In the Netherlands there is little awareness of what happened in the former Dutch East Indies. Both younger and older generations know too little about it. That said former minister Bussemaker of OCW in the radio program News and Co. Today, a special committee has been installed that, under its leadership, should strengthen knowledge of the history of the Dutch East Indies.
According to Bussemaker, the Indies heritage has been long and far away. “That has everything to do with the Second World War. People thought: what happened here is worse than what happened there.” But she also blames the lack of knowledge on colonialism. “The independence of Indonesia has the necessary black pages for the Netherlands. That colonial history makes it difficult to talk about it,” she says.
That is why the cabinet made more than 20 million euros available last year to, among other things, make the Indies heritage more visible. According to Bussemaker, there is also a lot of historical material available, but it is difficult for many people to find it.
The committee therefore aims to collect this material and present it to a wider audience in an attractive manner. “The history of the Dutch East Indies is the history of the whole of the Netherlands,” said Bussemaker.
Earlier we made this look back at the Indonesian war of independence:
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