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.