Old ties draw Dutch families back to Indonesia

Old ties draw Dutch families back to Indonesia

By Natasha Sky

JAKARTA (JP): It was love at first sight when young Ad de
Leeuw was introduced to the wild jungles of Indonesia in his
aunt's living room in Holland.

"I remember it was 1953 and the Dutch had just been kicked out
of the country. I would visit my aunt's house, and a man living
there would show me pictures of a boy jumping from a tree into a
river. I remember thinking that it looked like a great place to
live."

Ad was so captivated by his first impressions of Indonesia
that he applied for a job in computers and printing machinery in
Jakarta in 1977. Along with his wife, Simona, the two made
Jakarta their home for eight years.

They resumed the connection in late 1994, returning to a
vastly changed city.

Simona was struck by the increase in buildings on Jl. Sudirman
and Jl. Thamrin, from a meager 10 high-rises in the 1970s. But it
wasn't only Jakarta's physical appearance that had changed.

"People's behavior had changed and they were out shopping,
evidence of a growing middle-class," Simona said. "They were also
more aware of things going on in the world."

Sitting on the back porch of their house in South Jakarta
shrouded by ferns and soaking in the thick night air, Simona and
Ad are not reliving the memories alone. Twelve years ago as a
young Dutch child in Indonesia, Marike Stellinga lived next door
in a street that was closer to home than anywhere in the world.

Marike recently returned to Indonesia to complete her thesis
on developmental economics.

"It was a great time, very cozy even though we lived in a big
city," Marike remembered. "There were four houses in my street
where Dutch families lived and so many children of my age. I had
so much freedom, playing in the garden and of course there were
no traffic jams."

Teaching

Marike's family moved to Indonesia when she was nine years
old. Her father wanted a change from his small firm in Holland.
Her mother was initially daunted by the move so far away, but
both parents taught at the Dutch school in Slipi, West Jakarta.

It was three years of adventure and rich life experiences for
Marike. She remembers how her cook would sing silly songs to her
and her sister before bedtime, and the clubhouse across the
street where the children would traverse a sewerage drain as a
daily rite of passage.

Marike admitted she was initially disappointed on her
return.

"When I arrived in Singapore I recognized the smell and I
almost started crying. I remembered arriving in Indonesia on the
tarmac as a child, and it was so hot I couldn't breathe.

"But when I came back I was very disappointed, and at first I
couldn't remember anything and I kept asking myself, 'What am I
doing here?' It wasn't until I heard the mosque and I had a
shower that the smells and sounds started coming back to me."

Ad said every time he left the country he felt homesick but
the ties between the two countries mean he is never far removed
from Indonesia. Ad rejects suggestions that the connection
between the two countries is nothing more than a coincidence.

"It's logic, nothing special. People have got more money and
they're going back to their roots. At the same time, Indonesia is
becoming an attractive place to live," he said.

Prospects

Jim Schuurmans was also attracted to Indonesia's prospects
when he decided to set up a business here in June last year. But
Jim's connections extend beyond economic development and business
opportunities. Born in a small North Sulawesi village in 1942,
Jim was too young to remember many of the experiences of his
childhood. His Indonesian grandmother died before he was born and
his mother later returned to Holland. Since then Jim has returned
to Indonesia on numerous occasions, traveling with his wife Cyn
and their two children.

But his decision to live and work in Jakarta was not a direct
result of his connection with the past. "It is just a
coincidence, we knew more about the country due to its past and
present and through constant travels to Indonesia."

Jim was treated like family when he returned to his birthplace
in 1994. When one taxi driver discovered his ancestry, he lowered
the price from Rp 25,000 (US$10.20) to Rp 10,000.

The connections between Indonesia and Holland are strong in
many ways, according to Jim. The overlapping of cultures,
particularly in terms of food and language, is the most obvious
example.

"It's the little things, like words or the way people behave
that Dutch people do in the Netherlands without realizing the
connection, such as the word toko (shop) used in Holland.

"And Dutch families in Holland often eat Indonesian food -- or
something closely related to it -- twice a day, without thinking
anything of it."

But while evidence of Indonesian ties may still exist in
Holland, the colonial history here is rapidly disappearing. "It's
mainly things on the inside in their struggle for independence
that still exist such as customs, words and lifestyles while on
the outside it's all gone," Jim said.

"While the political relations between Indonesia and Holland
are not always optimal, the private relationship between the two
countries is excellent. It really is something special."

One of the Schuurmans' daughters, Laura, 22, has joined her
family in Jakarta. Growing up in Holland, Laura recalls her
grandmother's stories about the white sandy beaches and crystal
blue waters. But truth did not live up to reality when Laura
first came to Indonesia at the age of 12.

"I hated it at first because everything was so different from
what my grandmother had told me. And everyone was touching me and
calling me putih (white); I felt so different, like an alien."

Family ties

Audrey Giese-Koch's decision to come to Indonesia one and half
years ago might have been a coincidence, but her family ties made
it a connection.

"It was a coincidence, I was looking for international
experience and someone happened to suggest I teach English in
Indonesia," said Audrey, 30, who works for the English Education
Center.

Audrey's family history in Indonesia spans more than 100
years. Her father was born in Purwakarta, West Java, in 1928 and
grew up on a coffee plantation.

Her mother was born in Pare, East Java, in 1933 to Italian-
Dutch parents who worked as chemists in a sugar factory. Both
parents were imprisoned during World War II.

Audrey grew up surrounded by stories of a faraway place that
seemed wild and exciting. Their house was also a showcase for
their Indonesian heritage, with wayang puppets and leopard skins
decorating the walls.

"It was always very much part of my life and for a long time I
didn't realize it was part of my history, this ethnic group of
Dutch-Indonesians," Audrey said in referring to her Dutch-
Indonesian grandfather.

In 1954, her parents migrated from Holland to Canada. They
later moved to the U.S.

It was almost 50 years after her parents had left the country
that Audrey decided to come to Indonesia for the first time. The
experience has brought back many memories of her childhood.

"At first most of it didn't sink in, for a long time it had
only been a dream place and I carried pictures around in my head
that I thought I knew so much about.

"But when I arrived it was so overwhelming because there was
so much new stuff. I had decided to come here because of my
history, I wanted to learn how to speak Indonesian, learn about
the culture and see the places where my parents grew up although
they are nothing like Jakarta."

Audrey plans to stay in Indonesia for several more years and
would one day like to combine her heritage from Indonesia, the
Netherlands and the U.S.

"I've always felt pulled toward Indonesia, but it's not
nostalgia because I had never been here before," she said.