Indonesia: cooperation Kereta Api Indonesia and National Archives of the Netherlands

Railway heritage in Indonesia

PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) is the modern day heir of a long line of successive state railway companies dating back to the second half of the nineteenth century, when the country was under Dutch colonial rule. After Indonesia gained independence all railways were nationalised and organised under KAI. Therefore KAI is the owner of Indonesia’s railway related heritage, like a number of colonial buildings built by Dutch architects and engineers and the archives and technical drawings associated with them. NAN possesses archives from private railway companies in the former Dutch East Indies and therefore the archival collections of KAI and NAN are complementary.

Shared heritage, shared approach

The focus of the cooperation between KAI and NAN will be on capacity building in archival management and increasing the accessibility of KAI’s vast archival collection (through digitization). Together the two institutions are committed to preserving and presenting the archival collections concerning the shared (railway) history of both countries.