Dutch or Indonesian Heritage? Indonesian Propaganda against the Dutch
The Netherlands
Photo & Research: Bart Luttikhuis
This cartoon was drawn up by an anonymous artist during the Indonesian Revolution (1945-1949). It includes a note penned by a Dutch intelligence officer who took the poster down, saying: “If the people bite the Dutch hook, they will regret it all their lives”. This document, in which Indonesian and Dutch cultural heritage intersect, was brought to the Netherlands after Indonesian independence and is now part of a larger collection of confiscated intelligence documents in the Dutch National Archives.
The poster was made by Indonesians and forms part of the Indonesian cultural heritage. Nevertheless, the Dutch Intelligence service collected it and took it to the Netherlands. In the 1980s and 1990s, a great part of Indonesian heritage from the Dutch archives was returned to Indonesia. This item however, remained in the Netherlands.