UvA researchers open first exhibition on printing press Indonesia
Through inscribed palm leaves, colonial schoolbooks, and pamphlets, the Gordel van Papier or Belt of Paper exhibition tells the story of discrimination and Indonesia’s struggle for independence. On September 22nd, the exhibition - curated by UvA researchers - opened in The Hague. “In the printed matter you can hear the sounds of resistance and the desire for independence.”
“I have already noticed that not everyone knows what the Belt of Paper refers to,” says UvA professor of book studies Lisa Kuitert. It is Thursday afternoon and Kuitert is speaking before a packed room at Huis van het Boek in The Hague for the opening of the exhibition. Kuitert and her fellow doctoral student Eline Kortekaas put together the exhibition based on their research into book culture in Indonesia. “Gordel van Papier is a reference to Gordel van Smaragd (the Emerald Belt) - the nickname for the Dutch East Indies coined by the writer Multatuli because of the green view of the islands from the water.”
Kuitert says: “It just goes to show what the exhibition aims at: more knowledge about the history of the book and the history of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia in general.”
Sea of printed matter
Kuitert and Kortekaas want to close that knowledge gap with the information-dense exhibition in House of the Book. Text boards on bamboo poles guide the visitor through the sea of printed matter from the collections of the Allard Pierson, the Royal Library, and the Leiden University Libraries.
The exhibition is based on a book by Kuitert Met, A Printing Press Across the Ocean, the first book to provide an initial overview of the rise of the printing press in the former Dutch East Indies from 1816 to 1920. During this period, the printing press, which could print large quantities of texts and images, also entered the Dutch East Indies as a result of the colonial rule of the Netherlands. This had major consequences.
For through the mass production made possible by the printing press, texts in Indonesia could suddenly reach a much larger audience. PhD candidate Kortekaas describes the period thereafter until 1957, when Dutch publishing houses in Indonesia were nationalized. Her research is part of an NWO (the Dutch Research Council) project on the decolonization of Indonesian knowledge culture.
Painful and embarrassing
“We tried to prevent it from becoming a Dutch story,” Kortekaas says by phone after the opening. “The idea that the printing press would bring civilization I find very painful and embarrassing. That's why the exhibition opens with Indonesian book culture, such as handwritten ink on tree bark, bamboo, and palm leaf. “Indonesian book culture existed before the advent of the printing press and still exists today, and is now overlaid with a layer of colonial history.”
The introduction of printing therefore turned out differently than the Dutch intended. Kortekaas: “The Dutch were under the illusion that they had the printing press under control. They didn’t. It was more a matter that the Dutch brought in the printing press and everyone in the colony with an interest in printing took it up. It’s no coincidence that you see the currents of resistance and the desire for independence in printed matter.”
The exhibition also makes painfully clear how there was discrimination in that colonial history. For example, two different penal codes lie side by side: one for “Inlanders,” the other for “Europeans” of the Dutch East Indies. There is also the “Nederlandsch-Indisch Oorlogsspel”- a kind of game board of the Atjeh war for the Dutch family calendar. And then the textbooks for Indonesians with examples of the Dutch style of dress.
Indonesians themselves are reluctant to be reminded of that period of Dutch input, Kuitert said at the opening. When visiting an exhibition on book culture in an Indonesian library, the arrival of the printing press was almost completely omitted, Kuitert observed. “Though it turns out that’s not the whole story. The printing press did contribute to the struggle for independence.”
Does that suggest that without the printing press, Indonesia would not have gained independence until later? Kortekaas puts it in perspective: “That is a complex issue. But you have to remember that the independence movement was in it so early. Most of the people in Indonesia could not read, so that struggle was also waged through other means: stories, radio, and music. It wasn’t just the printing press.”
“Belt of paper. The Rise of the Printed Book in Indonesia” will be on view at Huis van het Boek in The Hague from September 22nd, 2023 to February 25th, 2024.
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