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Slavery in Groningen

Slavery in Groningen? I never thought about these things being connected before… When thinking about slavery, plantations in the Americas come to mind, or the trading and transporting of slaves by companies like the W.I.C. (Dutch West India Company). Little did I know about all the traces of the slave-trading past that can be found in the city centre of Groningen. And honestly, how could I have known? Walking towards the Groninger Museum on a day quite hot and sunny for the time of year, I thought to myself: “What traces of slavery even are there in Groningen? Not like I’ve even seen them around the city, and I’ve been living here for two years now.” Little did I know how much Groningen’s past is tainted by slavery. At the Groninger museum, together with my classmates, I met up with dr. Barbara Henkes . Dr. Henkes has done quite some research on slavery in Groningen and currently she is working on a similar project in Friesland. In 2016 she published, together with Margriet Fo
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Train track at de Punt: a heritage site?

Cultural heritage, heritage loss and heritage mediation are recurring topics in the study of Minorities & Multilingualism at the University of Groningen. A Minorities & Multilingualism student is interested in these topics and when in class the example of the Dutch train hijacking of 1977 came up, he was ready and eager to listen. He learned that, almost exactly 41 years ago, one of the most striking and infamous hostage crises in the Netherlands took place. On May 23, 1977, a train was hijacked close to Drentsche Aa river bridge at de Punt on the provincial border between Groningen and Drenthe, in the northeast of the Netherlands. This, together with a hostage taking at a school in Bovensmilde, was done by a group of Moluccan people as a cry for recognition to the Dutch government and people. Though it was an event of great importance for Dutch history and the location is of great symbolic value, the site is not seen as an official heritage site by the state. However, in rece
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Redbot, digital museums and the Web 2.0

Redbot, digital museums and the Web 2.0 In a world where individualisation is the name of the game, how do we still find that nostalgic sense of community? In ‘ye olden days’, ones world was confined to the borders of his village or the lineage of his family, whereas now there are a few Namibian people in Newfoundland, a few Somalians in Slovakia and perhaps even some Friulians in Finland. How do these people stay in touch with their history? The internet offers a great podium for this, with digital renditions of landmarks from your area of origin sometimes thousands of kilometers away, yet ‘reachable’ with a few mouse clicks. An example of the potential the internet has to offer regarding cultural heritage, is Redbot . This site functions as a hub for all Frisian digital heritage, with the name being a play on the legendary king Redbad , who led the Frisian people in their golden age. This pun is quite relevant, because the aim of the site is to spread Frisian culture, or at
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Dag van de Grunneger Toal: a minority language in the spotlight

Minority languages, who even cares about those anymore? Well, on the 17th of March at least 1300 people did, on the Dag van de Grunneger Toal at the Groninger Archieven (on a saturday, mind you!). This day aims to celebrate the language of the Dutch province of Groningen via lectures, a book market and music. The theme of this year was “The survival of Gronings”, and the lectures were centered around this theme. For us, however, the main priority was the task of interviewing other attendees, so unfortunately we could not attend all the interesting lectures that took place. In duos we set out with a tablet and a list of questions to gather data for a master student’s thesis, with the furtherance of science as a consolidation for missing talks of poet Jan Glas and musician Marlene Bakker among others. In addition, the small interviews were also displayed on a television at the day itself. Image 1. The bookmarket These interviews were centered around the language Gronings. Q
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Cultural vs. natural heritage

Nature and culture only differ three letters, but the approach we take to them differs quite a bit. In this blog post we will take a closer look at the history of the Wadden Sea as an example of natural heritage and compare it with the cultural heritage example, the Woudagemaal. These two sites form striking dyptich of examples of natural and cultural heritage in Fryslân and will demonstrate what the different approaches towards them are. The Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone on the coast of the North Sea, stretching from the northern part of the Netherlands all the way along the German coast into Denmark, totalling about 10.000km ² in area. The landscape is characterized by wetlands and tidal flats, which flood regularly. In June of 2009, the Wadden Sea area was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list . The area is very rich in wildlife and fostered for its biodiversity. Image 1. An overview of a small part of the Wadden Sea. According to Lowenthal (2005
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The commodification of Frisian culture and history - The Cultural Capital of Europe 2018

The fact/news that Leeuwarden is one of the two Cultural Capitals of Europe in 2018 has been hard to miss, especially so if you live in Fryslân. When such a large event is brought to a place, some justification is needed as to why thís city in particular is the right one for the event, and why thís particular event fits so perfectly into the local culture. The campaign that preceded Leeuwarden gaining the honor of the title of Cultural Capital has been a large and costly one, and such a PR campaign can give some interesting insights into the world of commercialization of cultural heritage and history. On the website of Cultural Capital Leeuwarden you can find statements such as “since the dawn of time, the people of Frisia had to work together to achieve their goals. Just look at the Middle Ages, when the Frisian Freedom accomplished that the Frisians did not serve under the rule of any lord. Or look at 1815, when the Netherlands became a kingdom, but with two official languages.” Or
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