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.