READ OUR COLONIAL INHERITANCE - POETRY & FILM SERIES
Poetry and film series Read Our Colonial Inheritance 2023 and 2024 editions now online. With artists, writers and storytellers Joshua Timisela, Manuwi C Tokai, Kevin Groen, Nisrine Mbarki, Zaïre Krieger, Dalilla Hermans, Chris Keulemans and Julia & Robinson Jouwe.
Read Our Colonial Inheritance invites poets, writers, and spoken word artists to create an artistic reflection inspired by a theme and an 'object' from the exhibition 'Our Colonial Inheritance' that resonate with their stories. The artists perform their work in an intimate setting around their chosen 'object' in the exhibition space. Beyond Walls co-facilitated, documented, and captured the process, including the intimate live performances, followed by talks afterward. Beyond Walls has transformed this into a series of poetic short films that echo the impact of our colonial inheritance and call upon colonial institutions to respond.
Read Our Colonial Inheritance is developed and produced by Beyond Walls, Het Wereldmuseum and Read My World.
In 2023/2024 the series was with artists Zaïre Krieger, Dalilla Hermans, Chris Keulemans, Julia & Robinson Jouwe. This series will be launched in December 2024 at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam.
Ancestors by Manuwi C. Tokai
Manuwi's art is deeply connected to the Kalinya Terewuyu Nation, to which she also belongs. As an artist, Manuwi focuses on care and healing.
Manuwi accepted our invitation to create an artistic intervention based on a chosen 'object' that resonated with her and her chosen theme, Ancestors. Together with people from her community in both the Netherlands and Suriname, she searched for the most urgent question that lived within this context.
Manuwi's process did not lead to an 'object' from the exhibition but to a baby stored in the Wereldmuseum depot for almost 100 years. The Kalinya Terewuyu Nation has a legend of a newborn baby boy who was taken away by colonists. Manuwi visits the baby in the depot and in her compelling performance “Dear ancestors, we miss you” she and her community share an important message.
Update 2024: Wereldmuseum Amsterdam and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW) are in conversation with the Indigenous community in Suriname and the Netherlands to appropriately provide a final resting place for the baby.
Credits Manuwi C Tokai:
Concept, production & edit:
Beyond Walls (Jeremy Flohr, Armando Ello, Suzanne Rastovac & Glenda Pattipeilohy)
In collaboration with:
Manuwi C Tokai
Stichting Kaikoesie
Aweroekana cultura
Rayen
Inge Pierre
Noah Jubithana
Hiwa Forest Lokono Land
Uriël Matahelumual
Dje-Rimo Holle
Belonging by Kevin Groen
What does 'home' mean when you are constantly seen as 'the other'? For his performance, Kevin drew inspiration from the theme 'belonging' and the video work of Bibi Fadlalla. His performance takes place at the installation made of felt by artist Gladys Paulus.
Kevin is a behavioural change expert and spoken word artist who doesn’t shy away from exploring the uncomfortable. As an adopted South Korean boy growing up in The Netherlands, ‘identity’ has always been a question throughout his life that only led to more questions, and it took years before he understood and learned to embrace the paradoxes of adoption. Today he uses his voice to help people feel more alive and confront audiences with prejudices and unconscious biases you didn’t even know you had.
Concept, production & edit:
Beyond Walls (Jeremy Flohr, Armando Ello, Suzanne Rastovac & Glenda Pattipeilohy)
Resilience by Joshua Timisela
How does it feel to be told at school that you're incapable? And how can you bounce back with the force of a cannon afterward? It's not a coincidence that theater maker, comedian, and storyteller Joshua Timisela chooses to center his performance around a VOC cannon from the exhibition.
Joshua Timisela is a theater maker, comedian and storyteller. Joshua uses art and humor to create spaces for conversation about our colonial past and Moluccan (hi)stories. Personal stories of resilience are central in his artistic reflections. With his energetic storytelling performances Joshua moves people to the core.
Credits Joshua Timisela:
Concept, production & edit:
Beyond Walls (Jeremy Flohr, Armando Ello, Suzanne Rastovac & Glenda Pattipeilohy)
In collaboration with:
Uriël Matahelumual
Language by Nisrine Mbarki
Why has Nisrine Mbarki always had mixed feelings about the museum? What clings to the stones of that monumental building? For her performance, Nisrine drew inspiration from the theme 'language' and delves into a map and the museum building as her chosen 'object'. However, her comprehensive poem ultimately explores a much larger story that transcends the exhibition.
Nisrine Mbarki (she/her), is an Amsterdam based multilingual versatile writer, poet, columnist and translator. She also works as a curator for different international literary festivals and is a member of several literary jury’s in The Netherlands. She writes poetry, theatre and short stories. In 2022 she published her poetry debut “Oeverloos” for which she was nominated for the C.Buddingh price, a price for the best debut of the year. As a literary translator she translates mainly poetry from Arabic and English into Dutch.
Concept, production & edit:
Beyond Walls (Jeremy Flohr, Armando Ello, Suzanne Rastovac & Glenda Pattipeilohy)
in collaboration with:
Joardi Meyer (camera)
Canan Marasligil (moderator after talks)
Stills from the moving performance of Joshua Timisela
For this poetry program & film series we invited Manuwi C Tokai to create an artistic intervention based on a chosen 'object' from the exhibition that resonated with her and her chosen theme Ancestors. Together with people from her community in both the Netherlands and Suriname, she searched for the most urgent question that lived within this context.
Manuwi's process did not lead to an 'object' from the exhibition. But to a Kalinya baby, allegedly stored in the museum depot for almost 100 years.
Together with her community including her ancestors, she shared her truth in the performance “Dear ancestors, we miss you”. The message of Manuwi and her community of the Kalinya Terewuyu Nation was and is clear. “Return the Human Remains of the Kalinya Terewuyu Nation Let Our Ancestors RIP.'“ As part of the performance they reclaimed the human remains of their ancestors and handed over a copy of their official claim to the Dutch state. Read their full statement here.
