A historical perspective on life in colonial Indonesia based on family accounts.
As the Dutch and European populations in Java grew it became clear that certain fundamental aspects needed for a good quality life were absent. Boredom, especially for women, contributed to many ultimatums and early return voyages to the Netherlands.
It was simply not enough to live in paradise, as the shipping and immigration posters had advertised it, but rather a sense of purpose, culture, and sophistication also had to be developed in order to maintain this population that had traveled half way around the world in search of a better life.
Batavia (modern day Jakarta) and Bandung especially, began a campaign to deliver European culture to the Indies. Society clubs, concert halls and theaters were built in haste. Performers and entertainers in music, dance, stage, and opera, were brought to the Indies to provide an opportunity for certain residents to elevate their social standing; for most though it was a way to enrich the lives of those who now made the Indies their home…a morale boost for its citizenry.
Housing for the constant influx of new arrivals needed to be built and neighborhoods needed planning. Wide tree lined avenues, parks, and architecturally stunning rows of houses were erected to cater to the avalanche of people that began arriving in 1915 and continued through the 1930’s.
On arrival at Tanjung Priuk harbor, families dispersed all over West Java with the two main destinations being Batavia and Bandung.
My family settled in the “Paris of the East”, Bandung.
Opa had been a policeman in Holland with few prospects for advancement due to an injury. Like many others he saw Indonesia as an opportunity to serve his country, to provide a better life for his family, and to rekindle the flame of his career.
Within a few short years he had achieved the rank of Inspector First Class, his children were fully assimilated into Indies life, and he was observing his patriotic duty.
Life was good.
Living in the Indies, at least for my family, revolved around routine and a strict religious conviction. In the early years, while living in Bandung, the photos show an integrated and happy community. School was a mixture of learning, playing, birthday parties, and those attending consisted equally of Dutch, Indo, and Indonesia children.
The perspective I have of this time is through the eyes of my mother and therefore through the eyes of a child.
Many of her friends were Indonesian and so to her this meant that life for Indonesians was the same as life for her. She had no reason to believe anything else; for her and every other child of the same age, with whom I have spoken, who you played with or learned from were not topics for consideration.
Mum had lived in Indonesia since before her first birthday and therefore this country was her home also.
The era known as Tempo Doeloe (meaning the Good Old Days) was already in the rear-vision mirror as another decade turned over and the thirties fell upon the Indies. Life was changing and unseen forces were taking hold both nationally and internationally.
The 30’s would prove to be the decade in which the colonial swan song would begin to sing its last verse.
For a child developing into a teenager and now living in the city of Batavia, life continued to feel the same as always. Sheltered from the world by protective parents my mother and aunts knew of nothing that should be a concern.
They attended St Ursula and St Theresa schools, attended St Maria cathedral every Sunday where, with the fear of God in them, they would create fictional confessions…”surely we must have done something wrong” Mum told me once as she recalled her early life.
Mass was always followed by an hour long walk around Koningsplein (Merdeka Square).
Holidays were spent in the hills around Soekaboemi, visiting family friends, and enjoying the rural beauty of Java as well as the urban excitement of Batavia.
Living as a child in the pre-war era of the Indies was undoubtedly a special and important historical time. It left a deep and lasting impression on those who lived through it and tweaked an insatiable interest in the rest of us who are in some way linked to it; trying our best to gather insight and understanding and glimpse, if only for a second, into life in the Indies.