style="font-size:15px;"> A period of renewed contact with the southeast Moluccas was ushered in by governmental journeys of inspection. The aim was to establish Dutch authority more firmly on the islands and to bring the inhabitants Christianity and "civilisation." In the course of the 19th century views of social justice gradually started to play a role in the relationship between mother country and colony, but it would take until 1900 before the well-being of the natives would become important in Dutch policy under so-called "Ethical Politics."
The Dutch were received in divergent manners on the islands. During the first official journey in 1825 the Dutch authorities were welcomed in many places as the "Tuan Company" and were carried across the island in sedans. On Wetar, however, civil servants met savage and shy inhabitants and on Babar the islanders were even considered murderous and rapacious. The population of Damer had "lapsed into barbarism" and were barely able to support themselves.
On other islands the Dutch came into contact with the descendants of inhabitants who had been christianised in previous centuries and who could often read and write, revealing a thorough biblical knowledge. Bibles and prayer-books dating from the 18th century were found. On Leti they saw bridegrooms who wore 18th century Dutch military or civil clothes at church marriages. On Moa someone was encountered who was entirely clad in Dutch clothing, including a wig, triangular hat, skirt and high-heeled shoes with heavy silver buckles. The western clothing of the christian population contrasted strongly with the clothing of the "heathens," which consisted of nothing more man "a piece of tree bark." The islanders repeatedly requested the Dutch to provide a military occupational force and to appoint a religious instructor.18
Photographs 2.6. and 2.7. Traces of Banda's troubled past: old Portuguese dwellings and fort Belgica.
Missionaries
From 1825 onwards Dutch missionaries were active on the western islands of Maluku Tenggara. Persons like Heymering, Luyke, Bar and Dommers, sent out by the Dutch Missionary Society, stayed there under very dire circumstances, some of them with their families. They lived among the population. As a consequence of the bad climate and the very inadequate communication, they had to relinquish their work and in 1841 the mission on the southwestern islands was discontinued.
The reports of governmental journeys convey an increasing sympathy for the poor, remote districts. Preachers, who often travelled along with the government ships, also described the Southeast Moluccas as a problem region. Resident Riedel noted in 1886 that nothing was done to enhance the inhabitants' social and moral development.19 In short, firmer Dutch rule, good education and missionary attention was deemed necessary.
Slowly but surely missionary work on the western islands was started up again. After freedom of religion was decreed for the entire Kingdom in 1848, missions could develop activities in the region. During 1888-89 the first Roman Catholic Station of the Cross was established in Tual (Kei islands) in the east of Maluku Tenggara, where the Protestant mission had failed to do any work after its first attempt in the 17th century.20
The government saw the mission as an instrument for strengthening its power and calling a halt to the advance of Islam, which was considered damaging for Dutch authority. On the Kei and Aru islands Islam had been introduced by Islamic traders—Javanese, Macassar and Buginese—and more than four centuries later, in the second half of the 19th century it had a form footing there.21 Apart from the religious aspect, the influence of Islam on Kei is especially noticeable in the material culture (see Chapter V).
Art Collectors
During the second half of the 19th century numerous international scientific expeditions to Maluku Tenggara were undertaken, sometimes with the purpose of collecting ethnographica ordered by museums. The latter undertakings had varying success. Religious objects, especially, could not be collected without coming to blows. At times the owners did not wish to sell the desired objects "for even three hundred axes." On other occasions collecting was done by use of strong force to the great sorrow and pain of the owners.22
Younger Christians proved more obliging. They sold statues of ancestors and immediately afterwards carved new ones.23 Interest in collecting caused the population to produce statues especially for trade. As a travelling preacher noted, "This has even become an industry." 24
Objects other than the traditional religious ones, were gradually replaced by imported European articles, "factory work of the shabbiest kind, with which the European market inundates the East Indies". For this reason, travellers were encouraged to collect objects "full of originality" for as long as it remained possible, so that they could be kept in museums.25
Rigorous Pacification
Around the turn of the century the colonial government tightened its grip on Maluku Tenggara. Government, education and mission work were intensified in order to strengthen the local economy and to bring the inhabitants "civilisation" and the acceptance of Dutch authority. The outside world penetrated southeast Moluccan society in a myriad of forms, and fundamentally changed it.
In order to have more effective control of the population, the Dutch forced the inhabitants of the villages located higher up to move to the coast in the first decades of the 20th century. Due to many mutual wars, the southeast Moluccans traditionally built their villages on hilltops that were difficult to reach; with their thick ring-walls they formed true fortifications. Naturally the Dutch measures evoked protest. Subsequently, punitive expeditions were launched against unobliging villages by Dutch military functionaries, who were assisted by Ambonese. That harsh measures were taken can be read in the proud victory reports of the Dutch.26 After many violent confrontations, especially on Tanimbar, Maluku Tenggara was finally pacified in the 1920s. 27
Missionaries used no less rigorous methods. Ancestor worship was prohibited and the attempt was made to put an end to all its manifestations; songs, prayers and rituals for the ancestors were taboo and statues of ancestors were destroyed wherever possible. Inhabitants of the Babar islands related how they were forced to bring all their statues to the centre of the village. There the statues were burned, but not before the missionaries had appropriated the beautiful specimens in order to send those to national museums.
Curates in the service of the Indian Church, assisted by Ambonese religious instructors were stationed on all the islands. They executed their task under extremely difficult circumstances. Despite great efforts the results of their work were very meagre during the first years of this century. Traditional religion still retained many followers, especially among the older population.28
The missionaries' harsh line was not always championed by the Roman Catholic missionaries. They were usually more lenient in their approach towards ancestor worship. This attitude might well be explained by their own religious background, in which veneration of saints has an important place. It enabled the pastors to create a link between the traditional cult of the deceased and Christian feast days, such as the celebration of All Souls.29
From their first post in Maluku Tenggara on the Kei islands the missionaries expanded their field of work westwards to the Tanimbar islands. These two groups of islands, as well as the Aru islands remained, from the 1960s onwards, the mission's most important area of work. In 1921 the appointment of Mgr. Aerts at Langgur (Lesser Kei) marked the installation of the first bishop on the Moluccas.30 It was not until 1960 that the seat of the diocese was moved to the city of Ambon.
Second World War and Indonesian Independence
Upon the arrival of the Japanese
