City heritage documents missing
City heritage documents missing
JAKARTA (JP): A senior observer of old Jakarta says that the
city museum and restoration agency must take responsibility for
the whereabouts of the bulk of her studies on city heritage.
Annegret Handojosoemarto, who for 21 years has been involved
in archeological excavations and translations of books on old
Jakarta, said many of her studies, handed over to the agency
years ago, have been reported missing.
"I'm very upset that the papers have not been handled
properly. The materials could be precious sources for researchers
on city heritage and for young people seeking stories of the
past," said the German-born widow of the late senior reporter for
Antara, J.A. Soejanarko Handojosoemarto.
Interviewed at her home in North Jakarta's Pluit area,
Annegret recalled that she and 13 colleagues conducted research
on historical buildings and sites between 1974 and 1995 at the
request of the city administration.
The projects included data collection at the Jakarta
Historical Museum in West Jakarta and the Maritime Museum in
North Jakarta and excavations of archeological sites in Tugu
area, Onrust Island and Cipir Island in North Jakarta.
Annegret, now 62, translated numerous books during her career.
She translated works by Dutch authors, such as clergyman Francois
Valentijn, who wrote six volumes on places in the archipelago
visited by VOC (former Dutch trading company) in the 17th
century, A. Blonk on Cornelis de Houtman, who led the first Dutch
voyage to Indonesia, and Nio Joe Lan on the early Chinese
community in Indonesia.
According to Annegret, she was informed by certain people that
copies of her studies were missing from the agency. They asked
her to help locate the material for use in their business.
The people were told that translations by Annegret are missing
and none of the agency's staff know of their whereabouts.
"I was so stupid that I did not keep copies of all the works
for myself," she said, showing the few copies she kept.
No one doubts that seeking data on city heritage is a
difficult task due to the lack of available material.
Scholars and researchers often have complained about this
problem. Some of them even have gone as far as the Netherlands,
France, Portugal and other countries to collect information.
When asked to comment on Annegret's remarks, head of the
agency's archeology and history division, Candrian Attahiyat
admitted the fact and lamented the lack of curiosity among the
agency's officials on the importance of such historical records.
"Sometimes data has not been well managed and has even
disappeared when officials in charge were transferred to other
posts.
Worst, those who replace them seem to have no curiosity about
such material," he said in a regretful voice.
Candrian suggested that numerous moves by the agency from one
office to another also lead to disappearance of material.
Annegret said that she was too emotional to consider the loss
of her works. "I worked very hard and as detailed as possible
translating the historical works," she said.
She cited one of her works about the Tugu area, where she
found an abundance of data from old inhabitants of Portuguese
descent, their traditional keroncong music, and an ancient
church.
"I had a complete set of notes of the materials which were
written in Malay, Dutch and Portuguese. It's so regrettable that
in the end all of them have disappeared," Annegret said.
In completing the work, Annegret and her colleagues had to
spend several nights and days on Onrust Island. They even had to
travel as far as Central Java to collect reliable data.
Unfortunately, Annegret, a former member of the Ganesha
society of foreign women focusing on heritage data collection,
said she had no accurate data on the precise number of books that
she had produced so far. (ind)