Historian and heritage professional Wim Manuhutu explores the history of the Moluccas, an archipelago in eastern Indonesia that was at the heart of global spice trading for centuries. From pre-colonial trading networks to the establishment of the Dutch monopoly over cloves and nutmeg, he will examine the violence of colonial rule, including the Banda genocide of 1621, and its profound impact on the region.
He will also discuss the history of Moluccan soldiers recruited into the Dutch colonial army and their role in the conflicts surrounding the end of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. In 1951, more than 12,500 Moluccans – soldiers and their family members – arrived in the Netherlands, becoming one of the first communities from the former Dutch empire to settle in the colonial metropole.

Manuhutu will finally consider the connections that have developed across generations between Moluccan communities in the Netherlands, Oceania and, in particular, Melanesia, as reflected today in cultural and artistic practices.

Wim Manuhutu is a historian and heritage professional. Born in the Netherlands in 1959, he is part of the second generation of the Moluccan and Eurasian communities who migrated from Indonesia to the Netherlands. After serving as one of the directors of the Moluccan Museum in Utrecht, he worked as an independent curator and heritage consultant. Since 2019, he has been a part-time lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, teaching on colonialism, decolonisation and migration. Since 2026, he has been part of a research consortium investigating the history and afterlives of Dutch colonial slavery, focusing in particular on the Moluccas and Papua.

With Nancy Jouwe, cultural historian, curator and author; Magali Mélandri, Head of the Oceania–Insulinde Heritage Unit; and Stéphanie Xatart, art historian, co-curators of the exhibition Plumes from Paradise: Journeys of an Extraordinary Bird from New Guinea.

Conversation followed the next day by a screening in the cinema :