsletter! Read about recent news and developments of the International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, RCE).
Do you have any questions or suggestions? Please let us know.
Happy readings! |
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| | | The year 2024 will mark the fourth and last year of our International Heritage Cooperation programme within the current International
Cultural Policy framework (a new policy framework is being prepared). In this
final year, the RCE will proceed in achieving its goals as
set at the start of the programme in 2021. Exchange of knowledge and expertise
between the Netherlands and its partner countries is our main aim. We do so on
the heritage challenges that we share, such as sustainability, climate change or community participation, by bringing experts together in bilateral or multilateral settings. As we did during the three previous years, we will
organize trainings such as Sharing Stories on Contested Histories. We will also
proceed joint endeavours in finding new approaches, for example in dealing with
water challenges. And we will collaborate with colleagues from abroad to find
hands-on solutions for local issues, as for example on shipwreck investigation.
Yet the last year is not only business as usual. We
may notice a shift in topical urgencies. Now that the restitution of museum
artifacts has become of greater importance than it was at the start of this
policy period, we will adjust our efforts. Furthermore, now that Ukraine is urgently
requesting for support, we will find ways to accommodate colleagues from
this country. We also collaborate more closely with the Dutch Caribbean on
heritage management than before. The needs on all these subjects exceed the
capacity of the programme and have to be accommodated by other means as well.
This will be one of the challenges in defining the new policy framework. To
provide input for this, the RCE will analyse the
impact of the projects as executed during the previous years. To conclude, we may
state that 2024 will be a year of ending the present programme and of beginning
a new one. |
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| | | Airplane in Aviation Heritage Museum Perth © Bas Kreuger |
| | | Broome, Western Australia, 3 March 1942. It is a
quiet day, except for the fact that twelve Dutch aircraft just landed in the harbour carrying evacuees
from Java. They were escaping the Japanese troops that had taken the Dutch Indies in the
days before. The evacuees are mainly women and children. While the planes are getting
fuelled for the second part of the trip to Perth, they are being attacked by
Japanese planes. The planes and 12 other allied aircraft are destroyed within
an hour. At least 70 to 80 Dutch are killed in the attack, most of them
children. The wrecks of the Dutch seaplanes are still visible in Broome Bay at
extremely low tide. Over the years, much historical material of and from these
aircraft has ended up in private collections and various museums in Australia.
Within the framework of both our International Heritage Cooperation programme
and International Programme for Maritime Heritage, aviation historian Bas
Kreuger is doing an inventory of these historical objects to gain insight into
the quantity and quality of this heritage, which is illustrative of the early
war years in the Pacific. Furthermore, through this research we hope to learn
more about the relatively unknown Dutch history of WWII in Australia. We will
inform you further about this project in the following newsletters. |
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| | | Canon of Kandy is being transported © RCE |
| | Last November, six objects returned to the National
Museum of Colombo in Sri Lanka. The transport of the objects was preceded by the visit of a
delegation from Sri Lanka. During their visit to the Rijksmuseum they were present
when, amongst others, the Canon of Kandy was prepared for transportation.
The
delegation consisted of dr Sanuja Thushari Kasthuriarachchi (Director General, Department of
National Museums), E. A. Senerath Wickramasinghe (Additional Director
General) and K. G. Chandrika Munasinghe, (Conservation Officer at the
National Museum in Colombo). Our programme is involved with the National Museum in Colombo and the Rijksmuseum in order to exchange knowledge on the management of these
six objects, see our latest newsletters for more information on this project. |
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| | | Memorial in Simon's Town © RCE |
| | | Within the framework of our International Heritage
Cooperation programme and International Programme for Maritime Heritage, the
RCE works together with partners in South Africa on several maritime heritage projects.
Our colleague Leon Derksen visited Cape Town last November in order to visit these partners. The main purpose was to attend the
unveiling of a monument to commemorate 184 individuals who were disinterred in
2019 before being reburied in 2022 in Simon’s Town after a long process of research.
Furthermore, other projects such as the oral history project about Dutch
shipwrecks in South African’ waters was discussed with project partner SAHRA, besides
possible future projects. Read more about projects we carry out together
with South African partners in the weblog by clicking on the button below. | | |
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| | | Visit of one of the cemeteries © RCE |
| | From 23 October to 11 November, two funerary
specialists from the Netherlands visited Suriname at the invitation of
Stichting Gebouwd Erfgoed Suriname (Built Heritage Foundation Suriname, SGES).
SGES requested support regarding the preservation of funerary heritage in
Paramaribo. Burial pressure is extremely high and many graves are in danger of
being cleared. During a two-day course, participants exchanged knowledge on recognizing special grave monuments. Furthermore, SGES and Dodenakkers.nl
foundation launched the project "Names from the past", aimed at
preserving the graves of important Surinamese people so their stories are saved
for future generations.
In addition, the board of the Jodensavanne
Foundation asked for advice regarding the grave monuments at the cemeteries located within the Jodensavanne World Heritage Site. Research into materials
and symbolism was carried out as part of a maintenance plan regarding the grave
monuments. The specialists also visited other cemeteries in and around Paramaribo,
to gain an impression of issues surrounding grave clearance and endangered
funerary heritage. This visit has also provided both specialists with new insights, which they will use in their advice for the Dutch heritage field. | |
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| | | Participants at work under water © RCE |
| | After three
inspiring weeks, the UNESCO Foundation Course on Underwater Cultural
Heritage Management in Tobago ended on 8 December. Fifteen students from the Caribbean
dove on the wreck of the Dutch Admiralty ship Huis te Kruiningen and were tasked to come up with a significance assessment
and a management plan of the wreck site. Furthermore, they gave a public presentation
during the final ceremony and gave a poster presentation of the site in a
larger context of the past, present and future.
This foundation course was
established to train a future generation of maritime archaeologists. We see
lack of capacity in underwater cultural heritage management as a serious
threat in the preservation of this valuable resource. As this training shows,
this can be easily overcome. By joining several countries together in this
training, not only capacity is built, but also a platform to cooperate in the
region. The RCE financed and Martijn Manders (RCE) and Chris Underwood (ICOMOS-ICUCH) coordinated this training.
Read more about this foundation course in the weblogs by clicking the button below. | |
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| | | A drawer with bellows © Missiemuseum Steyl |
| | | Within the framework of our programme, Marc Argeloo researched a
unique trade collection of feathers from birds of paradise, bellows and stuffed
birds from New Guinea from the 19th and 20th centuries. This collection was
discovered at the Mission Museum in Steyl in 2019. The source material found
describes the history of bird of paradise hunting and feather trade for the
western fashion industry. By looking for the story from New Guinea's side, the
story of the hunters of the time and the colonial context, as well as the
current landscape, Argeloo wanted to add another perspective to our knowledge
about this specific feather- and bird trade. His research resulted in the
exhibition Birds of God; the journey of the bird of paradise, which will remain
on display at the Mission Museum until September 2024 and in Jayapura. This
project was carried out in collaboration with Universitas Cenderawasih (Bird of
Paradise University) in Jayapura and the Steyl Mission Museum. Today, the bird
of paradise is still a powerful symbol representing status and beauty and is
strongly linked to the identity of both the original peoples of New Guinea and
the Papuan diaspora in the Netherlands. |
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| | | West-Indisch Huis, a national heritage site © RCE |
| | In November, the RCE and the Erfgoedacademie organized
two webinars on multivocality in relation to national monuments and built
heritage. Together with international experts, we delved deeper
into the question “How can we make existing and future national monument lists
more inclusive, representative and multivocal?” Rewatch both webinars:
Part one (20 November) focused on national monument designations and
lists. With Maria Grever (em. Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Katrijn
D’hamers (FARO Flanders), Ben Mwasinga (South African Heritage Resources
Agency/SAHRA) and prof. dr. Gary Younge (University of Manchester).
Part two (27 November) focused on the interpretation of monuments
and ways in which different perspectives as well as untold histories can be
recognised and shared. With Gareth Lopes Powell (Historic England), Jennifer
Tosch (Black Heritage Tours) and prof. dr. Ann Rigney (Utrecht University). |
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| | | | Cover of the publication "Het raadsel van het Hollands Rif" © RCE |
| | On 2 December, the children's book "Het raadsel
van het Hollands rif” (“The Riddle of the Dutch Reef") was officially
presented. The book tells the story of the Dutch ship Van Bosse, which sank
near the island of Tarama in 1857. Stories that are locally told about this
wreck, were drawn up in this book as part of an oral history project. It is
written in Japanese and Dutch, but also in Taramese. Only older inhabitants of
the island Tarama still speak this dying language. Therefore, this book
contributes to the recording of this language for future generations.
Theo Peters (Dutch ambassador to Japan) and Mr.
Ikehiro (head of the Education Council of the Municipality of Tarama in Japan)
received the first copies of the book from Kayoko Shimoji (Okinawa
International University) and José Schreurs (RCE). | |
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| | | Duncan Wilson, ambassador Karel van Oosterom and Susan Lammers © Historic England |
| | | Last November, 2560 objects of the Dutch East India
Company’s shipwreck Rooswijk were returned to The Netherlands. The
artefacts include inventory, cargo, silver coins and personal items, which are
now stored at the National Maritime Depot at Batavialand in Lelystad, The
Netherlands. This transfer was part of the excavation
project carried out by the project partners RCE, Historic England and UK
contractor MSDS Marine. The #Rooswijk1740-project started in 2016 when it was
determined that the wreck, which is located at a depth of 25 meters on the
Goodwin Sands, Kent (UK), is at high risk. The return of the objects is
significant for The Netherlands, since it will enable the RCE and
partners to show them to the public to tell the story of this particular part
of our shared maritime history. | |
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| | | | The International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of
the Netherlands follows from the International Cultural Policy
Framework 2021-2024 of the Dutch government. Other organisations executing the
national International Heritage Cooperation programme are DutchCulture, the
National Archives of the Netherlands, KIEN and the Embassies of the Netherlands
in the partner countries. For more information on their activities, see their
respective websites.
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_(2).jpg?v=20231218095618 "Suriname funerary heritage")
.jpg?v=20231219111315 "UNESCO Tobago")
