Vereniging KITLV
In this book, the well-known journalist and writer Nio Joe Lan (1904-1973) describes the years of internment during the Japanese occupation 1942-1945. The book, originally in Malay, was published for the first time in 1946, had a reprint in 2008 and appeared in Bahasa in 2024.
The Javanese regent’s daughter Kartini corresponded with various Dutch pen pals in the early twentieth century about the injustices suffered by Javanese women. She advocated against polygamous marriage and arranged marriages, and also aimed for education for Javanese women from the noble class.
This project aims to finalize and resubmit a book manuscript on the topic of taxation and governance in colonial Indonesia, to be published with Brill in the Verhandelingen van het KITLV series. Based on the author’s PhD thesis, the book innovatively explores the implications of taxation for the local dynamics of Dutch colonial governance.
The demolition of the Banten royal palace by the colonial government in 1808, de facto, marked the end of the long-respected Islamic suzerainty in Banten. This demolition, while exposing the insidious nature of the colonial project, has profound ramifications for community resilience, heritage, and cultural identity formation. The significance of the Banten pusaka confiscated by colonial regimes and the ruins of the kraton continues to inspire the ongoing debate over the cultural identity of the newly formed autonomous Banten province.
This critical ethnographic research project explores the contemporary practice of indigenous tattoo traditions in the Indonesian Archipelago. While Indonesian tattoos almost went extinct under the Dutch colonial regime’s (1602-1949) anti-headhunting policies and Christian missionaries, as well as President Suharto’s New Order (1966-1998), one can observe a revival of Indonesian tattoo art in present-day Indonesia.
This study looks into the depiction of women in traditional Acehnese literature during the colonial period, with a special emphasis on the narratives presented in two major Aceh’s hikayat: Hikayat Prang Sabi and Hikayat Prang Gompeuni. The research seeks to identify the complex gender dynamics present in these stories, taking into account the Acehnese gender hierarchy, oral storytelling traditions, and the rich tapestry of ancient cultural norms prevalent during that time.