In the week of February 25 – March 1, an innovative collaboration project was launched in Surabaya, East Java. This is a project that should make the Peneleh colonial cemetery a more meaningful place for residents of Surabaya and visitors to the city.
In the center of Surabaya lies a special legacy from the Dutch colonial past: the almost complete European Peneleh cemetery, locally known as Makam Peneleh. An enclave of 4.5 hectares with the remains of approximately 15,000 people (2011 census). The first grave was dug here in 1847 and the cemetery was used even after Indonesia’s independence until 1963. Hardly any maintenance has been done since the mid-1950s. The cemetery fell into disrepair, graves were plundered and stripped of valuable elements. But as an open space, Makam Peneleh has so far withstood Surabaya’s large-scale urban development.
In 1998, Makam Peneleh became a municipal heritage monument. The municipal parks department now maintains the site and inventories of the graves have been made. The cemetery is open to the public but is an obscure alien to most Surabaya citizens and the residents of the surrounding kampung Peneleh. It is a particularly depressing experience for foreign visitors, especially for relatives searching for their ancestors.
Ownership and relevance
Previous attempts to give the cemetery more meaning and transform it into an attractive city park did not get off the ground. Heritage community Begandring Soerabaia and TiMe Amsterdam, an internationally operating consultancy firm for the museum and heritage sector, found each other in 2023 in an innovative, more activist grassroots approach. This is not primarily aimed at redevelopment and restoration, but first and foremost at raising awareness among the local population and creating co-ownership in small steps. As part of the cultural tourism offer in Surabaya, the place offers opportunities for economic development and empowerment of local communities. The municipality wants to use the cemetery to strengthen the cultural and tourist profile of the city, with the Kali Mas river as a connecting element.
For Peneleh, this means a scalable step-by-step approach. This year we will start with 8 graves. Biographical data is collected and processed into accessible micro stories for visitors. These graves are being restored with simple means and there will be a pusat informasi pengunjung (visitor information center) at the entrance.
The metaphor of Peneleh Cemetery as a Living Library comes from Begandring foreman and heritage activist Nanang Purwono. His dream is to transform the current orphaned, neglected and ‘illegible’ cemetery into a place with meaning. With the graves as biographies and the cemetery as a library. There, stories of Surabaya as an international (colonial) city will be available to a wide audience. Both for local residents and residents of Surabaya, Indonesian visitors, tourists, as descendants of the deceased. In the future, all information will also be accessible online as a source for shared colonial history.
Innovative approach
The collaboration is special for several reasons. For example, there is cooperation between private and public organizations, with attention to Indonesian and Dutch perspectives.
Secondly, it is a bottom-up approach characteristic of Begandring, involving both residents of the adjacent kampung and students from Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 (Untag) Surabaya.
The City Secreatary Ikhsan on behalf of the Surabaya Mayor Eri Cahyadi welcomed all parties involved during a broad consultation on February 29 at the Balai Kota (town hall), expressing his interest and direct support for the joint ambition in the presence of relevant department heads. For example, the municipality makes the space available for the visitor information center, as well as materials and manpower for the most urgent maintenance and repair work.
For Nanang Purwono, Begandring Soerabaia (journalist, heritage activist) this is a new phase in the care and development of colonial heritage: ‘Makam Peneleh as a Living Library is an innovative way of heritage development between Indonesia and the Netherlands. The cemetery in Surabaya is regarded as part of the community in this highly diverse city. The population that is buried there is usually regarded as a relict of the colonial period with no meaning for the city today. This project focuses on a different approach: all individuals buried at Peneleh contributed in their time and in their way to the city as it is today and will be in the future. The project reveals this significance.’
Petra Timmer, TiMe Amsterdam (art historian PhD): We’ll start clearly. With eight biographies of appealing representatives of colonial society: from Governor General to plantation owner, from Catholic nun to celebrated city photographer, from lawyer to linguist. (1) In this way, step by step, a picture of the complex and diverse colonial society of Surabaya emerges, which may contain surprisingly different elements than expected. Our role is moderating and supporting with knowledge from the Netherlands. For example, we collect information about these people from Dutch sources that are more difficult to access for Begandring. We respond to the needs of our Indonesian partners: they are the creators, implementers and main end users of what is realized.
(1) the selected persons are:
Pieter Merkus, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies
D.F.W Pietermaat, Resident Surabaya
P.J.B de Perez, Vice-Chairman of the Council of Justice
Herman Neubronner Van Der Tuuk, linguist
Ohannes Kurdjian, photographer
Gottfried Josef Julius Schmutzer, sugar plantation owner
Common grave Ursuline Sisters
Paul François Corneille, lieutenant colonel, artillery construction workshop director
Organization
For the implementation of the first plans, Beganding Soerabaia, TiMe Amsterdam, international museum and heritage advisors and the Universitas 17 August 1945 signed a cooperation agreement (MoU) at the end of February 2024. The project is supported by the municipality of Surabaya, and from the Netherlands by the International Cultural Heritage Matching Fund of DutchCulture. The Dutch Esat Indies Comemmoration Centre (IHC) in The Hague supported the application to this fund. DutchCulture provided a contribution for 2024. The other parties mentioned also contribute through sponsorship in kind.
Begandring Soerabaia has been active as a ‘community’ and ‘grassroots’ driven organization since 2018
of heritage activists and stakeholders, aimed at unlocking the history of Surabaya and developing and preserving cultural and historical heritage. The association has a wide reach of lectures, meetings (including in their community hall, the historic Lodji Besar in the Peneleh district) and guided tours in the city.
TiMe Amsterdam, international museum and heritage consultants, was previously involved in heritage projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Suriname. In all these cases, this involved the development of heritage sites and museums and the reuse of monuments with input from local communities and other stakeholders. (Max)