De repatriatie van de Nusantara collectie. Hoe een teruggave van koloniaal erfgoed de belangen van Nederland kan dienen.

Abstract

Following current research on heritage diplomacy and cultural policy, this thesis focusses on the tension between the internal and external uses of heritage within the Dutch government. Using a critical discourse analysis, Dutch cultural policy, the Heritage Act of 2016 and the LAMO (the Dutch regulation for deaccessioning of museum objects) will be critically investigated in the repatriation of the Nusantara collection between 2012-2018. Besides this, I will investigate the history of return of cultural objects in the Netherlands. In this thesis repatriation is understood as the return of cultural objects as an act of reconciliation or atonement. I will argue that this is not the case in the return of the Nusantara collection. I will show how the Netherlands have institutionalized a cultural nationalistic discourse of heritage in their Heritage Act and regulation regarding deaccessioning cultural objects. Consequently, in case of a return, the collection needs to be tested if it worthy of national protection. This means that objects arguably meant to be returned to Indonesia, by law had to stay in the Netherlands. At the same time (shared) heritage was used in the area of cultural diplomacy. This means that the Dutch government used heritage to promote their economic relationship with Indonesia. The return of cultural heritage was not about the stated atonement, but about improving the Dutch economic relationship with Indonesia. This way, I expose the cultural impact of existing asymmetrical relations of power between the Netherlands and its former colony Indonesia in the uses of shared heritage.