Читать книгу Forgotten Islands of Indonesia - Nico De Jonge - Страница 12

Photograph 2.1. Ceremonial boats, belang, of Keiese village leaders. Each family monopolised certain flags and pennants flown on them.

As discussed in the introduction, the inhabitants of the remote islands of Maluku Tenggara lead a scanty and arduous existence. It is hard to imagine that this was once entirely different. In the past there were intensive trade contacts with islands within and outside the region, and Maluku Tenggara was even indirectly involved in world trade. Voyages played a dominant role in the culture of the region (see Part II).

With the arrival of the Dutch, this situation changed. The Dutch appeared as merchants and colonialists striving to monopolise trade and pacify the region. The inhabitants were robbed of their main trade contacts and income sources, and in the name of "civilisation" the Dutch set bounds to the Moluccans' traditional culture. It is ironic that the isolation of the "forgotten islands" nowadays, is to a great extent the result of the strong interference from outside during this period.

Lively Mutual Trade

There are no known written sources from the first and fifteenth centuries to provide direct information about the Southeast Moluccas. However, it can be inferred from other evidence that the islands maintained an intensive mutual barter trade during this period. The trade was extremely varied in character. Certain islands became well-known in the course of time for the special products they provided: the Kei islands for their boats, Kisar and Luang for their fabrics, Damer and other islands for their nutmeg, and the Aru islands for their birds of paradise and sea products, including mother-of-pearl and pearls.

Beside this, slaves were traded in the entire region. Inhabitants from the island of Kisar, for instance, traded very profitably in slaves and spices with the inhabitants of the surrounding islands. They also sailed to Timor and even to Malacca, where they traded their cargo for high profits. In 1643, when the sultan of the northern Moluccan island of Ternate heard about the great wealth of Kisar, he sent an invasion fleet to the island to capture many precious treasures.¹

The islands of Maluku Tenggara were also called at by traders from outside the region. From southern Sulawesi, Macassars and Buginese shipped elephants' tusks, gold ornaments, swords and textiles to various places on the eastern Molucccas, and bartered these for copra, shells, turtles and other sea and reef products. The islanders in the western part of Maluku Tenggara obtained gold from Timor, which subsequently found its way eastwards via barter trade. Many of these imported goods still play an important role as precious family heirlooms in southeastern Moluccan society.²

Photographs 2.2. and 2.3. For centuries the exotic birds of paradise were among the most important produce from the Aru islands. The feathers were used in headgear throughout the world.

Photograph 2.4. Ceremonial dance performance on the Babar islands, during which women wear basta around the upper parts of their bodies. The sarongs are locally made ikat cloths.

The Spice Trade

Besides this traffic, Maluku Tenggara was involved in world trade via the Banda islands (Central Moluccas), long an important trade centre. The southeastern Moluccans readily disposed of their boats and birds of paradise as well as their sea and agricultural products, mostly obtaining metals and textiles in return. Beginning at least as early as the 15th century, the brilliant bird of paradise feathers from Am were transported to Banda and thence, via an extensive trade network, to other parts of the Indonesian archipelago and more remote regions; they were used as plumes on head decorations by Turks, Arabs and Persians.³

Written sources indicate trade activity by the inhabitants of the Banda islands was already being carried on by the 15th century. However, trade in the Moluccas existed from about the beginning of our era, according to annals dating from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220). From these annals it appears that the Chinese were familiar with doves from the Moluccas.⁴ Cloves and nutmeg also found their way to the Roman Empire via Arab traders. ⁵ In later centuries, the spices were spread across large parts of the world by means of barter-trade through numerous intermediate stations. We may assume that the inhabitants of Maluku Tenggara must have come in touch with products that came in as barter for spices at an early stage.

The Banda islands were by far the most important staple market for spices. The inhabitants cultivated nutmeg and mace and obtained cloves from Ternate, and Tidore, as well as from some other small islands in the northern Moluccas. Later they also obtained these from Ambon and Seram.⁶ The Bandanese were entirely dependent on imports for their food supply due to the emphasis on intensive spice cultivation. The islands even had to import rice and sago.

Sago was shipped in to Banda from Seram and Irian Jaya, as well as from Kei and Aru in eastern Maluku Tenggara. The trading ships also contained slaves, reef products, dried parrots and birds of paradise as cargo. The people from Kei and Aru bartered their products for, among other things, textiles. These were brought to Banda by Javanese and Malayan traders from Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara and the Indian subcontinent, where they were exchanged, together with rice, for spices.⁷

Striking among the abundance of textiles that reached Maluku Tenggara up to the 19th century, are the so-called basta. These are very long cotton cloths, printed with mostly red and blue patterns. They can still be found, especially on the Babar islands, where they fulfil important economic and ceremonial functions.

Photograph 2.5. Detail of an India-motif basta, found on Sermata.

Not only new products, but also new ideas made their entry via trade. Thus Islam spread across the mid-and northern Moluccas from the 15th century onwards in the wake of the Javanese and Malayan seafarers. The inhabitants of Maluku Tenggara were also brought into contact with Islam during this period.⁸

The Arrival of the Europeans

The lucrative spice trade had also drawn the attention of the seafaring European nations. The Portuguese were the first to succeed in tracking the route to the "Spice Islands." In 1512 they arrived on the Banda islands, and began to trade textiles from India and other Asian countries for spices, thus reducing Javanese and Malayan commerce.⁹ They monopolised the spice trade during most of the 16th century.

Portuguese influence on Maluku Tenggara was fairly superficial. On the western island of Kisar and the eastern Aru islands they built fortifications, but other evidences of a lengthy stay, such as the Roman Catholic churches found elsewhere, can not be found on Maluku Tenggara. However, traces of their language have continued to exist in Moluccan Malay, which is also the lingua franca of the southeastern Moluccas.

The United East India Company

Apart from the Portuguese, the French, the English and the Dutch tried to acquire the monopoly for spices. In order to coordinate the trade in the East, the Dutch founded the United East India Company. Profiting from the declining power of the Portuguese in the Moluccas, the Dutch succeeded in beating the competition after years of harsh battle. In 1605 they captured the Portuguese stronghold on Ambon and in the course of the 17th century all the Moluccas were brought under Dutch authority.

The United East India Company, and notably the ruthless governor-general Jan Pietersz. Coen, put a violent stamp on the monopolisation of the spice trade. By regulating the production of spices at the source, the supply was kept low and the price high. Contracts were concluded—forced or unforced—with local chieftains, who had to guarantee exclusive delivery to the Dutch. Breach of contract meant severe punishments. Thus in 1621 almost the entire population of the nutmeg and mace producing Banda islands, as many as 15,000 people, were murdered or chased away.

The measure to concentrate the cultivation of spice on only a few of the islands had far-reaching consequences too. At other locations the nutmeg and clove trees were destroyed as much as possible. Military expeditions had the assignment of destroying illegally planted trees. For the local population hunger and misery were the result.

Disruption of the Local Economy

The Dutch appeared in Maluku Teriggara at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1605-06 they reached the eastern islands of Kei and Aru, and not much later the islands more to the west. Contracts were concluded with the inhabitants, in which the sovereignty and monopoly of the United East India Company were acknowledged. The islanders were only allowed to trade with the Bandanese—in slaves who could be employed on the nutmeg plantations of Banda, among other things. On several islands an occupational force was stationed, usually consisting of "a corporal and two private soldiers."¹⁰ Furthermore, schools and churches were erected and Protestant Christianity was preached on the islands. ¹¹

In 1668, Fort Vollenhove was built on Kisar to protect against attacks by the Portuguese who were quartered on Timor. A small European garrison supervised the observance of the trade monopoly. When the military occupation was abolished almost 150 years later, the garrison's Dutch soldiers and their families remained on the island. Mestizos, the descendants of Dutch soldiers and Kisarese women, have Dutch names and physical features such as blond hair and blue eyes.¹²

Strongholds were also built on the important trade centre of Aru and on Damer to protect the spice monopoly. In order to concentrate the nutmeg trade on Banda permanently, nutmeg cultivation was terminated on the whole of Maluku Tenggara from 1648 onwards. On Kei, Damer, Moa, Teun, Nila and Serua tens of thousands of nutmeg trees were destroyed, despite heavy protests by the population. Nutmeg had always been an important means of barter in local trade. Kisarese for example had a flourishing barter trade in slaves, mostly originating from Timor, with the inhabitants of these nutmeg producing islands.

Counter measures by the affected islanders soon made themselves felt From 1666 onwards, for example, the population of Damer repeatedly stormed the Dutch fortification. Yet to no avail. In the first decade of the 18th century the Damerese—presented by the Dutch as the prototype of "those stubbornheaded island peoples"¹³ —were permanently defeated. After the extirpations, the islanders, especially those of the small islands of Teun, Nila and Serua, led a miserable existence. They had been deprived of their main source of barter and they dared not plant any trees out of fear of a new confrontation with the Dutch. ¹⁴

Around the end of the 17th century the Dutch took more measures to monopolise trade. From 1692 the inhabitants of Maluku Tenggara were prohibited from trading with the Bandanese and other "strangers." This meant the end of the age-old, intensive trading in the region. As a result of this the southeastern Moluccans were also devoid of many import goods that were of great importance in mutual barter trading. The population resisted once more, notably on Aru, but again unsuccessfully.

However, Dutch measures did not prove water-tight and there was illicit trade via the old channels. Moreover the Dutch themselves became aware of the disadvantages of their merciless politics. On Banda there was a shortage of foodstuffs after the supply of sago by the Keiese and Aruese had been prohibited and food from elsewhere was considered too expensive.

Therefore the United East India Company encouraged Christianity on the islands of Kei and Aru at the end of the 17th century, after the termination of the extirpation politics, hoping to create peace and quiet and to "civilise" the population. Under such conditions, it was hoped, they could be persuaded to start trading again with the Bandanese. In 1705 the 1692 trading ban was lifted.¹⁵

Nevertheless the trade between the southeastern Moluccans and the Bandanese ceased once more around the middle of the 18th century. Macassars and Buginese from South Sulawesi came to trade, especially in the eastern part of Maluku Tenggara. An attempt of the United East India Company to prevent this trade led to new revolts. Resistance was especially heavy on Aru. In 1787 the Dutch stronghold was attacked and the occupational force murdered, and in 1794 even the Keeper of the Post, the local Dutch representative, was killed. In that same year the Aru archipelago was abandoned by the Dutch "because it was a real nuisance": it was becoming too expensive.¹⁶

During this period the entire Dutch position on the Moluccas weakened. Wars, corruption and mismanagement sapped the United East India Company. Furthermore, the clove monopoly of the Company was affected due to the fact that cloves were now also cultivated elsewhere in the world. By the end of the 18th century the English succeeded in driving out the Dutch from the Moluccas. In 1795 they occupied Ambon and a year later they were in possession of Aru.

From Merchants to Colonists

After two periods of intermediary rule by the English, the Dutch returned to the Moluccas in 1817. In 1789 the bankrupt United East India Company had been taken over by the Batavian Republic, so that it was now the Dutch State which ruled over the islands. The Dutch freed trade within the Moluccas and formally opened the region for Macassar and Buginese traders in 1827. In 1853-54 Banda and Ambon, among others, were declared free ports. During the second half of the 19th century the economy of the Banda islands flourished once again, enabling trade with the southeast Moluccas to start up again and Macassar ships to call at these islands.¹⁷

A period of renewed contact with the southeast Moluccas was ushered in by governmental journeys of inspection. The aim was to establish Dutch authority more firmly on the islands and to bring the inhabitants Christianity and "civilisation." In the course of the 19th century views of social justice gradually started to play a role in the relationship between mother country and colony, but it would take until 1900 before the well-being of the natives would become important in Dutch policy under so-called "Ethical Politics."

The Dutch were received in divergent manners on the islands. During the first official journey in 1825 the Dutch authorities were welcomed in many places as the "Tuan Company" and were carried across the island in sedans. On Wetar, however, civil servants met savage and shy inhabitants and on Babar the islanders were even considered murderous and rapacious. The population of Damer had "lapsed into barbarism" and were barely able to support themselves.

On other islands the Dutch came into contact with the descendants of inhabitants who had been christianised in previous centuries and who could often read and write, revealing a thorough biblical knowledge. Bibles and prayer-books dating from the 18th century were found. On Leti they saw bridegrooms who wore 18th century Dutch military or civil clothes at church marriages. On Moa someone was encountered who was entirely clad in Dutch clothing, including a wig, triangular hat, skirt and high-heeled shoes with heavy silver buckles. The western clothing of the christian population contrasted strongly with the clothing of the "heathens," which consisted of nothing more man "a piece of tree bark." The islanders repeatedly requested the Dutch to provide a military occupational force and to appoint a religious instructor.¹⁸

Photographs 2.6. and 2.7. Traces of Banda's troubled past: old Portuguese dwellings and fort Belgica.

Missionaries

From 1825 onwards Dutch missionaries were active on the western islands of Maluku Tenggara. Persons like Heymering, Luyke, Bar and Dommers, sent out by the Dutch Missionary Society, stayed there under very dire circumstances, some of them with their families. They lived among the population. As a consequence of the bad climate and the very inadequate communication, they had to relinquish their work and in 1841 the mission on the southwestern islands was discontinued.

The reports of governmental journeys convey an increasing sympathy for the poor, remote districts. Preachers, who often travelled along with the government ships, also described the Southeast Moluccas as a problem region. Resident Riedel noted in 1886 that nothing was done to enhance the inhabitants' social and moral development.¹⁹ In short, firmer Dutch rule, good education and missionary attention was deemed necessary.

Slowly but surely missionary work on the western islands was started up again. After freedom of religion was decreed for the entire Kingdom in 1848, missions could develop activities in the region. During 1888-89 the first Roman Catholic Station of the Cross was established in Tual (Kei islands) in the east of Maluku Tenggara, where the Protestant mission had failed to do any work after its first attempt in the 17th century.²⁰

The government saw the mission as an instrument for strengthening its power and calling a halt to the advance of Islam, which was considered damaging for Dutch authority. On the Kei and Aru islands Islam had been introduced by Islamic traders—Javanese, Macassar and Buginese—and more than four centuries later, in the second half of the 19th century it had a form footing there.²¹ Apart from the religious aspect, the influence of Islam on Kei is especially noticeable in the material culture (see Chapter V).

Art Collectors

During the second half of the 19th century numerous international scientific expeditions to Maluku Tenggara were undertaken, sometimes with the purpose of collecting ethnographica ordered by museums. The latter undertakings had varying success. Religious objects, especially, could not be collected without coming to blows. At times the owners did not wish to sell the desired objects "for even three hundred axes." On other occasions collecting was done by use of strong force to the great sorrow and pain of the owners.²²

Younger Christians proved more obliging. They sold statues of ancestors and immediately afterwards carved new ones.²³ Interest in collecting caused the population to produce statues especially for trade. As a travelling preacher noted, "This has even become an industry." ²⁴

Objects other than the traditional religious ones, were gradually replaced by imported European articles, "factory work of the shabbiest kind, with which the European market inundates the East Indies". For this reason, travellers were encouraged to collect objects "full of originality" for as long as it remained possible, so that they could be kept in museums.²⁵

Rigorous Pacification

Around the turn of the century the colonial government tightened its grip on Maluku Tenggara. Government, education and mission work were intensified in order to strengthen the local economy and to bring the inhabitants "civilisation" and the acceptance of Dutch authority. The outside world penetrated southeast Moluccan society in a myriad of forms, and fundamentally changed it.

In order to have more effective control of the population, the Dutch forced the inhabitants of the villages located higher up to move to the coast in the first decades of the 20th century. Due to many mutual wars, the southeast Moluccans traditionally built their villages on hilltops that were difficult to reach; with their thick ring-walls they formed true fortifications. Naturally the Dutch measures evoked protest. Subsequently, punitive expeditions were launched against unobliging villages by Dutch military functionaries, who were assisted by Ambonese. That harsh measures were taken can be read in the proud victory reports of the Dutch.²⁶ After many violent confrontations, especially on Tanimbar, Maluku Tenggara was finally pacified in the 1920s. ²⁷

Missionaries used no less rigorous methods. Ancestor worship was prohibited and the attempt was made to put an end to all its manifestations; songs, prayers and rituals for the ancestors were taboo and statues of ancestors were destroyed wherever possible. Inhabitants of the Babar islands related how they were forced to bring all their statues to the centre of the village. There the statues were burned, but not before the missionaries had appropriated the beautiful specimens in order to send those to national museums.

Curates in the service of the Indian Church, assisted by Ambonese religious instructors were stationed on all the islands. They executed their task under extremely difficult circumstances. Despite great efforts the results of their work were very meagre during the first years of this century. Traditional religion still retained many followers, especially among the older population.²⁸

The missionaries' harsh line was not always championed by the Roman Catholic missionaries. They were usually more lenient in their approach towards ancestor worship. This attitude might well be explained by their own religious background, in which veneration of saints has an important place. It enabled the pastors to create a link between the traditional cult of the deceased and Christian feast days, such as the celebration of All Souls.²⁹

From their first post in Maluku Tenggara on the Kei islands the missionaries expanded their field of work westwards to the Tanimbar islands. These two groups of islands, as well as the Aru islands remained, from the 1960s onwards, the mission's most important area of work. In 1921 the appointment of Mgr. Aerts at Langgur (Lesser Kei) marked the installation of the first bishop on the Moluccas.³⁰ It was not until 1960 that the seat of the diocese was moved to the city of Ambon.

Second World War and Indonesian Independence

Upon the arrival of the Japanese military forces in 1942 Maluku Tenggara became involved in the Second World War. Until 1945 the Japanese controlled the region, of which the eastern islands were of great strategic significance due to their location with respect to Australia. Especially on the Babar and Kei islands, the Japanese presence caused deep wounds which have not been healed to this day.³¹

After the proclamation of Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945 and the final Dutch recognition of this independence in 1949, an arduous process of decolonisation and of reconstruction began. Ambon's separatist strife, resulting in the declaration of the Republic of the South Moluccas (Republic Maluku Selatan) in 1950, was not supported by the population of Maluku Tenggara. The southeast Moluccans preferred a situation in which the dominance of Ambon would be "diluted" into a broader political unity.³² That broader unity arrived: the Moluccas form one of the provinces of the Republic of Indonesia and have been governed since 1966 by President Suharto's administration of the Orde Baru, the "New Order."

After three centuries of Dutch domination, Maluku Tenggara has been pacified and—according to Dutch standards—civilised: peace, education and Christian religion have been made common property, albeit under economic circumstances that reveal little perspective. During this process the population was deprived of an important part of its cultural treasures. However, cultural patterns are difficult to erase and some have endured, though in forms other than previously, as will be seen in the next chapters.

Photographs 2.8 and 2.9. In 1507 a punitive expedition was launched against the village of Wakpapapi on Babar. Afterwards the Dutch government official Schadée (centre) stood with his adversaries near the scaling ladder that was used. The village was captured via a staircase at the back. During the action a part of the wall, about two metres high, was broken away.