TALK | "“Bringing [postcolonial] history home”: remembering an imperial past in Australia, The Netherlands and Indonesia" (Dr. Joost Coté, Deakin University)

Abstract:
The title for this paper is an ironic nod to a similar set of words to entitle two differently positioned ‘postcolonial’ projects, one in the Netherlands and one in Australia. In the Netherlands recent accounts of Dutch ‘postcolonial’ migration celebrate the ‘bringing home’ (assimilation) of its former colonial subjects. Meanwhile a recent ‘debate’ in the Leiden-based journal, Bijdragen has brought to the fore a long-running Dutch concern about the application of critical Anglophone theory (Stoler, 2009) to its imperial past. In Australia, conservative nationalists continue to criticize those seeking to promote a ‘black armband’ interpretation of Australia’s colonial, white-Anglo past – which has been concerned to ‘bring home’ the ‘stolen children’ and ‘invisible Asians’ into the Australian historical narrative – while supporting Australian scrutiny of neighbouring Indonesia’s colonial and postcolonial oppressors. In Indonesia itself, only recently has a new generation of scholars begun to examine its subaltern history, before and after 1945 – or even before and after 1965.

This paper is concerned to review recent historiographical debates in Australia and the Netherlands and report on some current research of my own on early twentieth century Indonesian history. What links these three sites (apart from the interests of this historian) is the way that nationalism continues to filter scrutiny of respective imperial pasts. While recognizing that postcolonial theory has served scholars well in challenging imperial and nationalist assumptions - still maintained by some – the binaries it gave rise to are increasingly seen as obstacles to ‘good’ global history. Employing the problematic of modernity in my own research on ‘progressive discourse’ in early 20th century colonial Java, colonialism is revealed as involving a much more complex and ambiguous relationship between coloniser and colonised than either Dutch or Anglophone traditions have generally allowed.

Biography:
Dr. Joost Coté is a senior lecturer in history at Deakin University and Honorary Fellow at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, both situated in the city of Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches Southeast Asian history, and participates in the postgraduate Cultural Heritage program at Deakin. His research focuses on early 20th century Indonesian history exploring the nature of colonial cultures. He has published numerous articles on Dutch colonial policy and practice and colonial society (including its Australian-based diaspora) as well as on Indonesian pioneer feminist RA Kartini. His current projects are the biography of colonial architect and town planner, Thomas Karsten (1885 - 1945) and the history of the Central Sulawesi Pamona Christian community (1890 - 2000). Recent publications: Realizing the dream of RA Kartini: Her sisters letters from colonial Java (Ohio, 2008), Recalling the Indies: Colonial memories and postcolonial identities (Aksant, 2005).

Further research interests and publications:
http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/shhs/staff-directory2.php?username=jcote