4 - The Last Colonial Graveyard: Caring for the Material Remainders of Colonialism in Magelang

In this paper, we want to explore how Indonesian heritage activists seek to protect the remainders of a Dutch colonial graveyard against demolition. Situated in the city of Magelang (Central Java), an important military base in colonial times (see Harnawan 2022), this graveyard is the last local material remainder of colonialism after the city underwent massive development in the 1980s. Today, it holds symbolic value for Dutch heritage tourists and Indonesian activists alike, and is cared for by members of Indo-European families whose loved-ones are buried there. In order to raise awareness for the significance of what they consider to be an important site of heritage, activists hold regular public events in the graveyard, and thereby, participate in shaping narratives about colonial history. Drawing on scholarship that has engaged with processes of reinterpretation of urban vestiges of colonialism in Indonesia (see e.g. Sastramidjaja, 2014; see also Yapp, 2020; Colombijn, 2022), we want to scrutinize contemporary contestations over this graveyard as a material site, and at the same time explore practices of re-appropriation and care.

Co-Author 1
Olivia Killias, University of Zurich