Dutch Trading Post Heritage Network Symposium

This symposium was organized on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Dutch Trading Post Heritage Network (DTPHN), which was held in the Netherlands this year for the first time. The DTPHN is an international network of Asian public and private institutions that work with heritage related to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). This network aims to share knowledge and research on VOC heritage and to cooperate on historical research initiatives. The member institutions are based in India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.

The symposium introduced the members of the network and provided reflections on the heritage of the VOC era from their perspectives. Furthermore, the members discussed the role and importance of this heritage today. We focused on the historical connections that lie at the foundation of the network. Which insights does it provide for international cultural cooperation? And how could sharing knowledge across different contexts contribute to the restoration of international relations? These questions were addressed by the research presentations of the network members.  

Finally, all the participants had the opportunity to meet the network members in De Duif over drinks at the end of the programe.

The Dutch Trading Post Heritage Network Symposium is organised by DutchCulture, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the National Archives of the Netherlands and the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (KIEN).  

Location: De Duif, Prinsengracht 756 Amsterdam

Programme

13.00 Doors open
13.30 Introduction by Alicia Schrikker, Moderator
13.35 Welcome by Ian Yang, country advisor China, Japan, South-Korea, DutchCulture
13.40 Introduction: Dutch Trading Post Heritage Network by Remco Vrolijk, International Projects Coordinator at the Hirado Dutch Trading Post and Secretariat DTPHN
14.00 Introduction to De Duif and Adaptive-Reuse Architecture by Paul Morel, Stadsherstel
14.10 – 14.30 Break
14.30 – 14.55 The Fort Oranje of Ternate After 400 Years by Maulana Ibrahim, PhD
14.55 – 15.20 Reconstruction of the Lost Colonial Architecture in the Context of Heritage Tourism: A Feasibility Study of the Dutch Trading Post in Taiwan by Prof. Ping-Hsiang Hsu
15.20 – 15.30 Q&A moderated by Dr. Alicia Schrikker
15.30 – 15.45 Break
15.50 – 16.15 Usage of the Hirado Dutch Trading Post: an argument for reconstructed heritage by Yohei Ideguchi
16.15 – 16.40 Origins, realisation and future: the Baan Hollanda project, Ayutthaya by Raveedaon Montien, PhD
16.40 – 17.00 Q&A moderated by Alicia Schrikker and conclusion
17.00 – 18.00 Networking, poster session and drinks

Alicia Schrikker is senior lecturer in colonial and global history at Leiden University. She has published broadly on various aspects of the history of colonialism in Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. She currently leads two large research projects funded by NWO, on everyday colonialism in eighteenth century Sri Lanka and on the long-term history of Dutch colonial culture in Indonesia. Some of her work lies at the intersection of heritage and history such as her community history projects in Colombo (Towards a virtual history of Slave Island (Kompannavidiya)) as well as in her hometown in Leiden (Transvaal in Leiden - Things That Talk). Since October 2022 she is a member of the advisory committee on restitution of cultural heritage objects with a colonial background. Her recent publications include the edited volume (together with Nira Wickramasinghe) Being a slave, histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean (Leiden: LUP 2020) and in 2021 she published De Vlinders van Boven Digoel: verborgen verhalen over kolonialisme (Amsterda: Prometheus) with essays about unusual lives of ordinary people under colonialism in Indonesia.

Ian Yang works at DutchCulture as Advisor for cultural cooperation with China, Japan and South Korea. He has an educational background in Performance Studies and Film Studies. Being an art and cultural practitioner, Yang is genuinely fascinated about the charisma in creative and artistic expression. He believes (Eastern and Western) cultures are unique but also fluid. They are certainly communicable with one another and should be equally celebrated together. The history, culture, collective mindset and social patterns in East Asia are often so different thus inspiring to be an excellent reflection for us in the Netherlands and Europe.

Paul Morel earned his second bachelor's degree in civil engineering, after receiving the first one from the Sociology department at the University of Amsterdam, and pioneered in the field of re-use, conversion, and restoration of non-residential buildings. Paul currently works in a team responsible for the purchase, conversion, re-use, and restoration of all kinds of iconic and culturally valuable buildings in and around Amsterdam. He took part in various projects including the restoration and conversion of Pakhuis De Zwijger, shipyard ‘t Kromhout, and de Haarlemmerpoort.  

Besides, Paul gives lectures on assorted topics related to restoration and conversion. He was also involved the conversion of La Cathédrale du Sacre Coeur in Casablanca and managed to disseminate the Stadsherstel model of Amsterdam to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Suriname and Zanzibar.  

Remco Vrolijk has a background in Japanese language and contemporary society and Tourist Management. He worked for Hirado City Hall from 2007 – 2015 as Coordinator International Relations, where he contributed to the reconstruction of the Hirado Dutch Trading Post. At the moment he is renovating a listed heritage building in Hirado and serves as the Coordinator of Creative Residency Arita (artist in residence programme). Remco Vrolijk also serves as secretary of the Dutch Trading Post Heritage Network.  

Dr. Maulana Ibrahim is a cultural heritage expert and historic urban landscape specialist based on the island of Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia. He is also a founder of Ternate Heritage Society, a non-profit organisation for education and conservation of Ternate's historical, natural, and cultural landscape heritage.  

Ping-Hsiang Hsu is the managing director of the Cultural Association of Tainan City. He is also an associate professor at the Department of Tourism Management, Taiwan Shoufu University. He was in charge of the consultant project "feasibility analysis for the reconstruction of Taiwan's Dutch Trading Post in Taijiang National Park" in 2015. Since 2015, he has attended the DTPHN meetings as a representative of the Cultural Association of Tainan City. Ping-hsiang Hsu gained his PhD degree from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. In recent years he has been particularly involved in the reconstruction of Taiwan's Dutch Trading Post, tourism planning and development, and heritage tourism.  

Yohei Ideguchi is a curator specialised in Japanese Feudal History from the Edo Period and the history of foreign trade in Hirado. He has been working for the Matsura Historical Museum and Hirado Dutch Trading Post for about 9 years.

Raveedaon Montien, PhD is a museum planner. She has been working in the museum sector in Thailand and overseas for over 15 years. Her most recent project is a masterplan for the new parliament museum in Bangkok. Raveedoan has been involved in creating a historical information centre, Baan Hollanda, since 2010. At present she is working with the Netherlands Embassy Bangkok and Baan Hollanda on the BH digital Transformation Project.