Prof. Dr. Marieke Bloembergen from KITLV/Leiden University was the speaker of the public lecture The Burden of Colonial Things: Alternative Knowledge Production, Indonesian Perspectives, and the Search for Enlightenment, on Thursday, 18 August 2022, at 10.00-12.00 WIB. This event was held by the Department of History UGM and was guided and moderated by Dr. Agus Suwignyo. This lecture is part of the jointly organized program from PPSI (The Society of Indonesian History Program), thus, attended by lecturers and students from 12 universities in Indonesia, they are Universitas Airlangga, Universitas Negeri Malang, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Universitas Halu Oleo, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Universitas Jember, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Universitas Andalas, Universitas Hasanuddin, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, dan Universitas Negeri Semarang. Students who had morning classes had to attend this public lecture instead.
The lecture delivered by Prof. Dr. Marieke tried to answer 3 essential questions: 1) why and how should we interpret the political aspect of the production of knowledge? 2) What is the role that objects play in this? 3) What will we yield if we focus not on collecting and accumulating sources, but to take distance and deconsume?
Prof. Dr. Marieke suggested that supposedly, researchers move beyond the colonial approach. The perspective that creates the dichotomy between “colonial” and “colonized”, as well as “colonial” and “local” is believed to reduce the complexity of reality. She gave 4 objects as an illustration of the complexity of historical reality and an alternative approach in research. These objects are a library owned by Suyono, the Theosophical dish, The Ashram and The Bhagavad Gita from Bali, and a Budha head in a trunk. From these objects, researchers can distance themselves from colonial perspectives, understand heritage, views and action of society, as well as how the colonial society works.
In the end, to move beyond colonial perspective, Prof. Dr. Marieke suggested an alternative approach. She argued that the use of alternative sources can provide stories that are not included in western perspectives. An example of this is by visiting alternative libraries, such as the library of Suyono, who was part of Theosophy, instead of just visiting the national archive. From that, we can find categorizations that are different from the ones done by the government and the colonizers. Finding certain people to interview and paying attention to the objects around us, such as food, is also suggested. With that, researchers can observe the power relations and reality that is more complex than the dichotomy of “colonial” and “colonized”, as well as “colonial” and “local”.
The recorded lecture can be accessed through this link.
Author: Venessa Theonia