Heritage Corner

Today, 4th September, the information centre of the Netherlands's World Heritage Sites (officially called World Heritage Podium) is open in Amsterdam, in the same building of the city archive, in the former headquarter of the Dutch Trade Company with three stunning statues of former Dutch Indies Governors on the top. The Netherlands has eight cultural world heritage and one natural heritage. These nine sites are introduced to the public in attractive and interactive ways. We could pull huge poster of each site. There are laptops on the floors where we can sit and browse more detail information. A lot of books in the boxes. There are tangible stuff to touch, too, like muds from the Wadden Sea (the natural world heritage site). Or if we are interested in learning the organization of the World Heritage Sites nomination from the Netherlands, we could find information here as well. I am impressed with this public education effort. But more important than that, I learn a lot fro...

If you happen to be in Medan, Surabaya or Jakarta at the weekends, you could see a group of Indonesians wear the Dutch-Indies army uniforms, planter’s white suits, nationalist’s red & white head band and many more figures from the colonial past. They have also various props such as bamboo weapons and old style bicycles that are called “sepeda onthel”. They will gather listening to stories about what happened in the past, convoy around the city by bikes and simply enjoying themselves in a colonial atmosphere. There are also historical tours without colonial costumes and old style bicycles. They visit places together and listen to historical facts about those places. These tours are organized by individuals who intend to spread historical concerns in a popular way, outside school classes and not merely about chronological years of events. This kind of tour attracts people from various backgrounds who do not mind to pay the tickets to listen to historical lessons. The phenomenon h...