Amsterdam MuseumGrachtengordel
Samangat! Moluccans in Amsterdam
This exhibition has ended.
Free outdoor exhibition of 16 portraits and interviews with Amsterdam Moluccans, marking 75 years since their arrival and four centuries of ties to the Moluccas.
Museum websiteMore in Amsterdam
On one of the tall columns at the Kop van Java, Chané stands with her aunt and cousin. "It feels strange, but I'm also very proud," she told AT5. The spot matters: 75 years ago the ships De Grote Beer and Asturias moored at the Javakade and landed about 1,900 Moluccan KNIL soldiers and their families.
Eva van Kesteren, herself Dutch-Moluccan, made 16 portraits of 31 Amsterdam Moluccans, each photographed in their own neighbourhood, in front of their house or at their church. The sitters range from 95 to 10. The series is built on "de wijk", the name Moluccan families gave the housing they were placed in after 1951, so you are walking through a new wijk made of portraits. Huib Akihary's interviews go back further: Esther Apituley's grandfather qualified as a doctor in Amsterdam in 1909.
It's free and outdoors, on the site of the future National Slavery Museum, until 21 October. The full interviews are on the Amsterdam Museum's website.
Look for
Chané's column
Look for the tall column where Chané appears with her aunt and her cousin, one of the family groups in the series.
The Apituley family portrait
Van Kesteren's family portrait goes with Esther Apituley's story of a grandfather who qualified as a doctor in Amsterdam in 1909, and a father who became an eye doctor in Amsterdam-Noord.
Vanessa "Nessie" Wattimena
She grew up in a Moluccan wijk, and her interview covers how her business NESSIE keeps Moluccan recipes and traditions going in Amsterdam.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want to get out of the rain: the portraits stand outdoors on the quay.
Also at Amsterdam Museum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Plantation along the Canal: Stories of People and PowerCourtesy of Museum Willet-Holthuysen
- The Land of Chocolate Sprinkles. Building a new world togetherCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- Chez Matisse - Masterpieces from Centre PompidouCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- Amsterdam MuseumJvhertum, Public domain
- Museum Willet-HolthuysenJane023 / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- H'ART MuseumFentener van Vlissingen, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)S Sepp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Foam Fotografiemuseum AmsterdamDqfn13 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL