Commemorating the banda islands genocide - 400 years later

The year 2021 marks the 400 year anniversary of the Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands, the subsequent genocide of the Indigenous population on May 8, 1621 and the advent of plantation slavery and monocropping in the Bandanese archipelago. The genocide of the Indigenous population constitutes the first modern-colonial genocide in Asia.

In honor of (ongoing) Indigenous struggles against imperialist (dis)possession, Commemorating the Banda Islands Genocide - 400 Years Later brings together scholars, cultural bearers and artists who will shed light on the significance of this genocide and Bandanese resillience for modern-colonial history.

We will also use this opportunity to commemorate the loss of Bandanese lives and celebrate resilience.

The panel will also draw connections between Indigenous struggles for sovereignty on Banda and struggles for Lenape/Lunape/Lunaapeew sovereignty in Mannahatta (New York) and on Traditional, Ancestral and Unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Territory.  

This online panel and ceremony contributes to a larger series of commemorative events organized by the Banda 2021 Working Group to take place in April and May 2021. The event foregrounds Bandanese, Indonesian and Moluccan/Malukan perspectives and highlights the global significance of the Dutch conquest of Banda, which served as a precedent for Dutch imperialist expansion in the Americas.

Speaker bios:

Nancy Jouwe (Delft, 1967) is a freelance researcher, public speaker, publicist and sometimes curator, who teaches at the University of the Arts in Utrecht. She is an affiliated researcher at the Gender Studies Dept, at the faculty of Humanities, at Utrecht University. Jouwe studied Gender Studies and Cultural History at Utrecht University and York University (UK), and is interested in intersectionality, postcolonial and decolonial theory. She worked as the executive director of Foundation Papuan Cultural Heritage, Kosmopolis Utrecht and was deputy-director of women’s fund Mama Cash. She (co-)published nine titles and wrote several articles on postcolonial cultural and social movements and practices and the Dutch history of slavery. Titles include Gids Slavernijverleden Nederland, Netherlands Slavery Heritage Guide (LM Publishers, 2019), Amsterdam en de slavernij in Oost en West (Uniekboek/Spectrum, 2020) and Gendered Empire (Verloren, 2020). She is the chair of BAK Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht and co-founded Amsterdam-based art platform Framer Framed.

Wim Manuhutu (born Vught, the Netherlands, 1959) is a historian, specialized in the modern history of Indonesia. Between 1987 and 2008 he was a member of the board of directors of the Moluccan Historical Museum in Utrecht, focusing on exhibitions, events, and research. He published a number of articles on Moluccan history in both magazines and books. Since 2009 Wim Manuhutu is the owner/director of Manu2u, a company that organizes cultural projects and events in with various different partners. He is active as a consultant, guest speaker and moderator. He is a guest lecturer at the Amsterdam University College and is working on a PhD thesis on the cultural links between the Netherlands and two of its former colonies, Suriname and Indonesia.

Beatrice Glow is an artist-researcher leveraging interactive multimedia installations and multi-sensory experiences in service of public history and just futures. Her solo exhibitions include Forts and Flowers, Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taiwan, 2019 and Aromérica Parfumeur, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Chile, 2016. She also was a participating artist in the Inaugural Honolulu Biennial, 2017. Her work has been supported by the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Yale-NUS College Artist-in-Residence Programme, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, and the US Fulbright Scholar Program, amongst others.

Brent Stonefish, is part of the Lenape Nation from Moraviantown in Southwestern Ontario. Brent started off his post-secondary education in 1994 with a Native Studies Diploma, then a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He received his Masters in Environmental Studies degree from York University in 2001.

Rudi Fofid is a celebrated Malukan poet and journalist from the Kei Islands who has ancestral ties to Banda.