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 recent times, an action group of the community of which members were involved in this hijack has proposed to turn this site into an official heritage site. The culturally-oriented student was intrigued by this story and it made him wonder what this place should look like as an official heritage site. He believed that the memory of this occurrence should not be lost and therefore made it his aim to come up with a heritagescape for this heritage site.

           

When for the course ‘Into the Local Laboratory: Cultural Heritage’ a trip was planned to the location where it all happened, the student saw an opportunity to come up with a heritagescape for the place where the train hijacking found place. All he needed was a bike, the stamina to cycle for at least two hours (or more…), and the knowledge of Garden’s article on the heritagescape. He took a look at the article and remembered what he had learned previously in the course about the heritagescape. According to Garden (2006), “a heritage site is made up of the tangible components which can be recognized by a set of three guiding principles, which are: boundaries, cohesion, and visibility”. With this new analytical approach to heritage sites, he had the means to describe and analyse the site of the train hijacking. He took his bicycle and with Garden’s article on the heritagescape fresh in his mind, he was ready to figure out what the place where the train hijack took place, would look like as an official heritage site.

After arriving at what he only could describe as a desolate and empty group of pastures, he walked along the path, if he could even call the overgrown dam-like structure that, towards the railway tracks. After a hike of about five minutes, he stood in front of the infamous piece of track where the hijack took place. To his surprise, there was nothing official to commemorate the hijack: no monument, no plaque, not even a fence to stop visitors from stepping on the tracks. Then, while scanning the site for any form of recognition of what happened at this site, a piece of graffiti caught his eye. “1970”, he saw written on one of the poles that support the overhead wire powering the trains. Only this small thing to remember such a big event in Dutch history.

The location of the train hijacking at de Punt, 1977

A bit distraught by the complete lack of recognition of the place of the hijack, the student cycled on to another important area for Moluccan heritage: the school in Bovensmilde. After a bike trip that took a little longer than anticipated, the student arrived slightly out of breath at what first seemed like a park. He saw a structure resembling a podium, some typical playground structures, and a mosaic. After some inspection, a man came walking towards him proclaiming to be one of the 105 children that were in the school. If the student wasn’t already out of breath from the biking, he certainly was after the stories of the man, who told not only about his experiences of PTSD, but also about forgiving and facing your problems.

Moreover, the man told about the mosaic, which the community of both Moluccans and victims created together. The text “wij willen samen leven” (we want to live together) is a great example of how a heritage site can be commemorated by the community. The student, still awestruck by the stories of the man, came to realize that this is also an option for the heritage site at de Punt. When the state simply does not want to create a monument, the community can do so. This not only helps the community cope with their past, but also encourages outsiders to remember.

The monument in Bovensmilde that commemorates the hijacking at the school in 1977

With this conclusion, the student cycled back to Groningen, and after a trip totalling 70 kilometers, he immediately took to his laptop to write his blogpost. Still in shock from the fact that such an important event in the Dutch history is hardly commemorated, but at the same time excited to share his ideas for a heritagescape at de Punt, he started writing.

The route he had walked towards the railway tracks, would also be the main route for the visitors. Alongside the journey, the story of the train hijacking would be told on signs. Starting with the arrival of the Moluccans in the Netherlands. Each couple of meters, a new part of the story would be revealed. Then, a couple of meters from the railway tracks to ensure safety, there would be pictures of the train hijacking. So the visitors can compare it to the today’s situation. The stories of the hostages and, if possible, the hijackers will be recorded, for the visitors to listen to. This is so they can imagine what it must have been like.

Authors: MMK, WvdV, EMvG, AE

Bibliography:

Garden, Mary-Catherine E. “The Heritagescape: Looking at Landscapes of the Past.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 12, no. 5 (2006): 394-411.