News and Info

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 was held on Tuesday 27 April.

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 possible to combine both positions and she has had to decide to end her work for us.

 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).

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.

In January 2009 Papua Heritage Foundation (PACE) began digitisation of its library. The first phase (books and documents from before 1950) is being realised with the subsidy from Metamorfoze. A subsidy application for the second phase (1950-1962) has been made as part of a  War Heritage Project with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Although rejected earlier this year, after a renewed application (in March 2009) funds were made available. PACE receives  €78.000 to digitise documents from the post-war period.

The monthly PACE (Papua Heritage Fund) meeting  known as ‘the Pig Salon’ is open to the wider community and on 11 October 2009 there was a presentation of the Oral History Project ‘Papuans in Diaspora’. An increasing number of Papuans really want their life stories to be passed on to future generations.  The Project has been sponsored by the Ministry of Health, Well-being and Sport (VWS) and 25 people were interviewed. Many of them lived through World War II events that occurred in Former Dutch New Guinea ( during the Japanese invasion). Thirty-one conversations were recorded, which amounts to a total of about seventy hours of interview time.

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.