Submerged histories: decolonial memory work in Indonesia

Multatuli, a Latin pseudonym meaning "I have suffered much," was the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker, a prominent Dutch author active in the mid-late 19th century. 

In 2018, the opening of Museum Multatuli in Banten, Indonesia was met with protest from students who declared it anti-nationalist to dedicate a museum in Indonesia to a Dutch man. What the students overlooked was that the museum celebrated the influence of Dekker’s famous 1860 satirical novel Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company and its damning critique of Dutch and local exploitation during the colonial era.  

The museum documents not only the book’s influence on prominent Indonesian thinkers, but also the anti-colonial spirit of the people of Banten. This focus led one commentator to describe it as Indonesia’s first anti-colonial museum. Such divergent views hint at the ambiguities that surround anti-colonial or decolonial memory work in Indonesia.  

In this year’s Kathleen Fitzpatrick Lecture in History, Professor Kate McGregor will discuss the Museum Multatuli and other examples of ‘submerged histories’ of Dutch colonialism: histories that are not immediately visible nor recognisable in nationalist representations of the past.

Professor Katharine (Kate) McGregor (FASSA) is an historian of Indonesia who has focused across her career on topics related to memory, activism, gender, identity and human rights. Her most recent book, Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory and Sexual Violence in Indonesia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), an outcome of her ARC Future Fellowship, won the 2024 NSW Premier’s Prize for General History. Kate is research lead and co-director with Ana Eclair of the Faculty of Arts History, Memory and Decolonial Futures Collective. She is currently working on an ARC funded Discovery Project called Submerged History: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands.  

A note on accessibility: The Forum Theatre utilises a hearing aid loop and is fully wheelchair accessible. To discuss specific accessibility requirements, please contact arts-engage@unimelb.edu.au