News

The Jodensavanne Foundation (Suriname) has posted short videos (in Dutch) of up to three minutes on YouTube that show the special value of Jodensavanne, the longest-functioning autonomous Jewish settlement in the Americas. Board members Harrold Sijlbing and Stephen Fokké, together with the young archaeologists Sushmeeta Ganesh and Jovan Samson, take the viewer through the history of this special place in the Surinamese rainforest and the ongoing research.

Independent filmmaker Ghouse Samadh was born in Srinivasapuram in India, but love brought him to the Netherlands. His homeland has remained in his heart, especially the environment and history. A history that the Netherlands shares with India. To give his Dutch-born children something of his own childhood and the shared history of the Netherlands and India, Samadh made a documentary about the Dutch heritage in India.

Gravity Architecture and Engineering, Coimbatore, made a short documentary on the restoration of two Dutch tombs on the Karikop Cemetery in Nagapattinam, India. Including an interview with the restoration architect involved, Sakthi Murugan.

Press release

17 December 2020

SharedCemeteries.net
A portal about shared funerary heritage worldwide

The Dutch Dodenakkers.nl Foundation launches the bilingual website SharedCemeteries.net (https://sharedcemeteries.net) about funerary heritage in former Dutch colonies, posts and fortifications worldwide. With the portal SharedCemeteries.net, the foundation wants to map shared funerary heritage abroad, give researchers and stakeholders the opportunity to share knowledge and to present it to a wide audience.

Does conserving of these burial grounds over borders requires commitment from both Dutch and local stakeholders? And how have the meanings given to these burial grounds changed over the time?

We look forward to discuss this topic with our four speakers: René  ten Dam, Leon Bok, Johan Roozer and Nanette de Jong on 9 December 2020.
Please find the program below.

You can register by sending an e-mail to lezingen@icomos.nl. After this you will receive additional information on how to participate in the Livecast (via Zoom). Please note that the event will be recorded. 

In 2014 Hans Schiebroek started funding on the restoration on the Karikop cemetery in the city of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, India. In 2017 the Dutch Dodenakkers Foundation (stichting Dodenakkers.nl) and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) were asked by the Prins Bernard Cultuur Fonds to advise on this project. Together with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) a workshop was organised on the possible restoration of the big tomb of Anthonia Steelant-Nilo and the obelisk of Adriana Mossel-Appels.

Sadly, Mr. Schiebroek passed away in 2018, and the Dodenakkers Foundation took over his initiative. A restoration architect, Mr. Sakthi Murugan Rajendran, was found and Dr. S. Suresh from INTACH would supervise the project. Funding was to be done by the Prins Bernard Cultuur Fonds.