Dutch center pays homage to East Indies
Dutch center pays homage to East Indies
By Carla Bianpoen
JAKARTA (JP): Erasmus Huis, the Dutch Cultural Center, was established on 27 March, 1970. Indonesia is the only country where the Dutch Government has a cultural center by this name.
Guided by the spirit of its namesake, the multinational Desiderius Erasmus, it has over the years become a place where cultural explorations and encounters could take place in an atmosphere of openness and friendship. In such an ambience, mutual understanding flourished to a significant level. It is not surprising that the programs offered in celebration of its 25th anniversary contained the same spirit.
One of the most striking examples is a re-interpretation of cinematographic pictures of the Dutch East Indies which were made in the period of 1912-1933. Vincent van Monnikkendam, the maker of the documentary Mother Dao the Turtlelike, says "I felt remorse when I found that the thousands of cinematographic pictures depicting the development in the Dutch East Indies did not even have one name of the herds of native workers".
Likening the process of colonial enterprise to the legend of creation on the island of Nias, west of Sumatera, van Monnikkendam reversed the Dutch promotional intention of the original films into a document which evokes a feeling for the native people of the Dutch East Indies, provoking questions concerning the administration in the Dutch East Indies. It has become a moving chronicle of intense suffering, a restrained cry from the oppressed.
The legend of Mother Dao the Turtlelike from Nias is about the creation of the world as the Nias people believe. It tells of a woman, Mother Dao, who created the world out of her body's grime which she had kneaded into a ball. Later she became pregnant, though without a man, and gave birth to a girl and a boy.
They were the first inhabitants of the good earth. Taking the legend for starters, van Monnikkendam does not only draw an analogy between the legend and the growth of the Dutch East Indies on the fertile soils of the archipelago, but he also makes a statement about his vision of social relations and relationships as well as equality of mankind.
Awarded the Prize of the Dutch Critic at the International Festival in Rotterdam this year, the NRC Handelsblad says it is "a downright masterpiece", the Filmkrant calls it "a poetic composition", while the NRC Handelsblad calls it a "disturbing document".
Looking at the film documentary entitled Mother Dao the Turtlelike, one is confronted with a sense of drama that lies behind the flourishing trade of the Dutch East Indies. Panoramas of impressionist landscapes open up, scenes of traditional cockfights, and cock-slaughter, parties with joy-making Europeans and self-conscious natives, huge bridges against a backdrop of growing industries, colonialists in immaculate white outfits shouting instructions, and haunting scenes of thousands of brown, half naked bodies of native people pushed and hurried to get the work done, and horrifying pictures of babies and toddlers, as well as young people in the prime of their lives, with faces deformed by chicken pox and leprosy.
Effect
The effect of distress is heightened by the sequence in the pictorial show, bringing forward the prevailing contrasts in society at that time.
The intensity of distress is augmented by adding to the originally silent films the sounds heard in the forests of Kalimantan or the wide seas surrounding the islands of this archipelago, in the ceremonies for the dead in the Toraja region of Sulawesi, or in everyday life all over the country. Lyrics sung in a monotonous, melancholic tone, are taken from several sources of both old and modern Indonesian poetry, as well as poetry made by van Monnikkendam himself. They tell of wonder, hurt feelings, and despair.
Cutting the pictures from 260,000 meters of nitrate film was no easy work. Even more complicated was to unravel these and put them into a projectable film. It did not dishearten van Monnikendam, rather it heightened the challenge. Contrary to film makers whose work did not contain any personal point of view, van Monnikkendam very clearly states what he thinks of the colonists' superior attitude.
Van Monnikkendam revealed he had never been in Indonesia, and had never had any relationship with the place either. But a catalog about films in the Dutch East Indies and West Indies triggered his interest at a Film Festival in the Netherlands in 1989. "Strange enough, virtually no one at that Film Festival paid any attention to the catalog", he said.
Many viewers have found the lyrics particularly enhancing to the film documentary. "The lyrics in monotonous tone are like spirituals of suffering", they say. Others found it disturbing to have Javanese tones as a background for Nias scenery. And again others found the film confusing, they did not understand the links. But some likened it to a contemporary piece of modern art. It may be incomprehensible, but keeps haunting you, they say.