A Touch of Dutch

The book by Professor Nonja Peters covers 400 years of wonderful stories connected to or by Dutch, Aborigines or Dutch- Australians relating to the combined maritime, military and migration history of the Netherlands and Australia.

Dr Peters also talked about the Exhibition "Descendants of the VOC" which is a photo essay curated by her and Geert Snoeijer, a photographer from the Netherlands. It began as a venture to gain a clear understanding of the far-reaching impact on indigenous peoples in Western Australia, Indonesia and South Africa, of the Dutch East India Companys (VOC) incursion into the Indian Ocean region during the Age of Exploration from the end of the 16th Century.

Source: Geert Snoeijers WA Museum

It explores the theory that 17th Century Dutch sailors went ashore (either intentionally or as survivors of shipwrecks) in Western Australia, Indonesia and South Africa, co-habited with the local population and produced offspring. In some cases these descendants bear physical features which are typically Dutch, in other cases their oral histories include stories of white survivors of a Tall Ship shipwrecked on the cliffs.The exhibition features beautifully-shot portraits of people in these three regions who claim Dutch heritage, along with some of the stories which have been passed on from generation to generation. There's a lot more information about the project on his Geert Snoeijers website Dutch Diaspora . . The exhibition runs to 26 February.