News and Info

 The Web portal ‘Dutch East indies at War’ was officially launched on Monday, 17 May 2010 It was presented during its official  celebration at Felix Meritis (European Centre for Arts, Culture and Science) on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. The portal ‘Dutch East Indies at War’ is an information port folio put together by various heritage institutions on World War II and its aftermath in the former Dutch colony. One of the partners of this project is PACE (Papua heritage Foundation).

The Dutch anthropologist Jan Pouwer, who was terminally for some time, died at his home in Zwolle on 21 April 2010.  He had a lifelong involvement with New Guinea and published two books and many articles on individual tribes such as the Kamoro, Asmat and people of the  central and eastern Bird’s Head area.  His last book, ‘Gender, Ritual and Social Formation in West-Papua’, came out in February of this year. In this work, he incorporates  previously unused material from  his  fieldwork and with a critical appraisal of his own approach and that of others ,  including the well known Karl Marx and  Claude Levi-Straus , as well as more recent social scientists such as Bruce Knauft and Tod Harper.   Pouwer compares the culture of the Kamora (18.000 people) with that of the Asmat (40.000 people) on the south west coast of the island.  His analysis illustrates how major differences in lifestyle came about despite huge similarities in their respective ritual acts and myths.  The cremation service is to be held on Tuesday 27 April.

De Nederlandse antropoloog Jan Pouwer is op 21 april op 85-jarige leeftijd na een ziekbed in zijn woonplaats Zwolle overleden. Hij was zijn leven lang verbonden met Nieuw-Guinea en schreef een tweetal boeken en vele artikelen over met name de Kamoro. Zeer recent kwam zijn laatste boek  ‘Gender, Ritual and Social Formation in West-Papua’ uit. Hierin werkt hij niet eerder gebruikt veldwerkmateriaal uit, maar houdt zijn eigen werk ook kritisch tegen het licht van recenter werk van anderen.

On Saturday, 7 November 2009, Ineke de Vries passed away. Ineke was one of the most prominent founders of PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation). Ineke had a passionate interest in Papua and an enormous commitment to the Papuans and their culture. Because of this passion, she became involved with setting up PACE right from the very beginning. In 1999, when the Dutch Association for Pacific Studies (NVOS) expressed their concern about the future of the Dutch heritage collections from Papua, Ineke de Vries was immediately willing to join in to come up with some strategies.It was largely her commitment that ensured that the initiatives were not only limited to maintaining the Dutch collection, but that it included making it accessible to Papua.

Nancy Jouwe - much to our regret – decided to leave PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation) as from the start of April 2010. In the past year, the work load as the director of Kosmopolis Utrecht increased and was taking up more and more of her time. Unfortunately, it is no longer impossible to combine both positions and she has had to decide to finish up working for us.

On Saturday afternoon,  August 15, 2009, the day the Japanese capitulation is commemorated, State Secretary Jet Bussemaker was informed about the state of affairs, the realisation and the location of the web portal ‘Indië in Oorlog’ (The East Indies at war). This portal combines information about World War II in the Dutch East Indies from various heritage institutions and will be managed by Indisch Herinneringscentrum (East Indies Memorial Centre) Bronbeek.

Recently, a new category is to be found on the website of PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation): PACE TV and it is part of YouTube. On PACE TV, short films can be seen that have a relation with PACE and/or West  Papua, former Dutch New Guinea. So far films have been inserted, such as those made by the Dutch photographer/filmer Wim van Oijen in Papua.

On January 31, 2010 Viktor Kaisiëpo passed away at the age of 61 in his hometown Amersfoort. He had been seriously ill for some time. This Papuan rights activist will be sorely missed by many. PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation) has worked with him on a number of occasions and is truly thankful for his input. Viktor initiated and set up a framework for  Papua Pride Day held on 28 November 2009, gave us advice and was a speaker at PACE meetings.

From August 29, 2009 an exhibition about Papua has been organised on Saturdays and Sundays in the Dutch Reformed Church in the Frisian village Goënga,  about three kilometers from Sneek. PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation) and HAPIN (Papua Aid Orgnisation) have provided the actual content of the exhibition. Besides the exhibition about Papua, there is a ‘statues tour’ showing the work of contemporary Frisian artists.

On 6 May 2009,Cineblend held a panel discussion about the use of images and sound as a form of cultural heritage, with the collection of PACE (Papua Heritage Foundation) as its main focus. Cineblend, the monthly evening meeting by SAVAN (Foundation Audio-visual Anthropology Netherlands), is organised in collaboration with PACE and the Association of Beeld en Geluid (Image and Sound).