Selamat jalan sampai jumpa lagi Farewell
S ELAMAT JALAN , SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI
(FAREWELL, UNT I L WE MEET AGAI N)
TRANSCULTURAL FAMILY STORIES FROM COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL I NDONESIA
By
K ATHRYN P ENTECOST BA H ONS (UNISA), G RAD D IP E D (CSU, NSW), BA (CSU, NSW)
A thesis submitted for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
S CHOOL OF C OMMUNICATIONS , I NTERNATIONAL S TUDIES AND L ANGUAGES D IVISION OF E DUCATION , A RTS AND S OCIAL S CIENCES U NIVERSITY OF S OUTH A USTRALIA
Principal Supervisor: Paul Skrebels
Associate Supervisors: Peter Bishop and Adrian Guthrie
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES v GLOSSARY vi ABSTRACT xii DECLARATION xiv
AUTHOR’S NOTE xv ON PUBLISHED THESIS MATERIAL xvi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xviii
1. INTRODUCTION 1
Development of research aims and themes 5 Family History Research 6 Colonialism and the role of women 6 Transculturalism and intertwining histories 7
The internet’s role in facilitating communications in the Indo diaspora 7 Articulating the research question 8 On defining Indisch/ Indische mensen 9
On the complexities of an Indische society 17 On a postcolonial search for ‘home’ 20 On postcolonial research into a colonial past 25
Chapter Outline 26
2. METHODOLOGY: MAPPING THE SELF AND THE SOCIETY 30
Finding my voice 31 On ethnography and reading to write 34 On creating a hybrid text 37 Emic/etic Distinctions and transculturalism 38 On oral stories and the mother-daughter relationship 39 Ibu saya sudah lahir dan tinggal di Jember 47 Excursus: Unearthing the colonial past 52 Contested realities: ‘Indo’ stories 58 ‘The Indisch family in colonial Indonesia’ 61
On writing, research and positioning 64 History, memory, identity 66 Documenting Indonesia April-May2011 70
On life-writing 70 Clifford’s ‘Notes on Travel and Theory’ 72 Travelling, academia and otherness 73
On cultural propriety 75 On seeking permission for participant observation 75 On taking photographs 76
Data analysis: On ethnography and phenomenology 77 On sensory ethnography 78 Relating the exegetical and creative components 79 Significance: Anticipated outcomes of the research 80
In summary 81
3. COLONIALISM, FAMILY RELATIONS AND THE REGULATION OF BELONGING
The Family, the self and the society 86 Concubinage and the VOC 88 The British Interregnum and beyond 93 Crossing boundaries 95 Legislated racism in the Dutch East Indies 98 Colonial power and sexual desire 102 The family as a paradigm of the colonial state 106 The middle class as ‘respectable heirs’ to Dutch citizenship 107 Being ’Dutch’ in the colony 113
Performing Europeanness 119 At the colonial table 119 Dutch identity in the home 120 The problem of staying Dutch in the tropics 122 Being European in an Asian landscape 124
Hidden forces and oriental femme-fatales 128 An Indo ‘Doddy’ in real life and in fiction 135 Women as symbols of nationalist myth-making 140
Unravelling complication 144
4. FAMILY STORIES C . 1807- C .1957
On resurrecting family stories 147 On family names 149 On primary sources 150 Van der Poels in the Netherlands 154 Van der Poels in the Cape Colony and Dutch East Indies 155 Marthinus Hendricus van der Poel: 1783 - 1818 157 Louisa Johanna van der Poel: dates unknown 167 Hendrikus Albertus van der Poel: 1807 - 1866 170 Catherine Elisabeth van der Poel: 1819 - 1900 181 Albertus Petrus Gerardus van der Poel: 1861 – 1923 194
Raden Sitie Djochria: c.1891 – 1976 199 Hendricus Albertus van der Poel: 1882 – 1960 199 Excursus: Colonialism and the family van der Poel 208
5. ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND DIASPORA 215
Tracking Diaspora 216 The Japanese occupation 221
Stories of civilian internees 221 50 Years of Silence 225
Bep Stenger’s story of the resistance 227 Bep Stenger in 2009 230 In her own words 231
Remembering ‘The Defining Years’ 236 Riki’s story (Albertina Hendrika Berler, née van der Poel, 1909 - c.1991) 241
Issues of place, home, identity 262 Desire for love: The blue bicycle 267 Relections on whiteness versus hybridity 272 Desire for partnership: Caramel and Freckles 275
Twice ‘repatriated’ 278 Imagined communities in cyberspace 281
6. INDONESIA: MAKING CONNECTIONS 285
Preface to my travels in Indonesia: Conversations with my cousin 286 The journey begins 293
Yokyakarta 297
Touching down 297 Re-connection: A family meeting 302 Time for reflection 306
Rising from the ashes 308 My husband’s dream or The Hidden Force 310
Borobudur 312 Surabaya 314
Spirits of a revolution 317 Emotional catharsis: 6 May 2011 - My visit to Kembang Kuning 319 Kanapia and Stories of the Tenggerese 322
Malang 328 On Orientalist fantasies 332
Reflections on Balzac 333 Balzac, whiteness, Multatuli 336
Adelaide 338
Reflexivity, otherness and being ‘home’ 338 Excursus: On meaning making and travel 343
7. CONCLUSION 342
The journey never ends 343 On family stories, migration and the Indo diaspora 348 Postscript: Discovering the undiscoverable 358
REFERENCES
363
BI BLI OGRAPHY
380
APPENDI CES
Appendix 1 - Chronology of events a Appendix 2 - Old Cape Families: Ancestors of Marthinus Hendricus van der Poel j Appendix 3 - Family mobility: From Marthinus to me k Appendix 4 - Family connection: van der Poels and Snouck Hurgronjes l Appendix 5 - The Situation: Peter van Dijk remembers our family in Java m Appendix 6 - Java: Familiar places. o
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: The Author 30 Figure 2: School students at Borobudur 76 Figure 3: Peter van der Poel with the author and her daughter 1994, NSW 85 Figure 4: Family document mentioning Albertus Petrus Gerardus and siblings 146 Figure 5: My great-grandparents Sitie and Hein 199 Figure 6: Riki and her girls 1939 215 Figure 7: Bruno Berler in Java 1933 244 Figure 8: The Berlers (and a neighbour) in Bandung 1939 252 Figure 9: Riki and her daughters, c. 1948 261 Figure 10: The author and tour guide in the kampung near the Kraton 285 Figure 11: Garut 289 Figure 12: Indonesian flag over Hotel Majapahit, Surabaya 296 Figure 13: Flying into Yogyakarta 297 Figure 14: Hotel sign at Jalan Jendral Sudirman 9, Yogyakarta 302 Figure 15: High tea at the Phoenix Hotel 304 Figure 16: Prambanan 310 Figure 17: Gateway, Borobudur 311 Figure 18: Borobudur 312 Figure 19: The garden at the Hotel Majapahit, Surabaya 314 Figure 20: The Flag Incident by Wi Long in Hotel Majapahit foyer 317 Figure 21: Gunung Bromo from the lookout 322 Figures 22 & 23: Hotel Tugu, Malang 328 Figures 24 -28: Malang architecture 331 Figures 29: Tempo Doeloe Festival Poster 332 Figure 30: Javanese dancers in Surabaya 335 Figure 31: Toko Oen, Malang 2011 342 Figure 32: Bruno Berler 1929 362 Figure 33 : Bruno’s (et al) gravemarker Ancol (Antjol) near Jakarta 362
NB: Figures on pages 294-6 in Emotional catharis – My journey to Kembang Kuning are not listed as individual images here. They are also part of the author’s collection.
GLOSSARY
abangan (from Javanese adopted by Clifford Geertz) rural dwellers who practice a Hindu and animist- influenced (that is, syncretic) Islamic religious practice; the ‘red ones’. Meaning has changed over time- refers to those who practice traditional adat in preference to Sharia.
adat (Indonesian) behavioural patterns, rules and customs left by ancestors adsistent resident (Dutch) assistant Resident ambtenaar (Dutch) civil servant afdeeling (Dutch) division, area Afrikaaners (Afrikaans) settlers born in The Cape Colony/South Africa Angst (German) anxiety, worry Arbeit Macht Frei (Nazi sign over Dachau & other camps) Work Makes Freedom babu (Indonesian) may refer to nursemaid Batavia (Dutch) Jakarta baatje (Indisch Dutch) cotton jacket closely tied at the neck (worn by men) Becak (Indonesian) bicycle-driven mode of transport for tourists Belanda (Indonesian) Dutch, European Berapa harganya? (Indonesian) How much (does it cost)? Bersiap (Indonesian) Lit. purge or rise up; violent struggle in last three months of 1945
during which camp internees were killed by pemuda - young male revolutionaries Biasa (Indonesian) the usual thing Binnenlands Bestuur (Dutch) Regional Government Service, consisting of a European
and an Indigenous branch blijver stayer/settler (may refer to those families who came earlier in the colonial
period) bubur ayam (Indonesian) chicken soup (also eaten for breakfast) budha (Indonesian) religious tradition of the Tenggerese of East Java bulé (Indonesian, may be derogatory) tourist/white person Bumi Manusia (Indonesian) This Earth of Mankind (book by Pramoedya Ananta Toer) period) bubur ayam (Indonesian) chicken soup (also eaten for breakfast) budha (Indonesian) religious tradition of the Tenggerese of East Java bulé (Indonesian, may be derogatory) tourist/white person Bumi Manusia (Indonesian) This Earth of Mankind (book by Pramoedya Ananta Toer)
burgherrecht (Dutch) middle class values burgerlijke stand (Dutch) Registrar Generals’ office campuran (Indonesia)’mixed-blood’ person candi (Indonesian) temple
Civiel Departement Benoeming en Bevorderingen (Dutch) Civil Service Appointments and Promotions
dadar gulung (Indonesian) green coconut pancakes with palm sugar inside Der Anscluss (German) annexation of Austria by the Germans before WI Dewa (Indonesian from Hindu culture) deity dienaren (Dutch) employees (used to describe those working for VOC )
duā (Arabic) poem/prayer
duapuluh tujuh ratus rupiah (Indonesian) two hundred thousand rupiah (about $AUS20)
echte Hollanders (Dutch) ’real’ (white) Dutch; born in the Netherlands not in the colonies eigenaar onderneming (Dutch) owner of a company/ company owner eigenaar houthandel en houtcontractant (Dutch) timber company owner and merchant eneden oetjie (or oetjie harpenden) (Indische) nickname – stop nagging fatwa (Arabic) Islamic legal pronouncement on a specific issue gamelan (Indonesian) traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra gula (Indonesian) sugar Hadjie (Haji) a person who has completed the pilgrimage to Mecca half-bloed (Dutch; derogatory) half-blood/half-breed huisvrouwen (Dutch) housewives huishoudster (Literally) housekeeper; (metaphorically) mistress/concubine Ibu saya lahir dan tinggal di Jember (Indonesian) My mother was born and lived in
Jember Indier person living in the Dutch East Indies/Netherlands Indies Indisch/Indische mensen (Dutch) Indies people/ people born in the Indies Indische Nederlanders (Dutch) Indisch Dutch; Dutch people living in/born in the Dutch
East Indies
Indo people born in the Indies – the term is used with positive connotation to denote members of the diaspora in contemporary discourse but was used pejoratively in colonial times to denote people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian ethnicity and culture
Inlanders (Dutch) Natives Jawa Barat (Indonesian) West Java Jawa Tenggah (Indonesian) Central Java Jawa Timur (Indonesian) East Java jinta (Indonesian) lover kampung (kampong) (Indonesian) village (which can be an urban one) Kasodo Ceremony annual ceremony held near Gunung (Mount) Bromo by Tenggerese kayu manis (Indonesian) cinnamon ketemuan (Indonesian) meeting of bride and groom in a traditional Javanese marriage
ceremony kina (Indonesian) cinchona KNIL (Dutch) Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (Royal Netherlands Indies Army) kloncing (Indonesian) performance area/stage; for example, Pura Kloncing in Ubud, Bali
is a performance space for dance and gamelan performance koi (Chinese) carp kopi (Indonesian) coffee kraton (Indonesian) sultan’s palace krupuk (Indonesian) prawn crackers kyai (or kiyai or kiai) (Indonesian) male religious teachers (Islamic) Lakendrapier (Dutch) draper Landhuis (Dutch) country house/townhouse Landraad (Dutch) Land Council Machtergreifung (German) seizure of power Mardijker (Dutch) former slaves; descendants of freed slaves; with Portuguese or Indian
origin; mostly Christians merdeka (Indonesian) free, independent metis (French) mixed
Mischling (German Nazi categorization term) person with part-Jewish heritage; usually one or two grandparents are Jewish
mufti (Arabic) professional jurist who interprets Islamic law nasi goreng (Indonesian) fried rice Nationaal Socialistische Beweging National Socialist Organisation/Dutch Nazi Party Nederlandsche (Nederlandse) Handel Maatschappij Dutch Trading Company notaris (Dutch) notary; someone authorised to witness document signing
nyai word used differently depending on context.(Dutch) concubine-cum-servant (Indonesian) female religious teacher equivalent of a kyai (male religious teacher)
Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij Royal Dutch Steamship Company
oma (Dutch) grandmother opa(Dutch) grandfather
orang Belanda (Indonesian) Dutch person overheid (Dutch) bureaucracy pasa-en wijkenstelsel (Dutch) (Lit. pass and housing area regulation) designated
neighbourhood pasar (Indonesian) market pendopo (Indonesian) open-air building petjoe (used by Dutch) Literally means cormorant; derogatory term for mixed-blood
person pinisi (Indonesian) wooden schooners with long bows PKI (Partai Kommunis Indonesia) (Indonesian) Indonesian Communist Party Prancis (Indonesian -pronounced Prancees) The French priyayi (Indonesian) class of aristocratic government administrators; also used for
Javanese upper-class Raden (Indonesian) designation for Javanese royalty
Raad van Nederlands/Nederlandsche Indië 1 (Dutch) Council of the Dutch East Indies; supreme executive and legislative body headed by the governor-general
1 The source of this information is LM Penders (1977) Glossary from Indonesia: Selected Documents on Colonialism and Nationalism, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, QLD,
Australia
Regerings Almanak (van) Nederlandsche Indië (Dutch) Government Almanac of the Dutch East Indies/Netherlands Indies
Resident (Dutch) highest rank in the European branch of the regional Government Service
santri (probably from Sanskrit; adopted by Clifford Geertz) generally urban living Muslims who practice a more orthodox stream of Islam in Indonesia; the ‘white ones’- putihan
Selamat jalan, sampai jumpa lagi (Indonesian) Farewell (to those who are leaving) until we meet again (has an implicit reference to signs that one sees in Java when leaving a place which say virtually this)
Selamat pagi (Indonesian) Good morning
shahadah (Arabic) religious conversion sinjo (Portuguese origin) term for Indo-European person used in various ways,
(sometimes in a derogatory manner) slaapbroek (Indisch Dutch) wide batik trousers (Lit. weak/thin pants) Smid (Dutch) smith – blacksmith or silversmith Stichting Het Gebaar (Dutch) Goodwill Foundation Stolenmaker (Dutch) cakemaker stupa (Sanskrit) (Lit.) heap; decorative bell-like structures atop Borobudur Buddhist
monument suksumar (Balinese) thank you surah (Arabic) chapters in the Koran Tanah Merah (Indonesian) (Lit. red earth) also called Dutch Siberia, a camp for political
exiles in Dutch West New Guinea tempo doeloe (tempo dulu) (Indonesian) literally ‘time past’; metaphorically ‘the good
old days’ terima kasih banyak (Indonesian) thank you very much toko (Indonesian) shop totok/totoker (Indonesian) newcomer (Dutch who came to the East Indies in the late
colonial period) Trekboers (Afrikaans) wandering farmers trekker sojourner (or contract worker/entrepreneur who is not intending to settle) ulama /Ulema (Arabic) Muslim scholar or scribe; Muslim legal scholars ummah (Arabic) Lit. nation or community; refers to community of religious followers colonial period) Trekboers (Afrikaans) wandering farmers trekker sojourner (or contract worker/entrepreneur who is not intending to settle) ulama /Ulema (Arabic) Muslim scholar or scribe; Muslim legal scholars ummah (Arabic) Lit. nation or community; refers to community of religious followers
changes to printing (Lit. since and with) until and o n… Verzetsmuseum (Dutch) Resistance Museum VOC (Dutch) (Abbreviation) Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie: Dutch East India
Company vol-bloed (Dutch) full-blood Vrijburgers (Afrikaans) free settlers Vrouwen Lief en Leed Onder de Tropen (Dutch) (Women Weal and Woe in the Tropics) waarnemend president (Dutch) acting president warung (warong) (Indonesian) food stall or small shop on the street wayang Javanese shadow puppetry wong cilik (Indonesian) commoners zaman Belanda (Indonesian) Dutch time (meaning the colonial period) zaman normal (Indonesian) normal time (meaning the colonial period and before
Japanese occupation) Zeilwerker (Dutch) sailmaker zuiver Nederlanders (Dutch) in this context, people who speak ‘pure’ Dutch language -
not the Dutch language of the colony which was influenced by Malay/Indonesian; those who came to Australia from the Netherlands, not Indonesia and/or those who were totok (newcomer) Dutch from Indonesia
ABSTRACT
‘The story circulates like a gift; an empty gift which anybody can lay claim to but never really possess. A gift built on multiplicity. ‘
(Minh-ha T. T. 1989: 56 cited in Bahari, 2007: 42)
According to Razif Bahari, metanarratives no longer provide any ‘comfort and stability’; especially since national boundaries are ‘increasingly becoming porous’ (2007: 42-43). He also makes the point that neither individuals nor nations are subject to a ‘singular, unitary “experience of colonialism and imperialism”’ (Bahari, 2007: 43). In the case of the Dutch East Indies, the majority of those who were classified as ‘European’ in a legal sense were ethnically Indo-European; and by the late colonial period had developed their own traditional values and sense of cultural identity
as Indisch or Indische mensen 2 - markedly distinct from the Dutch in the Netherlands, the Javanese, Sundanese and others in colonial Indonesia, and from the more recently arrived totoks 3 who were Dutch civil servants and entrepreneurs.
Bearing in mind Minh- ha’s quote, there is no singular, closed story that can be told which can account for all the myriad experiences of the former inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies. The internet has changed the communications environment in the twenty-first century, giving the diaspora community (and their descendants) an awareness of (and access to) new (or previously inaccessible) information, including texts now translated into English from Dutch. With the assistance of the internet and
a trip to Indonesia, I explore my own family stories from colonial Indonesia. In addition, I add my postcolonial perspective through stories
2 Indisch/Indische mensen – Dutch language term for Indies people/ people born in the Indies. See a further discussion in Chapter Two. 3 This translates from Malay as ‘newcomers’.
written about my trip to Indonesia and about the mother- daughter/daughter-mother relationship which is at the heart of my discovery process.
Grounded in the scholarly (and sometimes contested) perspectives of Bosma and Raben, Coté and Westerbeek, Gouda, Hellwig, Metta, Stoler, Taylor, Pattynama, Protschky, and others, I aim to contextualise my ancestral stories within the socio-historical situation of colonial Indonesia. In particular, I attempt to fill in some of the gaps and silences about the female members of our clan, turning to scholarly texts about colonial novels with the aim of exploring attitudes to women: Asian, Eurasian and white.
The rhetorical deployment of images of women as mothers or whores has been used in colonial, wartime and postcolonial contexts in the Dutch East
Indies/Indonesia. These tropes were part of a broader rhetorical use of ‘the family’ as a metaphor for ‘the nation’, where women were domesticated and subservient to men and where the voices of actual women were conspicuously absent or silent (Gouda, 1998: 236 - 254).
My stories will be different from other stories told by Indische mensen; different from stories told by Dutch, Australian and American scholars; different from stories told by Indonesians themselves; but they will also share something of the intertwined history of Indonesia, the Netherlands, Australia (and elsewhere). Certainly, they aim to reveal something more
about the situation of women 4 and families within the complex and changing social structure of the Dutch East Indies, in particular in Java c.1807 – c. 1957 5
4 It must be mentioned here that the thesis in no way claims to exclusively focus on this.
5 These dates are a guide based on van der Poel family documents – from birth date of my great- great-grandfather Hendricus Albterus in Semarang to the approximate date that Hein, my great-
grandfather left Indonesia.
DECLARATION
I declare that: this thesis presents work carried out by myself and does not incorporate
without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university; to the best of my knowledge it does not contain any materials previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; and all substantive contribution by others to the work presented, including jointly authored publications, is clearly acknowledged.
Kathryn Pentecost.............................................................................................
D A TE .......................................................................................
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have used the Harvard-style in-text referencing system in both the exegetical and creative components of the thesis (adapted to UniSA standards). The reference system and bibliography are compiled with reference to the UniSA referencing style, though I have adapted it in the manner of other conventions, for instance, deliberately using brackets on the year of publication date for ease of reading.
The default language used in the thesis is Australian English, exemplified, for instance, in using ‘s’ instead of ‘z’ in words such as categorise, contextualise, recognise and civilise. Other spelling conventions (notably in American English), are used when they appear within quotations by other authors.
All non-English words are italicised in the thesis (except in some quotes by other authors and official titles in the family narratives), and all non- English words and phrases are explained in the glossary. For clarity, the van der Poel family name is italicised in the thesis. Javanese place names in the colonial spelling are included in brackets after the postcolonial spelling (at least in the first instance), because the place names are written in the former manner in the family documents, for example Garut (Garoet). In addition, it is acknowledged that both Indisch and Indische are used by different scholars and commentators in the context of describing Indo- Europeans. The expression tempo doeloe is deliberately written in the old spelling of Bahasa Indonesia in this thesis because this seems to be the most common form still in use today, both inside and outside Indonesia, although I acknowledge that the newer form tempo dulu is also occasionally used. Dutch words have also changed in spelling over time; for example, what we call the Dutch East Indies in Australia was written as Nederlandsche Indië and is now written as Nederlands Indie.
The work of all translators is acknowledged in the text. In the case of Szilvia Cseh’s work, mostly her translation of Hungarian language
documents related to Gyula Szekfu does not appear in the text of the thesis but has been used as background and collaborative information. (Tamas Csizmadia has also provided additional advice in this regard.)
ON PUBLISHED THESIS MATERIAL
Parts of the thesis have been previously published/presented in the following manner:
Peer-reviewed journals (hardcopy & online versions) Pentecost K (2011) ‘Imagined Communities in Cyberspace’ in R Glibert
and B Stevens Social Alternatives: Shifting Cultures, Vol. 30: 2: 2011, University of the Sunshine Coast and University of Queensland, Australia (http://www.socialalternatives.com/)
University Conferences Pentecost K (6 -
7 August 2010) ‘Constructions of race – an enduring legacy in the twenty- first century?’ in EAS (Education, Arts, Social Sciences) Higher Degrees by Research Forum, University of South Australia, Magill campus
Pentecost K (22 - 24 November 2011) ‘Re-orienting oneself to Indonesia: a transcultural perspective on attitudes, identity and travel’ in CSAA Annual Conference: Cultural Reorientations and Comparative Colonialities, University of South Australia City West campus International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding, Adelaide, Australia (NB: Abstract in proceedings booklet, 59).
Pentecost K (19 October 20
12) ‘Personal Reflections on Relating the Exegesis and Creative Components of a Research Thesis’ in CIL (Communications, International Studies and Languages) School Series Seminar, University of South Australia, Magill campus
Online publications as an invited author Pentecost K (4 August 2010) ‘Selamat Jalan: A Family Story 1933 - 1949’ in
The Indo Project, http://www.theindoproject.org / site/.../selamat-jalan-a- family-story-1933-1949
Pentecost K (2 May 2011) ‘Rising from the Ashes’ in Indo Discovery Travel, http://www.indodiscovery.com/rising-from-the-ashes/
Pentecost K (6 May 2011) ‘Emotional Catharsis: My Visit to Kembang Kuning’ in Indo Discovery Travel, https://www.facebook.com /indodiscovery/posts/159422250788294
Pentecost K (6 July 2011) ‘Remittance man and resistance fighter’ in Inside Indonesia , http://www.insideindonesia.org /weekly-articles-104-apr-june- 2011/remittance-man-a...
Pentecost K (9 June 2013) ‘Imagined Communities in Cyberspace (Revised)’ in The Indo Project, http://www/ theindoproject.org /site/featured/imagined-communities-in-cyberspace
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would firstly like to thank my husband, the sculptor Geoff Bromilow, who listened while I read all the various versions of the dissertation to him aloud and who accompanied me on the trip to Indonesia. I am indebted to Tim O’Callaghan from Indo Discovery Travel for guiding us through Indonesia and taking us to places of special significance; in particular Kembang Kuning cemetery outside Surabaya. I wish to thank our guides, Joe and Anna in Java; Mādé and Gusti in Bali, for sharing their local knowledge with us.
I must thank all the van der Poel relatives (and friends) who contacted me via Facebook discussions sites and provided me with invaluable family documents and information; in particular, Arelene and Owen Langsmith (USA), Jeremy Smith (Australia), Johan van der Poel (South Africa), Eddy Fredericks (The Netherlands), Peter van der Poel (The Netherlands) and Annisa Anandatia (Indonesia). I also want to acknowledge the editor and compiler of The Defining Years of the Dutch East Indies, 1942- 1949: Survivor’s Accounts of Japanese Invasion and Enslavement of Europeans and the Revolution That Created Free Indonesia, Jan Krancher (1996), for having the foresight to collect family documents and to collate stories from survivors of the Japanese occupation.
I am indebted to Jess Pacella, Jody George and Rosie Roberts – the editors of ‘Shifting Cultures’, Social Alternatives, (Vol 2, No 30, 2011) – for including ‘Imagined Communities in Cyberspace’ in this well-known peer-reviewed magazine. This essay was a springboard for my work in Chapter 5: Issues of Identity and Diaspora and I was surprised to discover later that the article had been included on an Indonesian blog site Sejarah Indonesia: History of the East Indies with both the original title and the Indonesian tra nslation ‘Kisah orang2 Indo-ambon dulu dan sekarang’
(cpatriaw, 2013: 26/456) 6 .
I would especially like to thank Bianca Dias-Halpert from The Indo Project, for giving me the opportunity to publish one of my first stories about
6 This is not included in the list of published articles because of the unofficial process of the publication.
Bruno Berler, my grandfather and for her knowledgeable feedback on my writing. I would also like to thank Priscilla Kluge McMullen the subsequent Chairwoman of The Indo Project, for inviting me to be a regular contributor starting with a revised version of ‘Imagined Communities in Cyb erspace’. In addition, I want to thank the editors of
Inside Indonesia for the series ‘Jews in Indonesia’ and my opportunity to publish an article in that series. I would also like to acknowledge Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, whose work The Empire Project: The Unintended Consequences of Dutch Colonialism,
I discovered towards the end of my research and which confirmed the wider interest in the topic which I believe has been facilitated by the internet.
I am most thankful to Albert Gillissen who drew a conceptual diagram for me of the research process, which helped me to put my ‘journey’ into perspective. His personal memoir of his time in Indonesia was pleasurably useful to read. In addition, he gave me his time and friendship willingly and lovingly; I felt connected to the culture, events and places of my ancestors through our many informal conversations. I would like to thank Chris Raff for introducing me to Albert.
I am deeply indebted to my friend, the author Lolo Houbein, for many interesting conversations about the Dutch East Indies; also for her time spent translating the video clip of Bep Stenger from the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) website. Lolo’s critique and feedback on some of the minutiae of the thesis was also invaluable.
I would like to thank my translators: Albert Gillissen, Lolo Houbein and Szilvia Cseh for their knowledge and assistance. I want to thank the photographic restorers, Tamas Csizmadia and Bill Stevens for their attention to detail in bringing out the best from damaged documents and photographs.
I would like to thank the University of South Australia for granting me an Australian Postgraduate Award in order to undertake the research free of other work commitments. I would like to thank David Brittan, our former HDR administrator within the School of Communications, International Studies and Languages of the University of South Australia, who was inordinately cheerful and helpful; soothing the initial teething pains and confusion of a new PhD scholar. I would also like to thank Martina Nist and Julie White who are now in the school office.
I wish to thank Professor Claire Woods for her ‘groundwork’ as one of my teachers during my BA Honours course. Her Textual Cultures course was significant in terms of developing both my thinking and my writing style. Finally, I wish to thank my supervisors, Dr Paul Skrebels and Associate Professor Peter Bishop for their encouragement and critiques over the three (plus) years of the dissertation, and Dr Adrian Guthrie (now retired) for his profuse enthusiasm for my project.
I wish to acknowledge the emotional and psychological support that I received from my counsellor, Christine Jamieson, in the early stages of the thesis. Her professional insights helped me through my thesis journey –a journey that was all the more tricky for encompassing the personal realm of family stories.
I make my belated apologies to family members and friends for the lack of attention I sometimes paid them by necessitity of the workload over the past few years. I thank my adult children for their listening skills, support and intellectual engagement and hope that the information contained herein will give them a deeper understanding of their ancestors.
I wish to acknowledge the friendship of other PhD candidates who enriched my experiences at the university. I am especially thankful to Arianna Dagnino who read various drafts of the thesis and was generous with her time and intellectual energy. It was reassuring to know that others were experiencing similar highs and lows on the seemingly endless, often lonely journey which was the process of the PhD.
I thank Allan - my printer from Aspera Images in Aldgate - who gave me excellent and necessary layout advice along the way and during the final stages of print preparation, and the bookbinder Jim Harley of William Harley & Son of Thebarton, Adelaide. Both these men treat their customers with ‘old-fashioned’ quality personal service.
Finally, I need to thank my mother for telling me the stories of an often very traumatic period of her early life. Without those stories, this thesis would never have been written.
INTRODUCTION
We live our lives in the shadow of other people... Conversely, other people are shaped by our presence in their lives... Others become the metric by which we are measured... whether we embrace or reject what others would have us be, we cannot escape the formative influence they have upon us. (Small, 2009: 10)
Growing up in Australia (1950s – 1970s), I knew very little of the land of my maternal ancestors, previously called the Dutch East Indies or Netherlands Indies, now Indonesia. Nor did I know anything except what my mother had told us about a community of people whom scholars call
Indisch or Indische mensen 7 and who inside the diaspora may now refer to themselves as Indo.
Throughout childhood, our mother had told us many stories about the country of her birth but I had little historical knowledge with which to contextualise the people she referred to as Indische (never Indisch or Indo). What led me to begin seriously researching my maternal family history in 2009 was a serendipitous email from my youngest brother, who had discovered a hitherto unrevealed piece of information about our opa (grandfather) during World War II. This information came from the website of the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) and contradicted, in part, what our mother had told us about her father’s death. Challenged by the new information, my brother and I decided to see what else we could discover about our maternal family history, especially now that the internet could facilitate that research.
7 These terms could be translated as Indiers or Indies people; see further discussions in this introduction and later, in the body of the thesis.
Early on, we came in contact with another family historian living in the USA; she had information to offer us about our ancestors who had come from the Dutch-East Indies. The relatives in the USA are Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), with access to a vast genealogical database that houses most of the remaining personal records of families in the worldwide Indo diaspora. We began to realise that the family from which we were descended comprised an extensive network of Dutch, (some of whom could be traced back to a common ancestor in the Netherlands around 1600 CE), South African, Indos, (Dutch-Indonesians and/or people born in the Indies), Javanese and other people.
In addition to this first contact person, I also met other relatives who approached me once I had posted my ancestral name van der Poel (also written as van de Poel), on a Facebook group discussion site for Dutch-
Indonesians 8 . This is a loose definition which includes mostly people of mixed ethnicity but also those who could be referred to as echte Hollanders (real Dutch) from blijver (settler) families in the Indies. In reality, each family and the languages they spoke varied depending on the specific ethno-cultural composition of the particular family; for instance, some households spoke Malay at home, others Dutch as the first language. In
our family, my grandfather spoke seven languages 9 , my grandmother several 10 , my mother read in three 11 languages by the age of three years old, other family members spoke a different variety of languages and
8 This site had a name change to Old Dutch-Indonesian community in c.2012. 9 Bruno, my opa (grandfather) spoke three dialects of Indonesian, Dutch, German, Hungarian and
English.
10 Riki, my oma (grandmother) spoke Malay/Bahasa Indonesian, Javanese, Dutch and German, as far as I know.
11 Mum spoke and read Dutch, German and Bahasa Indonesian, though she never acknowledged the latter when we were growing up in Australia. She told us that her father had taught her to
read in three languages at a young age because he wanted to free up his own time from storytelling and encourage her to read for herself (Mater, pers comm. 1970s).